ACHP Episode 470 "You Said You Moved The Bodies?"
Episode Summary
Mike Palmer (fighting a cold), co-host Mikey Stepankavich and "idiot Phil" open Episode 470 with holiday greetings for Ramadan, Chinese New Year and Lent, listener comments, and an update on the newly dropped CHPod hat and merch store. From there the show runs its usual mix of odd news before getting into cigar industry headlines: a "facial ringworm" STI outbreak in Minnesota, University of Maryland researchers building sensor-equipped smart underwear to count how often people pass gas, and a Clearwater, Florida company suing the city after more than 300 graves from the old St. Matthew's Baptist Church cemetery turned up beneath its office building — which spins off a long tangent about whether you'd stay in a haunted house and Phil's pest-control horror story.
On the cigar side, the crew breaks down Rocky Patel Premium Cigars' last-minute Year of the Horse release — a 7x48 box-pressed Churchill with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Honduran/Nicaraguan filler — and plays their usual price-and-production-guessing game (6,000 cigars, 10-count boxes). They then dig into a proposed West Virginia bill that would jump the state's other tobacco products tax from 12% to 51% of wholesale, turning a middle-of-the-pack state into one of the highest-taxed in the country, and argue for eliminating tobacco excise taxes entirely. A new Davidoff of London retail store in Luxembourg prompts a discussion of why overseas cigar shops often look more upscale than American ones, and how hole-in-the-wall "retirement hobby" shops survive.
The industry segment includes Jack Taranto ribbing Palmer about his daughter Teddy's track meet dominance, and a surprise on-air phone call to Jason of AromaCraft Tobac after Mike Rosales complained the show had never hosted him. The episode closes with "What's the Score?" on the Caldwell All Out Kings Smash — the Caldwell/Drew Estate collaboration made at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate with a Connecticut Habano wrapper, Indonesian Sumatra binder and Connecticut Broadleaf/Dominican Corojo/Nicaraguan filler, a 5x52 robusto at $13.80. The hosts land in the mid-80s before learning the published score was a 90, sparking debate over pricing versus the Padrón Exclusivo. Palmer wraps with an appearance announcement at Northport Cigars in North Port, Florida.
In This Episode
- 01Merch, Comments and Holiday GreetingsThe crew plugs the new CHPod hat and merch store, reads listener comments, and marks Ramadan, Chinese New Year and the start of Lent.
- 02Health Alert: Facial RingwormA fungal STI causing ringworm-like rashes is driving the largest known U.S. outbreak in Minnesota.
- 03Smart Underwear and Flatulence ScienceUniversity of Maryland researchers built a sensor that snaps into your underwear to count daily flatulence and are recruiting high-fiber volunteers.
- 04300 Graves Under a Clearwater OfficeA Clearwater company sues the city after discovering hundreds of graves from the old St. Matthew's Baptist Church cemetery under its property, leading to haunted-house tangents.
- 05Rocky Patel Year of the HorseRocky Patel's 7x48 box-pressed Churchill with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper gets announced the day Chinese New Year starts, with only 6,000 cigars made.
- 06West Virginia's Proposed 51% Tobacco TaxA new bill would raise the state's tobacco tax from 12% to 51% of wholesale, and the hosts argue tobacco taxes should be abolished outright.
- 07Davidoff of London Opens in LuxembourgA new overseas shop prompts a discussion of why international cigar lounges often feel more upscale than U.S. retailers.
- 08What's the Score: Caldwell All Out Kings SmashThe hosts guess the review score of the Caldwell/Drew Estate collaboration robusto and debate whether $13.80 is too much next to a Padrón Exclusivo.
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
I'm recording whenever you're ready. Welcome to Cigar Hustler Podcast, episode 469. Oh. Pretty sure it's 469.
I'm Mike Palmer, your host, and with me today is Phil, I didn't get to see Preston McGuffey over in engineering, and then as my co-host, Mikey, I heart Preston Stepan Kavich. Tuesday around here is Preston Day. Everybody gets so excited. I know.
Palmer gets so jaded. Is he jaded? Yes, he did. He's very nice.
Isn't there some game going on where every time you say the words, someone drinks? Every time I mention his name, they take a drink. Man, they're gonna be swashed quickly. Slashed.
All right, and in today's show, we have a new medical alert that's going to upset Phil over there. Uh-oh. Farts are making science history. You said you moved the bodies.
And then in cigars, another tax hike. Rocky Patel jumps on the horse, and a new shop opens abroad. And then we have a wrap-up. Then we wrap up the day with a what's the score.
Oh. But first, today starts Ramadan. Ramadan? Ramadan?
Ramadan. So, to our Muslim fans, Ramadan Kareem, today is also the first day of Chinese New Year, Ma Dao Ching Gong. Oh, really? Oh.
And to our Catholic listeners starting Lent, may you have a fruitful Lent. Ah, yes. Lent. Did you give up something for Lent, Michael?
I'm probably going to give up something for Lent. Doesn't it start today? Don't you already have to have it picked out? It technically starts tomorrow.
Oh, the 18th. Yeah. Oh, well, what are you going to do? Today is, because we're recording on Tuesday, this is considered Fat Tuesday, which is something else.
Oh, that's right. What are you going to have? Pekazzi's or whatever those things are going on? Maybe I'll give up ice cream.
I hate giving up ice cream. Do you eat that much ice cream? I was about to say, what a thing to give up. Like, is that hard?
I mean, give up something like cigars. Oh. You think I couldn't give up cigars? No, you could.
You've done them before for health reasons. Yeah, that stuff doesn't bother me. I could give up cigars in a heartbeat. All right, Michael, how do you get some of that CHPod swag and that wonderful new hat?
Well, we did just drop our new hat, and I think there's about 15 of them left, I want to say, maybe a little less. There were no orders overnight? There was nothing yet, no. Oh.
Nothing yet. However, if you value the content that we're giving you and you feel entertained and educated, please like and subscribe wherever you're viewing or watching. com, where you can get all of our CH Podcast merch. Buy one, get the second one 40% off.
Spend $100 or more, and you're going to get free shipping. That's all I have, unless you want me to get into my comments. You want me to review from our previous... Sure, why not?
All right. Do some comments. Mr. Palmer is not feeling well today.
I'm sick. So, this one I haven't responded yet to from T-Money. Do you think Drew Estate will sue Placencia for using the term barn smoker? Oh, that's not a good point, that's not nice, that's not nice, I like it, that's funny, got a giggle out of Phil over there, from where, you're on, you're on episode 470 it looks like, buddy, that's was it 470, yeah, it said 470, but I thought it was 469, uh, nope, 'cause that was yesterday, you're right, yeah, so L.
Wolpe said, The more Phil talks, the more he emulates the model of Florida, man. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.
Mmm. Is his name a Woppy or a Whooppy? Uh, because I know this person. Yeah.
Woppy. I would say that it's Woppy. Yeah. Oh, Woppy.
Yeah. " Me too, man. Me too. Food makes math easy.
Bing bong. Bing bong. By the way, they went through those 10,000 condoms in three days. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Boom. Done. " Wow.
Oh, that's awesome. Unbelievable. " You read that yesterday. I did?
Yeah. All right, perfect. They're assuming I'm some type of marijuana cigar. They're saying something like that?
Yeah, because I did the no gravity story. Hey, if you want the chance of us reading your comment out loud, comment below on this episode, and hey, maybe we'll bring it up for this. If it's funny. Lots of Phil comments to see the fans.
Phil, you're a big deal. See the fans out there. You're a big deal. People like the idiot Phil.
We need a bing bong. Wow, the idiot. We need a bing bong shirt. I need to get a picture of him in the mask.
Right. I'm going to cartoon style him like I did BDP. There you go. And it's going to say bing bong.
Bing bong. perfect yeah i'm in smoking a cigar i think that'd be absolutely epic it would be yeah all right on with the show we have a health alert okay oh is there facial ringworm facial ringworm is swarming through it's a sexually transmitted fungal infection making headlines really it's going rampantly through the male uh gay community oh no i wonder i wonder Facial ringworm, the only known fungal STI that causes ringworm-like rashes in some very unfortunate places, in the genitals, the buttocks, and the face. Oh my. The pictures were horrific that they showed up.
Apparently, it's the worst in Minnesota. S. outbreak right now, 13 confirmed, 27 suspected cases since July. Minnesota is getting one thing after the other, you know, the Somalian daycare.
Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, you don't have to worry about pink eye anymore, you have to worry about face ringworm. Facial ringworm.
Isn't that the reason why you have that mask? To prevent the facial ringworm? Wow. Wow.
I love it when he does it. Definitely not. He's like, I'm not going to engage. Do not engage.
Do not engage. Do not respond. Hey, Phil, just to know if you have it, the symptoms are: it's itchy, it's a round rash, It's a crown rash, scaly patches, super inflammatory, and can scar if not treated. It's treatable with oral anti-fungals, but it can take up to three months to heal.
Yeah, fungus is tough to get rid of, especially ringworm. Yeah, I didn't realize ringworm was a sexually transmitted disease. Well, maybe this one is a sexually transmitted disease. Yeah, because, I mean, realistically, you know, you always heard about it with like wrestling mats and stuff like that and stuff.
Right. Yeah. So that's not sexually transmitted. That's wrestling.
That's the kind of wrestling you're doing. Yeah. Well, if you're doing wrestling with your clothes on, you ain't doing no sexually transmitted disease. Yeah, you're not farting in people's faces, Palmer.
You know what in people's faces? Farting. Well, if you are, University of Maryland will like talk to you. You're just jumping into the next one?
Jumping into the next story. Well, I mean, it's a good segue. Yeah, perfect. Palmer really doesn't feel good.
Farts are on the move. Yeah, we're going to finish the show in 15 minutes. Farts on the move. University of Maryland researchers designed smart underwear to track and measure farts and they are seeking volunteers to wear them.
The trajectory? They're more concerned with how often than the actual content of your farting. The frequency of flatulence. Revealed.
The Department of Cell and Biology and Molecular Genetics led a team of scientists in creating a small device that snaps into your underwear It's your underwear and uses electrochemical sensors to track intestinal gas. Wow. Now, if you have a high fiber diet, you qualify to be one of the test subjects. Why do we want to know this?
Well, I said here in a minute somewhere. Maybe this is a test for Metamucil. You should know this off the rip. There's a lot of details in all these stories, Michael.
It's hard to remember everything. You're very tired, huh? You're tired, huh? And he's sick.
I don't remember everything. I feel so you're just teleprompaturing it today. The average person, no, I'm reading the details as I go along, the average person farts 32 times a day. Wow.
I'm definitely above average. As much as, or as much as 59. Are you at 59? Probably close.
You think, I think that you break that barrier. In the morning time when I get up out of the bed, that's like peak hour. That's peak, that's peak flatulence for you? Yeah.
That's consistent. Yep. Blasting away. You just get up and just start ripping them as you're walking out of the room.
I've noticed like this whole farting thing is like all out in the open now with everything. Have you seen the thing with the celebrities where they do the heat cam? No. And like the celebrities will be up there singing on stage and they have the heat cam on them and they just like release gas.
I've seen the heat cam footage but not for celebrities. Well, it's singers, like it's at a concert. No, no, I know what you're talking about. Like Adele's up there singing on stage and all of a sudden there's this puff of smoke comes out her butt.
The smoke comes out her butt. Right. That's so wrong. That's like a violation of privacy.
It's hilarious, to be honest. Like, of course they do. Who's going to stop them? Somebody's just tracking this now?
Yeah, I guess. I've seen her like, you know, they shoot like a city. You know, people are walking down the street and people are just ripping as they walk. But we don't know who they are.
Right. I mean, I don't want to know Adele's ripping farts up there while she's singing. You can just do it on the red carpet. And when they fart, you get, you farted.
You farted. That sounds like a whole social media page. Right. Who farts on the red carpet?
It's probably a whole world. Yeah. You farted. I think we're doing this all wrong.
We should be focusing on the flatulence of the celebrities. Right. We know everything else about them now. Right.
So now the guy with the infrared camera has to follow everybody. The 59er or 32er? When did he fart? Or a four.
It could be a four, but four is very low. And then you can see people's reactions, how they react to it. Oh, somebody's standing behind her. The crew's going, oh, wow.
Yeah. Oh, my. They want to see how often you fart. So what they're in.
Why? I have no idea. They're not saying why. They just want to know how many times you fart.
I nominate Phil for this experiment. I figured Phil would be perfect for this. Do they pay? No.
It's a free thing? Yes. I'm not in for free. They don't want to fart for free?
You got to fart anyway. All they're doing is put a little thing in your underwear. You don't get to be in my underwear for free. See that?
There's a price. That's right. That's why he wants to go to Maine. Wow.
Yeah. So he can sell. He can sell. Or Colorado.
It's going really well, from what I heard yesterday on the news. Colorado's wide open. What kind of news do you watch? He watches the best news.
I got news. I got to tell you, when you weren't here, he covered a gravity thing. Yeah. And we released that show, that clip yesterday.
Yeah. It's got like, it's approaching 100,000 views already on Instagram. For gravity? Yeah.
No gravity. August, whatever. Yeah. Yep.
3 seconds. And like some of, like they're… As far as everybody's scared. There have been some comments where people are nice, and there have been some comments where somebody called him Timu John Stewart. Oh, I saw that.
Was that what that was? Yep. Timu John Stewart. Yeah.
There were some very aggressive comments on the Instagram, on my Instagram page. Wow, aggressive. So I happily responded to those. Yes.
Certainly, certainly. Yeah, you know, morons, you guys are idiots, I'm like, oh. It's not like I did the study, I'm just covering the news. Yeah, and you know, but you were convinced that this could happen.
Well, sure. Yeah. Why not? That's why they said that.
Anything can happen. They were initially scared, and then when they looked it up. You know what? Then they were probably like, oh, maybe it's not happening.
If you're 65 feet in the air, you can type on your little phone. He was right. Somebody wrote, I instantly, I could just Google, I Googled this and found that it was debunked. I'm going to write, I haven't gotten to that comment yet, but I'm going to write, what's Google?
You know, little stuff like that. Just keep it interesting. Right, right, right. But it's hard when there's over a hundred, as soon as I turn on my phone, there's a hundred comments.
All right. Oh, nice. Don't worry, I'll get all of them. As my boy T-Money has tracked, I'll do it just for sport.
Yes. All right, a Clearwater company is suing the city after graves found buried beneath their property. Uh-oh. It is a human resource company suing the city of Clearwater after more than 300 graves were discovered beneath its office.
Wow. They were told that they moved them. No, they're gone. How would you know it was beneath their office?
Yeah. They were digging a hole and found one. It's illegal. It's illegal to dig a hole?
No, it's illegal to dig a dead body. Well, they said that the bodies were gone. No, they sold the land. So, no, you can relocate a cemetery.
Wait, how? But there's a a slab there how would you well i imagine this is uh very old it's saint matthew's baptist church cemetery used to be there and this company bought the land in 2004 nobody's coming around anymore let's move these out of here right why is my cell phone not working this is really good land we should just scoop these people up and sell it did they realize something was wrong when the coffee mug flew across the table right no kidding that's what happened a poltergeist right was there was Was there a TV that just had static playing in the background? And some little girl just disappeared in the TV. They're here.
" Oh my God. Clearwater spent $237,000 offending this case. You'd think they would have just went and moved the bodies. If you lived in a house where something really, really creepy happened, like poltergeisty, like Indian burial.
Maybe something, but like something moved, like from the movie. Yeah, like something flew across the room or something, right? Or your tequila bottle had a live worm in it or something, right? What would you stay?
Why would you stay? If it was once... You would stay? I think I'd stay once.
But if it was like in the Poltergeist movie, where like the steak's crawling across the counter and it blows up with worms coming out of it and stuff? I'd leave. If the steak crawled across the counter and the worms blew up out of it... That would be the point where I would pack my stuff and leave.
What if you heard voices? I'd call that Monday, because I hear voices all the time. Heard voices, oh, in your head? Yeah, sometimes in my head.
Okay. They'll open the door in case we have to run. First of all, if I'm hearing any of this, I'm leaving the house immediately. We're quite aware of your self-preservation.
He would leave the family behind. I was building up to that, because I know what your response is going to be. Yeah, I'm out of there. So if you have a poltergeist, or some type of specific, some type of being, whatever, in your house?
Yeah, I'm gone. You're out? Yeah. Okay.
Do you leave the women and children? I don't know, I'm leaving, they should leave too, but hey, whatever. If they want to stay, they can stay. We'll tell them that they're leaving, that you're leaving.
Daddy's going to go, if you guys want to come with me? You informed them that you were departing. Yeah, as I'm leaving the house, I'm yelling out, I'm leaving. I'm leaving the house.
As I'm in the car in my pajamas. Right. Is there anything you take with you in fear of bringing, bringing the spirits? Oh, yeah, you could take it with you.
Or do you bring everything thinking the spirits won't come? It's just the house. Nah, I can start over. Start over?
Yeah. Why risk it? Yeah, that's what I figured. Right, because they get attached to things.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Maybe the new couch you got used has got somebody died on it or something.
Oh, man. Yeah. If the dog starts flying around in the house, do you leave the dog? Yeah.
The dog, too. Yeah, I get a new dog. You leave the dog? You leave everything.
He leaves everything. I know you're partial to your dogs, Palmer. Yeah, I wouldn't leave my dogs. Dogs are coming away.
I'm not super partial to my dogs. How about the street cat? You bring the cat? No.
I think the cat would be in the car first. I'm gonna make excuses to leave the cat. The cat's possessed. That cat's gonna drive the car.
Come on, I know how to drive. Get in. I learned on the street. Roads, where we're going, we don't need roads.
Okay. Oh, we thought our house we lived in back over there was haunted. But I mean, we just saw things and heard things. We never, nothing, never, furniture never moved or anything.
Right. What'd you hear? You'd hear voices and stuff, and then the neighbors would tell you, The neighbors would tell you, like, one of the bedrooms, I think we talked before, one of the bedrooms, the lock had been reversed on the door, and the neighbors told us they had some type of, they had a child that had some type of disability and they kept her locked in the room. That's terrible.
I know. Because when we saw something, we would see it down at the end of that hall and it would be a little girl. First of all, it is terrible, but it's also scary. Scary?
Yeah, so when I used to do pest control, I went into a house one time and there was a room like that. There was a kid in it. " Yes, hello, can you spray in the room in the back, please? No.
Just unlock the door, let yourself in. Yeah, the child has been instructed to stand in the middle of the room as you spray. No. He won't bite you, it's fine.
" Kid's got long ratty hair, he's got nails. He comes in like Hannibal Lecter where he's got the mask on, standing there in a straitjacket. No, the only thing that could pop in my head was, what's that one movie with a really ugly guy? Is it the man with the iron mask?
He wasn't ugly. The man with the iron mask? No, there was the one movie where the guy was like really ugly. It was an older movie.
Yeah, and he was in jail. Like his face, no, his face was all messed up and stuff. Yeah. Elephant Man?
Goonies. Goonies. Well, it was kind of like Goonies, but this guy's face was longer. Yeah.
Anyways, kind of like that. You're talking about Monster? Like, the movie Monster. Oh, I think that maybe that's...
The guy had a legitimate disability? Right, yeah. With... She's a singer.
Cher. Cher, thank you. Yeah. Oh, mask, okay.
Mask. Mask. Mask, yeah. Her son had that disease.
Yeah. Right. That's all I could picture that was in this room. Skull grew.
" You're a terrible person. So you didn't spray in the room? No! You didn't stick the wand under the door and spray?
No! I'm not going anywhere. Did you ever have to go back to that house again? " Did you tell them that you sprayed the room?
And you didn't? No. No, you just said- I put it on the paperwork, I did not spray that room. Oh, you flat out said it.
Yeah. And I did not go into a locked room with a crazy child inside. So then you're not affiliated with the Graveyard Movers then because you would have noted that you left the bodies. Yeah, I'm not affiliated with...
Bodies left, tombstones moved. Anything like that. Yeah. How do you defend this in court, you know?
They're digging up skeletons. We didn't know they were there. Yeah, well, but who do you sue? This was 2004.
This is 22. They're suing the city. The city sold them the land. Oh, the city did it.
" It was a famous black church, I guess, back years ago. So it was that type of cemetery. Oh, man. I don't know what that means.
Doesn't sound good for the city of Clearwater. It could have been unmarked graves. They didn't know either, maybe. What if they've uncovered 300 of these things?
Right, yeah. I mean, it's not like they just found one. That's a hell of a whoopsie. Yeah, no kidding.
Do they ever, you know, remove the headstones? Like, if a cemetery, like, okay, there's a cemetery over here, right? It's super old. Right here by the shop.
Oh, the one over there, by the elementary school. Yeah, do they ever, like, just go, oh, well, we're just gonna move all the bodies out here and the headstones, and we're gonna start fresh. There's too many bodies here. Yeah, that's what they're saying, that they sell the property.
No, no, if they keep the property, they just want more plots. They want to dig them up and start over, you see? Oh, no, no, no. They just start, what they do is they just remove the, they check it, they see if anybody's visited this person in the past decade, and then they just remove the tombstone, and then they just put a body on top of the body.
Really? No, that's a complete lie. Oh. I don't know, it makes complete sense.
It did make sense. But how would they know? How would they know? Nobody's coming in to check on Phil over here buried.
Yeah, 'cause there's like graves in there from like 1700s. No one's visiting it? It's like in the back corner. Yeah.
They're like these little baby headstones. Oh, I hate baby headstones. Don't leave flowers? No.
Why not? I don't want them to know them. I don't want them to know me. Oh, wow.
Oh. Okay. Have you seen the ones where the people clean the headstones and then they have those some type of machine that they leave on and voices come through the machine? What?
What? You haven't seen these? There's videos. Yeah, you can see these videos.
Really? So there's these people that clean headstones, but they play like white noise or something and messages come through, voices come through the white noise as they're cleaning the headstone. They're cleaning the head zone. And they're like talking to the person that's buried where they're cleaning.
Really? Yeah. I don't believe you. You have to send us this video.
But I do appreciate the short clip. And then the gravity goes away and you go, whoop! All right, Rocky Patel. Now we're into, oh, you have a clip or a video or something you want to talk about?
And we're in the middle of the show now. I do not have a clip, I do not have a video, I do not have, I'm not in the house, not with a mouse, not in the fox, not with a box. I will not eat green eggs and hams, am I am. I will not give you a video today.
How long till you get a Preston shirt like he wears for the show? Winter Park? Yeah, Winter Park Flag Football Association. I'm sure you just ask him, he'd probably give me one.
Yeah, you should wear one for the thing. You think I should wear one for the show? Well, yeah. Yeah?
Sure. Winter Park Flag Football? You're part of the show, I mean, you just wear the black shirt. Like, I don't know how closely affiliated he wants to be with me, you know, at what point is like, uh, I don't know, I mean, he's letting you do more and more.
Yeah, maybe he's just gonna let you take over the league as you retire. No, I'm not, I'm good. He's just gonna be a figurehead. He's still good.
Yeah. You know, you know what the funny part is, though? I would totally offer like, uh, being, being the shield, you know what I mean? Just for fun.
That's how it starts. You know, like, hey, uh, we got a question for, you know, this isn't okay. I'm like, no, well, that's not allowed. Like, oh, but you know, no, sorry.
I'd like to speak to you. No, I'm the guy you talk to. Sorry. No, that's not happening.
Oh, you want to be the PR guy. Yeah, sorry. We can't do that. Like, what do you mean?
Because here's what happens. Like, this is some of the crazy stuff that goes on. Like, that league goes out of their way to cater to everybody. " The league, it's six weeks.
It's a six-week season, right? I mean, like a team says they can't show up? Hey, if there's a conflict of interest, like where you won't be able to have a team, you know, on this particular day, not the coach can't make it, but the team, there's a reason or whatever, please notate it by this amount, this day, and we'll work around the schedule, right? Right.
" Like, boy, you had- You had plenty of time in the beginning. " You know, you either A, can't make it and take the L, or... Right, you have to forfeit if you can't make it. Right.
Or B, figure out a way to show up. Right. I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do.
You know? So, I would happily be that guy. Like, oh, no, rules are rules, bud. Sorry.
Phil, you know what he was talking to him about today? Oh, hey. Taking over the league? How to get sponsors.
What? Exactly. Unbelievable. We've never had that conversation.
We're not allowed to. We don't have sponsors. Where are we on? On 779 episodes?
We won't take sponsors. Apparently Preston's taking sponsors. We'll probably end up sponsoring his show and have to give him money. This is brought to you by Cigar Hustler.
Brought to you by Cigar Hustler Podcast. You said all this in front of Palmer on the show? Before the show. This was in that four-hour pre-conference meeting they have.
We do a pre-production. Something that I'd like to do here, but I always get poo-pooed. " Well, we used to do it, but you don't show up in time. You want to do it as we're sitting here and he's waiting to hit go.
Yeah, so what? What's wrong with that? It's too late. I don't think it's never too late.
Sure it is, because last time we did it, you added three stories and I had to delete two and add three. And guess what? They were not the gravity story. They were great stories.
No, they weren't. If you get sponsored by Bang and you get like these red, white, and blue jumpsuits, it's not a real sponsor. It's not a real sponsor. Just to let you know.
Thanks. All right, Rocky Patel. Will you stay there for an apartment? Sorry.
Please go ahead. You know, I was going to do Poop Coke as a fake sponsor, but I figured it was too close to bang. You would have caught it. Wow.
Because that other story came out, how it was coming to America. That was a legit story. So I thought, well, I could just ride with this and just slide this in. Slide this in.
But I figured another drink. It's too hard. No, at this point, I'd want to check. That's what I mean.
Yeah. You know what, Palmer would write a check, but like you wouldn't be able to cash it. Right, I'd go deposit it. No, you always give it to me to deposit, I go, win right in, whoop, nothing.
You got that Coke money now. I honestly have no idea what's in the bank account. He's not even on one of them. Yeah.
Rocky Patel, Year of the Horse has been announced. Nothing like waiting to the last minute, Rocky. Yeah. Literally starts today.
And it's Year of the Horse. Hey, we're doing a Year of the Horse Cigar. Perfect. Who wants a beer?
Who wants a beer? Rocky Patel Premium Cigars is the latest company to announce a Year of the Horse Cigar. It's a 7x48 Box Press Churchill that uses a Mexican San Andreas wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Honduras, Nicaragua. How much of those cigars, gentlemen?
Oh, this could go anywhere. Yep. Yeah, you want me to go first? I'll go first.
I'll go first. Okay. Rocky Patel, $100. $7,000.
$25. $35. I win. Woohoo!
How many boxes did he make? Ooh. Four boxes. Each box has 10 cigars in it.
10 count. Okay. Mmm. 500.
No. 5,000. 6,000. Oh my God.
Wow. Wow. I'm hungry. Wow.
Florida Man Phil. Florida Man. Flor de la Man, Phil, the Astrophysicist. I don't know anything about Rocky.
Really, why do you wait until the day of to announce it? He had to be making these for a while. He made 6,000 of them, not like he just made all those yesterday. Maybe he feels like people are going to look up year of today.
Oh. And he want to be on top of it. Maybe it's a marketing strategy. I don't know, you'd think you'd already sold them, you want them in those shops today.
Well, but isn't, isn't the, but this is a- It goes, it goes for like a month-ish, three weeks. All right. So he'll get it all out in time. Or maybe he just pulled back the curve and was like, oh, I found these, you're the whores.
He's got the coolest looking horse on his box, I will tell you that. Yeah. Does it come with a knife set? No.
No? No, not Rocky Patel. That's Gurkha. It's Gurkha.
They're not suing anybody this year. Nobody, no. No, they learned their lesson. We're not going after the horses?
Nope. Not going after the horses. We own the horses. We own the horses.
We spend too much money on all of our stuff in California. No stew this year. Bring on the horses. All right, there's a massive tobacco tax proposed for West Virginia.
Uh-oh. It's very high. Yeah. Can't wait to hear it.
Currently, compared to the other 49 states and District of Columbia, West Virginia's tax on cigars is decidedly middle of the pack. But, a new bill would make it one of the highest in the nation. How does that make sense? Why are all these people raising tobacco taxes, Michael?
Because they need money. And they thought tobacco is the way to do it? Yeah. There's a lot of mention of cigarettes in this, so I get that.
I don't get that either. The majority of the people that smoke cigarettes are your working class individual. Right. I heard yesterday on the radio that actually cigarette sales are way down.
Yeah, because you can suck on a pouch. Well, that's just it. Vaping and pouching has become the new thing. is become the new thing.
Wherever you want. But hey, you know, we're rounding the corner at this point, so why not throw a tax at it? I just don't understand. It's going to go from 12% to 51%.
51% of the wholesale price. All tobacco. Cigarettes, cigars. Right.
All you do is you just create a vacuum where people are going to ship to you. Or you just drive out. How big is West Virginia? It's probably like 5 miles.
Not 5 miles. 5 miles? No, West Virginia. Isn't that one with the big hump on it?
How? An MSRP of 950, you're likely to pay 57 cents in state taxes. Hmm. West Virginia is 24,230 square miles.
Square. Yeah. Ooh, that's now. 42 in taxes.
Yeah, you just drive out of the state and go get it somewhere else, or you have it shipped in. So if it's shipped in, you don't have to pay the tax. Well, I mean, cigarettes are a whole different thing. Well, they were saying cigarettes are probably up to $10 a pack.
I believe that. Most people smoke a minimum of one pack a day. That's $10 every day. Start growing your own tobacco.
$50 a week. In West Virginia, there probably is a lot of people that roll. Roll your own. They roll their own tobacco.
Yeah, just go get the plant. Grow your own. Well, you don't even have to. You can just go to a tobacco farm and buy tobacco.
Yeah, but if you're, well, that would work for cigars, but if you're cigarettes, you gotta add all that other stuff to it. You know? All the chemicals and things that make you want to smoke another one. You don't have to, though.
It's even more natural. It doesn't taste the same. It's more natural. But you just hang the paper out of your mouth, and you have the little pouch, and you - Marlboro, man - Sprengo, Sprengo, Sprengo, Sprengo, you know - Oh - Roll it, light it - Put this thing in my mouth, that's gross - So they say about 21% of adults in West Virginia currently smoke cigarettes, one of the highest rates in the United States, so it's roughly, in raw numbers, around 289,000 adults in the state who smoke - So it's a money grab, it's a money grab, they want the money - That's what I would say, that's what I would assume.
It just seems, lately, a lot of different states are doing it. Yeah, you're seeing a couple of mixed things. You're starting to see, cigar bars are trying to be, in some places, they're trying to separate them and, you know, classify them as... This is the third or fourth story we've had since the first of the year where tobacco taxes are going.
Yeah, I think tobacco taxes should be banned. Let's do that. Let's do that. On a federal level.
You should run for office. You think so? Well, not in Florida. We don't have any tobacco taxes.
You have to move. You want me to go somewhere else? Do you want me to go somewhere else? Well, if you want to run and make your platform no tobacco tax, you pick a state that has a tobacco tax.
Yeah. I don't know a lot about politics, but that seems to make sense. Yeah. Okay.
I like your ideas. " Yeah, but if we did, we should get rid of it. I'm not leaving the great state of Florida, the lawless swamp that is. Well, you can leave your family here and visit.
You just need residency in another state. How would I coach from somewhere else? Pick a coach. Oh, Preston will be in another state, never mind.
You know what I mean? Yeah, think it all the way through, buddy. It would pave the way, though, for him to make a great league over there, because Preston wouldn't be in the way. Right, you could have...
Preston wouldn't be in the way, so he just said... Yeah. You could do everything he's doing, but better. Oh, right.
More efficient. Right. I'm sure you have a more efficient way to do it. Well, his kids win a lot more than my kids do.
It just means his kids are better than yours. It doesn't mean he's doing it better. I don't think so. I think that he's just better coaching.
I'm putting the blame on yourself. What a guy. Yeah. It's what I'd do.
I don't know who anybody is in this whole thing, other than Mikey and Preston. I don't know the kids. Like, your kids only are on the team? No.
No, his kids that he coaches, not just the ones he made. Yeah, all the players. It's not the players. It's the coach.
Yeah, when it's kids, I mean, yeah, it's not really the athletic ability of the child. I mean, there is some that really have no athletic ability, but most of them are okay, as long as they can run. Right. So coaching would probably be...
It is impressive how he runs his team, I mean, like it is a real football team. Right. It's not just a bunch of kids just running around. Are you starting to fall for him a little bit?
No, I'm not falling for him. I mean, I've seen him, maybe that's what it is, I don't know, he is quite the attractive man. See, there it is. Wow.
There it is. Watch out for the pink eye, or whatever, ringworm. Watch out for the ringworm. No, if you're going to do anything, right, do it 100%.
Yeah. I mean, and you're really setting him up for the next level. Right. Okay.
So, tobacco tax raised in West Virginia. Don't go to West Virginia. Yes, and we all like Preston, so we're all good. All right, Dominique, London arrives in Luxembourg.
Oh. They're opening a new shop in Luxembourg. Okay, yes. It was a slow news day, and this was the only story left.
Yeah. But, it is another shop in a foreign country. Why are the shops in the foreign countries so much nicer than the ones we have here in America? I mean, sure, we have nice shops here in America.
Yeah. But, like, when I would go to a shop in Hong Kong, all fancy, fancy-looking shops. This one, beautiful looking. How many shops did you go to in Hong Kong?
Five. Okay. How many shops do you see, can you see from here to the West Coast? Well, yeah, I understand there's more.
Right. But you don't, I mean, are there, like around here, like around here probably cigars on the ad would be the upscale shop, that or Blend & Barrel. Okay. This one looks better than both of those.
Okay. I believe that. There's less of them. Is that what it is?
They're going for a high-end clientele. Right. Where we have, you know, you have shops everywhere. Right.
You have hole-in-the-wall shops. Right. A guy, you know, somebody who's retired that's looking to just kind of have a toy where he can hang out opens a store, right? And doesn't realize how much it's going to take for it to just kind of succeed, right?
Right. Well, over there too, like, it's probably There's probably less people that smoke. You think so? Like population wise.
But if you don't have as many shops. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. You probably have more people.
You would think they'd have to have a large clientele to afford to make. And the prices are probably higher there. Oh, yeah. They're only the, you know, high end expensive cigars.
Right. You know, people's standards are just different internationally. Like when you go to like Europe and stuff. Yeah.
They're just different. You think so? Yeah. What's different?
Their standards? They care, like, about their business. Like, there's a lot of business owners in America that don't really care about it. So you're saying that the businesses in America aren't as good as ones that are overseas?
Um, I wouldn't say all of them, but I'd say most of them, yeah. You'd say most of them? Yeah. Like, I mean, how many times have you been, have you walked into a place and you're like, what is going on here?
Why is this place so dirty? Like, why are we, why am I here? You know, like, how is it still standing? You know, that happens a lot.
Yeah? You visit a lot of international stores? No, no, I'm saying over here in America. I know, but as a comparison.
What stores are you going to where you walk in and go, "Why am I here? " No, I've just seen Bob's. I mean, there's one right above. Bob's over there?
I've never been in a show. That's a, you know, that's a, that's, that perfect scenario. Yeah, it's the prime example of what he just mentioned. Guy's got a little bit of a toy, people come in, they go out, whatever.
You know, he's got three or four regulars, probably sitting in the back. I don't know how anybody sits in the back. I don't know, man. Is there a back?
Yeah, there's a back. Like a patio or like the back of the building? It's the back of the building. The back of, it's dead people.
You have to walk past them, they'll do. Yeah. I don't know, you know, some people have lower standards than others, but I guarantee you that that's a global thing. I think it's not just here.
Think so? Yeah. So you think there's rundown shops in Europe as well? Yeah.
Of course. If they're allowed to be there. If anybody lives over there that's listening to us, can you please send us a picture? Here's me shop.
Of the rundown shop. Where I visit. And you can see, this chair hasn't been replaced in 30 years. Oh, you're starting to get sick.
No, that was me, my raspy voice made me cough. Yeah. Yeah, let me Red Bull this to wash that down. All right, it's time for the industry's favorite, oh, what was Jack gonna give you a hard time about yesterday?
Did you call him back? Who? Jack, you know, Jack Taranio, large man, works for Espinosa, so guys? Uh, yeah, so.
Knows everything, everybody tells him everything? So, Jack is tied into, you know, Jack is a close friend. Yes. And Jack is on my wife's Facebook page.
Yes. And he saw Teddy. Yes. At her track meet.
Oh, I did too. So, Teddy is my six-year-old girl, and she is extremely competitive, where she runs and plays against my 10-year-old son and my 12-year-old son. Right. So, when you have a six-year-old girl that is athletic and hyper-competitive, and you put her against other six-year-old girls, she blows them out of the water.
She blows them out of the water. Oh yeah, she was running, she took off. Yeah, the 200 meters, she beat them by eight seconds. Oh wow.
And the 100 meter, I think she beat the next one by like two or three seconds. And then the 50, I think it was by like one or two seconds. And then she did the javelin, and you know, she's a football quarterback in kindergarten. So, she won that too.
So, you know, she kind of dominates in all those things. And, yeah, he was just commenting on that and, you know, giving me a hard time. That's how. Just curious.
Yeah. We do have something we need to address. Okay. I received a phone call yesterday evening.
Yes. From Mr. Mike Rosales. Okay.
He would like to know why we never had Jason on the show. Well, we like to have people here. Right, I did ask if he was coming in, but I guess we had originally scheduled him to be on the show, and then he canceled on us, And then we never rescheduled it. Yeah.
There was going to be a phone call though. We weren't having him. Yeah. So Jason fucked that up.
Well, I said the novelty wore off. I said the novelty wore off. We don't want to talk to him anymore. We were going to have him on the show.
And then he backed out. And they hired him. Right. If you're not committed, it is what it is.
He had a previous discussion with Skip or something he had to go do. Yeah. He had to do a meeting. Yeah.
He had a meeting. Yeah. He blew that. Yeah.
What would he say at this point? Here. Are you going to call him? Yes, if he even answered the vote.
On the spot. Oh, he's gonna answer, he's hoping for an order. On the spot, here we are. Welcome to the Palmer Show, and Mikey.
Well, I hope it doesn't answer. What's up, dude? Hey, what's up, dude? You're on the podcast.
How are you? I'm good, man. How are you guys? doing great so uh you know we never had you on the show because you blew that that one time with that meeting if you do you remember that yeah um to be fair i was i was in a meeting yeah uh with skippy so to be fair we don't care oh that's always yeah that's true so yeah so um is there anything important that you want to add currently to this podcast because uh michael rizal has apparently given my friend mr palmer a hard time that we've never had you on the show yeah um i you You know, we can take this anywhere you want to take it.
See, if it's up to me, then, you know, I'm going to have to postpone at some later date. We'd like you in person. Tell Mr. Rosales that we would like you to work the Florida territory and you'd like to come in and cover the podcast.
All right? Perfect. Perfect. Okay.
All right. Sounds good. All right. Hey, I love you guys and have a great day.
All right. Love you too, buddy. Be safe. Goodbye.
Bye. Bye, Jason. There you go. It was on the podcast.
It was on the podcast. Anything else? No, check, check, we're all done there. Everything's up to speed.
If you'd like to have Jason, the number one salesman of Aromacraft Tobac, on the show, please fly him in so that we can put him in the hot seat. Wait, who else do we want Mikey to call Palmer? We just have to tell them that they called up and said that they really want to be on the show. Is it a complaint?
Yeah. The best ones are like Matt Booth, because he answers Skip, Jack, you know. Yeah, Matt Booth, Matt Booth is great because he starts going in the line. I haven't really talked to Pete since the, since the event?
Since the show, yeah. Oh. So I don't know if he'd answer. But when he, maybe we try that.
When he announces something, we'll give him a call. Pete Johnson? Yeah. Give me answers.
Hey, you're on the podcast. I love doing that. Hey, you're on the podcast. I'm what?
Yeah. It's time for the industry's favorite show, or favorite game show, What's the Score? All right, today's cigar, April 13th, 2017, Charlie Monado, it's a Caldwell cigar from Nicaragua, All Out Kings Smash. You want me to go first?
Yeah. 86. I'm not a big smoker of Caldwell. I think I've had, like, two, maybe.
The king is dead. Or is it the queen is dead? King is dead. King is dead.
Okay. I think there's a queen is dead, too, maybe. Yeah, queen one, too. Okay.
I think there's only two I've ever smoked, so. I might have to just ride your tail on this one. So what else is new? I don't know anything about a cigar until I hear some stuff.
I know nothing about a cigar. What else is new? So what are you going to do? So what's the initial score, then?
Just pick a number. 85. This is the Drew Estate collab, right? Yes.
Okay. Country of Origin, Nicaragua, Factory, La Gran Fabrica, Drew Estate, Rapper, Connecticut Habano, Binder, Indonesian Sumatra, Killer, Connecticut Broadleaf, Lajero, Dominican Corojo, 97, and Nicaragua Esteli & Jalapa. 80. They smoked three.
80. You smoked this cigar, Mr. Coattails, I think I might have had this cigar, it's been so many, who can you keep track, I'm gonna stay at 85, okay, clue number one, the cigar good, the cigar delivers a layered and distinctive mix of flavors, walnuts, Dr. Pepper like sweetness, cocoa, sweet, cherry, cedar, orange, creaminess, and even floral notes, so many flavors like Dr.
Pepper, 32 flavors, it evolves through How about the smoke keeping things interesting from first third to final inch? 77. Really? Yeah.
We're just picking numbers at this point? Maybe. Because we can just go, one! You can go one.
No. I'm gonna say 85. 85. Okay.
Like many Drew Estate productions, smoke production is intense. Flavor sits at medium full with full body and medium air in the air. And it's about Team plus Strength, Building Toward Full Without Overwhelming the Smoker, Giving it Power Without Becoming Harsh. Seventy-five, ten away from you, seventy-six, oh, final, no way, you're on the third clue, final clue, okay, because you're about to say thought, no I wasn't, one sample People required a touch-up to stay lit, and the increasing grain notes in the final third created a drying effect on the palate.
Additionally, some vegetable notes, zucchini, bok choy. Bok choy. Somebody Zee in there. I mean, I know what it is, but...
I don't. Bok choy? It's really good. It's that little brown vegetable?
It's green. In stir-fry? Yeah, it's green. Is it green?
It's green. I thought bok choy was brown. And that appealed to every smoker. Is that what that is?
I got it. Well, you can eat it plain too. Okay. Well, bok choy's got me going to 78.
They steam it. It's delicious. 78. Phil?
77. Ooh. Final thought. After I finished smoking the cigars for this review, Brooks Winnington asked me what I thought of the cigar, saying he had heard good things about it.
I told him that it's a good cigar priced too high. I then made the comparison with the Padrón Exclusivo and he was notably surprised with just how pricey this cigar is. In fairness, many cigars would fail the Padrón comparison, but I suspect that example will keep a lot of people from smoking as many all-out kings as they might want. It's pricey.
To some degree, I'm not sure what I would expect. Drew Estate's offerings have increased at a steady pace and Caldwell isn't known for making cheap cigars. But the price point makes this a special occasion cigar for me, and I think the flavors fall just short of a special occasion. Excuse the nasally stuff during that read, and my nose got clogged there for a second.
Pardon my nasally. 86. The Padrón de Maso, is that what he compared it to? Exclusivo.
Exclusivo. Valcivo. What was your score, Michael? 86.
Phillip? He's revving. He's revving. He's not starting.
He's revving. Can't get it to go. Need jumper cables? I think it's worse than 86.
Let's go 85. Oh, you went the wrong way. 87. It's a 90.
It's a 90! What? He compared it to a Padron Exclusivo. Yeah!
How many people have heard of this cigar? The Warburg at what, an 88? Yeah, just two less than this. Yeah.
That makes no sense. Well, this was done in 2010. Listen. They also didn't have the number two cigar of the year.
You know what I mean? Just saying. Yeah, how can we complain about their grading when we got number two? Yeah.
The number one production cigar. I mean, we should have had number one. 079. It gives you something to look for next year.
Yeah. I don't know if Sumatra's ever taken number one. Until 2026. I don't think we've ever had a Sumatra.
We've never had a Sumatra. That's what I mean. It's true. Well, we have, but not as a regular production.
Right. It's a good cigar. It's very good. It's very good.
Super good. Okay. All right, on the 25th, next week, I will be at Northport Cigars in Northport, Florida, In North Port, Florida from 1 to 5. Oh.
Okay. In 15 minutes, I'll be taking a nap. As long as you're not dead before then. Wait, what day is that?
It's next Wednesday, I believe. Are you doing any Bike Week stuff? No. No?
Okay. I don't have a motorcycle anymore. No, no. I've been seeing a lot of things.
I've been in this world. Dude, like the things that move at Bike Week are like flavored cigars and stuff. Yeah, it's all the state acid stuff. Yeah.
Tatiana's. Yep. Okay. Got it.
Again, thank you so much. If you enjoy this show and you find it entertaining and educational, please like and subscribe. Even if you don't like it, please like and subscribe. What's not to subscribe?
You don't have to like it. What's not to like? What's not to like? Two guys and an idiot that make fun of everything.
Wow, I like how you said that, guys. Well, you don't know which one of the two guys, which one's the idiot, you can specify. It could be anybody. Maybe I'm the idiot.
Who knows? Bing bong. Wow. Bing bong.
Maybe we'll all just start saying bing bong. Just make the shirt already. We gotta wait. The hats are still running.
Right. All right. All right, guys, we gotta go. Thank you very much.
Bye. Bye.
Show Notes
On today’s show we have a new medical alert! Farts are making science history, You Said You moved the bodies? And then in cigars another tax hike, Rocky Patel jumps on the horse, a new shop opens abroad and then we wrap up the day with a what’s the score!