ACHP Episode 471 Pepperoni. Attack!
Episode Summary
Mike Palmer, Phil McGuffey and Mikey Stubbankevich open Episode 471 with podcast-business housekeeping — a late-night YouTube upload mix-up, the hour-and-fifteen-minute global YouTube outage that drew over 800,000 down-detector reports, and a transparent look at the show's own YouTube analytics as they close in on monetization (188,000 views in 30 days, 8,676 watch hours over the year, roughly 41 valid public watch hours from the threshold). They also read listener comments and riff on the YouTube shorts gimmicks other cigar creators use.
The non-cigar segments include a viral New York pizza-shop fight in which an employee named Gracie defended herself against a group who came to her workplace — she was cleared on self-defense but is now facing a $400,000 civil suit for excessive force — and a NASA planetary defense report from Kelly Fast, who told the American Association for the Advancement of Science that roughly 25,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than 140 meters exist, only about 40% of which are tracked, and that the one-off DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft was never replaced.
Cigar news starts with Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Profundo arriving early at Casa de Montecristo — an all-Nicaraguan puro with an oscuro wrapper from AJ Fernandez's Nicaraguan tobacco, blended with Rafael Nodal at Tabacalera USA — which leads into a discussion of how much Dominican production AJ Fernandez absorbed after the Tabacalera factory closure and why brands increasingly market Nicaraguan-grown leaf by origin. Next is E.P. Carrillo's Pledge Purple, a $18 6x50 Toro using the same Connecticut-grown Havana Seed wrapper as the 2020 Cigar of the Year Pledge, with a Mexican binder and Nicaraguan fillers — sparking a side conversation about whether Cigar Aficionado's top-25 list still carries weight. Then Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust's revamped Stillwell Star for PCA 2026: three sweet-capped blends (Aromatic Dulce Maduro, Dulce Claro, and English Dulce Maduro) in Toro and Petit Robusto, and whether sweet-tip cigars can work at a premium price point with Dunbarton's full-bodied audience.
The episode closes with "What's the Score," guessing Brooks Whittington's Halfwheel rating for the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Year of the Duque (Ecuadorian Habano Rosado wrapper, San Andrés negro binder, Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania filler, rolled at Joya de Nicaragua, $17.35). The final score was 91, with praise for the bold, refined blend despite burn corrections on two of three samples. Palmer wraps with appearances at Northport Cigars and Smoke Ring 72.
In This Episode
- 01YouTube Outage & Upload DramaThe crew debates a midnight-versus-5AM upload mix-up and unpacks the global YouTube outage caused by a failed recommendation system.
- 02Podcast Analytics & MonetizationPalmer shares real YouTube numbers — 188K views in 30 days and 8,676 annual watch hours — and how close the show is to monetization.
- 03Pizza Shop Fight & $400K LawsuitA viral New York story about an employee who beat back a group that came to her job, was cleared on self-defense, and is now being sued.
- 04NASA Killer AsteroidsPlanetary defense officer Kelly Fast warns about 25,000 untracked near-Earth asteroids and the fact that DART was never rebuilt.
- 05Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua ProfundoThe all-Nicaraguan oscuro-wrapped release lands early at Casa de Montecristo, made with AJ Fernandez tobacco and blended with Rafael Nodal.
- 06AJ Fernandez's Growing Production LoadSpeculation on how much Dominican contract work shifted to AJ Fernandez and Plasencia after the factory closure.
- 07E.P. Carrillo Pledge PurpleA full-bodied $18 Toro using the same Connecticut Havana Seed wrapper as the 2020 Cigar of the Year Pledge, plus talk of whether the top-25 lists still matter.
- 08Dunbarton Stillwell Star Revamp for PCA 2026Three new sweet-capped Stillwell Star blends debut in New Orleans, prompting debate about flavored cigars at premium prices.
- 09What's the Score: Year of the DuqueGuessing Brooks Whittington's Halfwheel score for Dunbarton's Year of the Duque, which landed at 91.
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 471, I'm Mike Palmer, your host, still alive, and with me today is Phil, I don't have face ringworms, stop asking me McGuffey. In engineering. Yeah, I don't have that. Facial ringworm.
Then as my co-host, Mikey, don't interrupt me, Stubbankevich. I would love that. Welcome to the show, gentlemen. I would love that.
The score yesterday was five to two, so we'll see what happens today. Could go either way. Could go either way. All right, on today's show, YouTube is down.
Well, it was last night. It's not down. It's back up now. Really?
Yes. A take-out pizza really took some teens out. Did you guys hear about that? Did you guys hear about that?
No. Oh, that's a good story. If you thought no gravity was bad, wait till you hear about the killer asteroids. And we have no way to stop them.
Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun. Then in cigars, purple is the color for 2026, Romeo and Juliet is at it again, and DTT is making some sweet decisions. All this and a mini game of what's the score.
Nice. But before we get started Wait, wait, I have a question, right? What happens to you on Wednesdays, Palmer? Ringworm, you have to use an antifungal cream We talked about that yesterday No, no, what happens to you on Wednesdays?
You're like always super chipper on a Wednesday It's the middle of the week Maybe Tuesday evenings is bang bang day Oh, yeah, maybe Maybe, you know No, that's a weekend thing at my house We have no weekday We're both too busy during the week There's no way to schedule that Maybe wakes up Wednesday and he gets it in real quick. Yeah, there's a little, yeah, here we go. I had a hard time to get out of bed this morning. I didn't get here until almost 10.
Yeah. Oh, you're Greg Gowers. Yeah, Greg Gowers today, right now. All right, go ahead.
All right, but first, how do we get some of that sweet CH Pod swag, Michael? com, sir. Sweet, sweet swag. Just for the record, if you like what you hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear.
If you like the value that we're providing for you, education-wise and entertainment, please like and subscribe. Are you allowed to say the word sweet? Yeah, I'm allowed to say sweet. Oh, okay.
Oh, maybe you get that up too. No sweets, not even the word. Not even the word. You've already broke it and you just came from church.
Day one. Shout out to my guy, Miguel Rocha, and Patrick Hosgood. Hogegood? com, where if you buy one piece of apparel, you get the second one 40% off, and if you spend $100 or more, you're gonna get free shipping on your entire order.
Uh, some comments from... Sure, why not? One of them was very long, read the long one. Leave the long one.
You alright today? You okay? I'm good. Bumbling your words.
I'm good. " Boots, Bing Bong. Wow. A lot of boots comments.
A lot of Phil comments. A lot of Phil. People love me. A lot of Phil comments.
Let's see here. " Oh man, no. Oh. I would never.
Maybe. Never. Make me cry. Eric Brooks.
Oh wait, that's on a short. It's a hostile work environment. I'm not allowed to say that. We ended a discussion years ago.
We did. I'm not allowed to say it's a hostile work environment. From Real Smoke Pod, Boots opens the door to find a child standing in the middle of the room wearing a straitjacket, looking down at the floor. " A girl looks up, wearing a mask like his, and says two words: "Bing bong".
Oh. That was a little girl when you were exterminating. Yeah. That was a little creepy, that whole description.
Oh, some of these are good. Very specific. Some of these are good. When Phil speaks, all I hear is white noise from her boy, Datta Cash, 2004.
Wow. Number, at six minutes and seven seconds of episode 469. Yes. I love David.
David Morris. You're the best, dude. We said, "Your show could straighten out a whole generations of scientists," as I was reading it to you, and then you said, "And lyricists," I guess, 'cause that made complete sense. No, 'cause Palmer was rapping.
You don't remember this? No. I said lyricists. Lyricists?
Lyricists. Lyricists, people who know the lyrics for songs. I guess I was singing a song wrong or something. I don't remember.
And then T-Money wrote: Do you think Drew Estate will sue? Oh, I already said that one. That was yesterday's. Okay.
That's it. If you want to hear your comment potentially on our podcast, make sure you comment below. Talk about the episode. If it's funny, it'll probably make the show.
Well, if it's not funny, it makes the show. You read all of them, it seems. But it's going to get to a point where I'm only going to do just a couple. Funny ones.
It wasn't all of them, Palmer. Yeah. If you have 7,500 comments, I can't read all of them. We have time.
We're only five minutes in. Please continue. No, it's too many. I don't want to comment.
I don't want to read the shorts responses, you know, on all the videos and stuff like that either. All right. Now the stories you want to hear. Last night at eight o'clock, YouTube went down.
Oh really? I was angry. Is that why you launched the release at midnight? Look, I went home, went to sleep.
And then I got up and I tried to do the uploads, and then I fell asleep between uploads, because it takes 45 minutes to an hour. I've told you before, the default on YouTube is midnight. Sometimes when you change it and then hit save, it defaults back to midnight. I didn't check it.
" Couldn't you just have fixed it? I would have happily fixed it. m. Perfect.
I would have fixed it. I fixed it. I would have fixed it right then and there. But instead, you dead-aired me without responding.
It was late. I had already been in bed for six hours. m. If I had remembered to turn the volume off, I wouldn't even have heard it, but I forgot to turn the volume off last night.
All you had to say was, no, it's supposed to be 5am. Maybe you're doing something different. I don't know. Even Adrian knows, my phone goes, boss, that it's you.
Here I am trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm like, that doesn't sound right, but let me verify from the guy who uploads all the time. Really, any time after midnight would be okay. I think you should do the same time, every time, all the time.
I do, I do 5am every day. All right, so then if I see it again. That way we get the, if you see it again, just change it to five. I'm going to change it to five.
Right. Unless we discuss it beforehand, some reason we're going to do it. Okay. I think there has been one or two of those in the last eight years.
Okay. And, you know, if you see my text, maybe give me the benefit of the doubt that I'm not trying to be passive-aggressive because I don't really know how to be passive-aggressive. I only know how to be aggressive-aggressive. Oh.
Yeah. Gotcha. There would have been like caps and like, "Hey, you idiot. " All right.
But that wasn't the case. I was concerned that the time was wrong or maybe it was right. And that's what you do, I stay in my lane, I just verified. All you had to say was 5A.
Thank you for checking. You know, I don't know why this came to my head, but maybe this is how the conversation went with USA and China when they were talking about tariffs. This is kind of how it was, like, Mikey was USA. Oh, and I'm China?
And yeah, you were China, like, at first you were going against the grain, and then you kind of just conformed to the whole conversation. USA won. USA. The tariffs are still a little high.
Yeah, USA won. Right. All right, by 9:15, they had the site back up. So it was down for an hour and 15 minutes.
People were losing their minds. People were going crazy. Apparently, Lou Liga was terribly upset because he couldn't do a show. Yeah.
Oh, really? Yes. I didn't even see that. He disappeared for a while and all of a sudden he's back.
He's back in full swing and back in full A-hole mode, you know. Whose show? Any idea, Boots, what show he was supposed to be on? Or Phil, sorry?
No, he's got his own podcast now. Yeah, he's got his own. Oh, he's got his own? Oh, he couldn't do his own show?
Episode seven, yeah. Oh. You watch it? I don't watch any episode, any podcast.
Oh, you don't watch any of them? We do a podcast five days a week. Believe me, I am quite aware. Plus a Patreon.
Oh, it's six, right? We do six shows a week. Plus a football one. Seven.
Oh, my Lord. So there's- You have any friends in one basketball? No, no. No.
A podcast? Or a baseball. There's seven that we do. Oh, I never just, don't tell me the numbers.
We got a, we got a wholesale operation to run. We also do a retail together. Right. Right?
Yes. You handle marketing for all that stuff. Yes. I coach 75,000 teams.
I don't know what, why, why. I've started to do that postcard you've asked me for three times and then you get into something else. I'm like, okay, that just waits again. Right.
You know what I mean? So like, I will tell you the one that I, there is an episode, there is a podcast that But I do want to watch, and it's the Simply Stogie one with David Garofalo. Oh, I saw he was just going to be on one. Yeah.
So I want to, I do want to watch that because I saw some of the short clips. I'm like, okay, I need to listen to him. Oh. So.
All right, by 9:26, they had released the cause of the problem. Uh-oh. As we talked before, it seems to be happening a lot more often with the social media. Yeah, there's a lot of this.
There's a lot of this going on. You think maybe China is testing, like, let's see if we can knock this one off today. That's how they talk? I don't know.
They hired a Russian guy. They hired a Russian guy? They're in with the Russians. In China?
I think it's more like, watch these Americans, watch how crazy they go when we turn this off. Watch how crazy Lu Liga go when we cut off the YouTube. So anyway, the outage was caused, it's funny because they released a statement on X while theirs was out. While theirs was down.
Everybody goes to X. You were about to say something? But for me, I would think that something has to do with power and AI. What if AI is strategically cutting these off one at a time to see if they can do it?
Testing the social media platforms. See what they can shut off. Because if they shut off social media, everybody's going to lose their mind. Or it's like how they do the thing when you're about to rob a bank or whatever where you unplug the camera real quick and then you plug it back in and then it's a loop or something so that you don't, you know what I mean?
Maybe AI is unplugging it, sliding into it so they can run it, and turning it back on. Maybe we're all in a loop. Problem with the matrix. And they're pushing their AI propaganda.
Okay, they say the problem was that the recommendation system went offline, which caused the whole thing to shut down, because after you watch the video, they couldn't tell you what to watch next. See, AI has now, Skynet has now in the recommendation system, right, so you're watching a video, right, and then it recommends something evil that you should do to have the next video that you should watch, and it's really bad. I'm looking for John Connor. And it's trying to convince people to do bad things.
Uh oh. Uh oh. Anybody want to guess how many people notified the down detector that they had no YouTube? I know at least one.
It sounds like Luliga notified at least several times. 837,973 just in the USA. Within that hour. That's a pretty specific number.
Yeah, an hour and 15 minutes. 8 till 9:15. Wow. An hour and 15 minutes.
Hey, your thing's down. It's down. Hey, everybody's down. Call down detector.
Wow. 1% reporting problems with the website in general. Users in Canada, Brazil, the UK, and Germany also reported problems. Wow.
Worldwide problem. Nobody could watch our show yesterday. It better not affect my viewers, because I'm pushing for monetization here. We have a conversation here, just saying.
How close are we? " That was on Instagram. Yes. Well, that's what I told her.
" Well, we are now. We actually are there, you know, but as far as monetization is concerned. Right, well I told her every, the apps that actually pay, we have not hit where we need to be yet, but by people looking at the Instagram one that went so high, they might go, ooh, let me go watch the videos on the other thing and see what these idiots are saying there. Right.
She goes, oh, that makes complete sense. Just so you know, we are 41 valid public hours away. On YouTube? From being monetized.
Is that from, is that where they start paying us for our show or they start putting commercials in? Google AdSense, all that stuff, yeah. 40 hours? 41 hours, that's it.
It's one work week, guys, come on. Somebody watch it, whether it works. I got news for you. The direction that it's trending?
Yeah. Wednesday next week, you should be good to go. Oh. 41 hours?
Yeah. We only do an hour. Phil, wait, you're at the racetrack. Turn it on your phone, just leave it running.
Might be earlier. Oh, people have to watch another 41 hours. Yeah, but here's what's wild. Here's what's kind of crazy.
Like if you look at like your stats, and I love sharing all this stuff with people. I think this is fascinating because nobody actually does that. No. Like we had 188,000 views within 30 days.
2k hours. Okay. So, you know, what does that break down to? Like how do they view that?
Is it short reels? Is it long? There's, there's a way that they kinda, they look at it because in 365 days, we have a total watch time of 8,676 hours. That's not a lot.
Where the goal is 4,000. Oh, but it's 30 days. 8,000 hours? Didn't seem like a lot for 365 days.
Oh, I'm sorry you feel that way. That's only 8,000 people watching the show from start to finish. That doesn't sound like a lot to you? 8,000 people?
I would like more. Oh, okay. Oh, quite the pessimist. See how he takes things?
I'm negatively texting him. I mean, 8,676 is a lot of watchouts. Give me a comparable. Give me somebody else's.
I can't look at anybody else's analytics. Somebody else, give us yours. Share your analytics. And Tim Daly just drops a bomb on you.
Tim Daly? What did Tim Daly say? I don't know. He's the guy that does all the shorts and stuff.
daily cigars and he talks like every other YouTuber. I'm going to show you how to not sniff a cellophane. And I'm like, oh my goodness. That's exactly how we talk.
You're right. That's kind of crazy. He was all into the Drew Estate thing. He's got the most views all into it.
How so? Well, he did one video, if you could do the voice again, saying that you're looking forward to seeing what the video is. I'm looking forward to seeing how the video goes. Okay, and I'll do one that says, "Can you believe that's what he said?
It's a great idea. " Can you believe that's what he said? That's a great idea. There you go.
That was him. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Does he do his eyebrows like that, too? Yes, yes, yes, yes.
He's bald, too, so you really see the eyebrows. Nice. Dude, but like, that's what a lot of the YouTube shorts pick up on. Eyebrows?
Eyebrows. Oh, you know, it's like, there's a whole, there's gimmicks about all of them. Yeah. People make jokes all the time, because like, that's, it works.
There's like ways where you pop in on the screen or pop out of the screen to bring up views. It's successful, yeah. Come up from the bottom or down from the top, it's so weird. Why don't we do that every episode?
Here we are, we got, we got 700,000 clicks or views on, on, on an asteroid on our Instagram. Ungraded. We're about to have 7,000. And then people are trying to say, uh, one guy said, uh, I love this one.
So when this doesn't happen, can we find these peckerwoods and put them six feet on the ground for spreading false information? It's just news. Do you go after the news people for talking about what's out in the public? Damn, bro.
Relax, dude. Are you that worried? Get a parachute. That's intense.
And then I gave him your address. Oh, great. Yeah, come on over. Get past my dog.
Hey, what is two guys' show called? Internet cigar authority. Cigar authority. They don't do shorts.
Well, do they do shorts? No, I don't think so. You can't look up their analytics. You don't think so?
No. I'm asking an AI. You're asking an AI? You're asking an AI?
Which AI do you use over there, Phil? I'm just ChatGBT. I'm original. Are you a Bing Bonger?
No, ChatGBT. ai? Yeah, you're right. I can't.
It's locked. Alright, next story. We're ready to move on? Yeah, what was the first story about?
YouTube was out. Oh, YouTube's down. Lou Liga's very upset. Yeah, poor Lou Liga.
So there's this pizza shop in New York. Okay. And Gracie works there. Okay.
She has an altercation with a girl at school. Okay. Nothing really happens. Not a big deal.
So then that girl and her friend and another friend and two guys come to the pizza place where she's working. Okay. Girl goes in. She challenges her.
So Gracie comes out from behind the counter. Girl takes a swing at her. Misses. Gracie pummels this chick.
I mean, she's grabbing her by the hair and swings her into the wall. I didn't know hair stayed in that well. Swing her to the other side, gets her in a chokehold, dropped her to the ground, and starts boom, boom, boom, and then the girl who had been filming the whole thing, with a red hoodie on, tries to help her, turns around and beats the shit out of that girl. Yeah.
World star. Third girl comes in, she beats the shit out of that girl, too. Why would you go in at that point? Trying to help your friends, I guess, I don't know.
I mean, like, if, you know, you're in a fight, I jump in, and then I'm getting beat up, so Boots jumps in. Okay. I'll walk that back in a second, but continue. So, they go to court.
They get arrested. The girl got off for self-defense. Yep. But now the other families are suing her for $400,000 because she was too aggressive.
She used unnecessary force. Good luck with that. That ain't going to work. You're out of your mind.
Nobody knew this girl was an MMA fighter. Yeah, well, hey. Oh, she doesn't have to disclose that. No, no, I'm not saying that's wrong.
I'm just saying that's how she knew how. She beat up these three girls that came to beat her up. Is that three? Will you give me that one?
Dude, he's at like nine. Yeah, okay. Nine zero. I don't know what you guys are talking about.
Okay, so first of all, let me take this back one step. If you or you say, hey, I want to go and beat this person up, I'm going to look at you and be like, what the hell are you talking about? We're going to go and kick someone's ass? We're adults.
We're not teenagers. Even if we were teenagers, I'd be like, what are we doing? I'm going to do everything I can to walk you off of that cliff. Now, I got news for you.
" Right? I'm not jumping in on your behalf at that point, because you wouldn't listen to me, I was trying to talk you off of it, you put yourself in this position, you felt like you wanted to learn the hard way, and I let you learn the hard way. Now, if someone came up to you in a different scenario and a fight ensued, 100%, no questions asked. No questions asked, right?
I don't even need to know what's going on. But if you go out of your way to provoke a fight and go to a place of business where a person is, and that person kicks your ass, I'm not stepping in. I'm not. Because I know that you need that lesson because you're not listening to me, apparently.
No? Does that not make sense? I don't know. I mean, that didn't go through my head when he was talking about you because I know you're itching just one time.
Just let somebody just pop off. I just need to kill somebody. Yeah. No, but there's gotta...
I just need a self-defense... Palmer, the guy raised his hand to point out where the gas station was, fall into his finger. Well, there's gotta be logic for the approach. I'm not just some caveman walking around ready to beat somebody.
I don't want to get somebody out, you know, like, that's not the case, I'm not, I'm not afraid of it, I am a caveman, I didn't say anything, I'm trying to fast forward through the thing, the story is because the girl knew what she was doing, and she defended herself against these three other kids, yeah, the bars went up on your mic over here, not that the kids were stupid to go do it, they were stupid to go do it in the first place, right, but then you deviated off saying that I would go and I would, you know, like, well, you know, her friends jumped in, I'm like, her friends shouldn't have jumped in, if anybody had any sense of So if there's logic at this point, hey, let's go to this pizza place and kick this girl's ass, I'd be like, this is dumb, what are we doing, right? And if you said, hey, let's go to this pizza place and kick this girl's ass, and I'm like, dude, I don't know, that's not a good idea. Can we not say kick a girl's ass? No, I'm letting that one in.
I slid that one in on purpose. Like, I don't know, dude. Okay. Ooh, yeah.
I would just say, okay, I'm gonna get him now. Thank you. Have a good day. You know?
Not nothing from you. What did you say? I was reading the story from a whole different angle. I don't know why now we're talking about your decision to help her now.
What was your angle? That this girl beat up these other kids that came to beat her up. They're kids. I mean, kids get in fights all the time.
My wife's been beat up in a fight with kids. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, your logic and a kid's logic is not the same thing.
The kid's logic. The kid's logic to go and fight, to go and pick a fight was done. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what the altercation was at school that caused, you know, that warranted a visit to her place of work. I can't imagine it being that serious.
No, I mean, probably to them it was, but no, probably to us, it's not. She might have touched the wrong boy or something. Who knows? Did Gracie text her boyfriend?
I mean, like, what are we talking about here? I don't know. They didn't say, you know, I didn't say, but the video is quite horrific. I didn't realize hair stayed in that well.
You have the video? Uh, I don't have the video, but I saw the video, and it was hard to find, and it was over somebody else's, uh, post. I guess it would have to depend on how it escalated. Oh, the fight there?
There wasn't much of an escalation there. The girl came in, took one swing, and then got the shit beat out of her. Well, I'm saying, like, yeah, but there had to be some type of- Your name is Grace? Gracie.
There had to be some type of word exchange, you know. Uh, yeah, I mean, you can't see what that is, obviously, because there's no sound. Right, because if like, if all three of us were somewhere and somebody came up to one of you guys and started, you know, jacking their jaw a little bit, like, you know, I'd have to, I'd have to say something, and then I guess from there it would have to, we'd have to see how that escalates. That night we went out for Greg's bachelor party thing.
Yeah. Somebody said something as a group of us was walking out. I don't know if it was to me or somebody else, but I think you two thought it was. Oh, yes.
I got the video. I think you two thought it was, and you two bowed up like he was talking to me. Yeah. Yeah, we're not, listen, we may make fun of each other, but we're not going to let anybody fucking infiltrate our circle.
Right. No one's going to mess with our idiots. Right. You watching the video now?
Can you believe the hair stays in that well? I'm going to send it to you in one second. I'm recording right now. Yes, she whipped that girl.
Oh, yeah. By her hair. Oh, dude. Listen.
Oh, smack. Oh, smack. Can Pizza Company, you know what I'm saying? Nobody from the pizza company came out to El Prairie.
It doesn't look like anybody's there. Well, there's a couple other guys behind the counter. Oh, ragdolling her. Right.
Love it. If the pizza place was smart, they'd make a pizza after this whole thing. The Gracie. Yeah.
The Gracie. It has extra sauce for the blood. The Gracie beat down. It's all the meats.
Extra sauce. Extra sauce. All the meats, extra sauce. Cheese splotched on like bruises.
Right. Okay, I'm gonna send you the video. Are they uncensored on there somewhere? I don't know.
It's always easier to find on X. Got it? I know. Somebody sent me a deep discount somebody's doing on her stuff.
Oh, okay. Where did you send it? Eminem Productions? Oh, there it is.
Just came in. Okay. So you're watching the video? Is that what you're saying?
Oh, are we supposed to watch this? I mean, you can if you want to. Well, we'll put it in here. Okay.
Okay. It's only like 30 seconds. Oh, there goes the Ragdoll. There goes Ragdoll.
There goes Ragdoll. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. That was incredible. Oh, she beat up the girl in the red.
Wow. Good luck with the $400,000 lawsuit. I hope there's a countersuit for five people going to attack one person and then filming it. Right, because the film is from them.
Right. You guys provided the evidence, thank you very much. Right, that you went in and provoked a person. That's assault, brother.
Exactly. And a busted orbital. Right. Who busted their orbital?
The girl she beat up. Yeah, that's called, that's what that hammer fist will do. Man, I've seen that one time in real life. Someone get a busted orbital.
Yeah? Yeah, I was in Daytona, we used to, before cigars, I used to smoke hookah when I was younger. And there used to be this place called Shisha in Daytona, right across from Lollipops. Okay.
So I'd sit out. I don't know if that helps me, but okay. I'd sit out front with the owner and smoke, and I had a couple of my buddies that I hung out with that would sit there with us and smoke. Well, this one kid, Matt, he's a retard, he went across the street to go ask this guy for something, I think it was like directions to go somewhere or whatever, and he had a cast on, Matt had a cast on.
When he asked the guy, the guy just reared back and popped him right in the eye. I don't know what it was said, but we couldn't hear it. Right, you don't know the actual exchange. When he came back over, his eye was like popped out.
And we had to rush him to the hospital. It busted his orbital. Wow. His eye was all popped out.
See, again, same scenario. He approached. Yeah, he did. Yeah, I don't know what was said, but it must have been something slick.
Right. Well, apparently it wasn't that slick. Yeah. All right, there's this lady at NASA.
Her name is Kelly Fast. Okay. Her job is planetary defense officer. Ooh, that sounds like the best job ever.
Doesn't that sound good? She says there's killer asteroids up there, we have no way to stop them and it keeps her up at night. Really? Yes.
The planetary defense officer. What a cool title it is. She just told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Phoenix, Arizona, that there are 25,000 asteroids near Earth that measure more than 140 meters in diameter. It's pretty big.
NASA only knows a location of about 40% of them. Okay. Because they don't show up on the telescopes unless they're being hit by the sun, so they turn with the Earth as the Earth turns, so at nighttime you can't see them. You can only see some of one and a half.
Right. So in 2022, they made this machine called the DART. It stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. Okay.
And they shot it at one of the asteroids. So it hit the asteroid, it exploded, changed the trajectory of the asteroids. Okay. So we have a way to do it, but they never built another one.
Oh, they just did it one time. They used it one time. They used it one time. Oh, this works.
Now this manual. No problem. No problem. But now we don't have any of them just sitting around.
So, you think we should have a couple of these? Well, maybe one or two. Maybe two, yeah. Maybe two.
If one goes wrong, you have the backup? Sure. Yeah, I think so too. Just in case.
Yeah. Because if one of these big rocks come, there's no way we can stop it. Sounds like the intergalactic planetary of defense lady is not really doing her job. " Oh, there is one coming?
No, no, that's what she would say. Oh. " Do you remember back in the day when, like, one hit Russia or something? You saw a big meteor, just boom.
No, I don't remember. Oh, yeah, that was crazy. Well, these are city size. City size?
Yeah. 150 meters? Okay, maybe. 150 meters doesn't sound...
I'm a small city. Small town, maybe. Okay. Neighborhood.
Yeah. No, bigger than a neighborhood. It sounds like a neighborhood. Like a subdivision.
The subdivision. The subdivision. Subdivision side. Yeah.
Maybe one apartment building. Right. Twin Pines neighborhood or something. Oh, Twin Pines.
I was a civic. Yeah, I was trying to think of Back to the Future. Yeah, it's from Back to the Future. Oh, yeah.
Except now it's called single pine. Yeah, 'cause he ran into the tree. He ran one over on the left. Right.
All right. All right. Okay. All right.
So, asteroids. Could be the end of the world. Could be another thing getting to the end of the world. If we can get another 700,000 views on that one, that would be great.
Well, you didn't get very excited, so nobody's gonna come back on that one. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe.
All right. Cigar news. Yay! Cigar news.
Not quite as exciting as killer asteroids, but we're moving on. Yes. Romeo and Julieta, Reserva Real, Nicaragua, Profundo, lands at Casa de Montecristo. Profundo?
P-R-O-F-U-N-D-O. Profundo? Profundo. Is there another way to say it?
That sounds right to me. All right? Yeah, Profundo. You want to talk about this again?
Yeah, I do. Oh. Tell me. Okay, it wasn't originally scheduled for release, but a few more weeks, but the new Romeo and Julieta, Reserva Real, Nicaragua, Profundo, It has been received at the Casa de Mono Cristo stores, just at the Casa de Mono Cristo.
It's probably made by AJ, I would guess. It is made by AJ. Yeah. That was a good guess.
Yeah. It's an all Nicaraguan blend, highlighted by an oscuro wrapper, crafted by Adele Fernandez and Rafael Nodal at Altadish USA. The wrapper is grown in Fernandez and is noticeable for its dark color achieved through extended fermentation. What is the knocking?
I don't know. You know what's funny is I think a lot of AJ upped a lot of his production when that factory closed by because of a chain zing or whatever. Oh, yeah, chain zing. Yeah, I don't, you know, I don't know if that was officially announced or not, but I think AJ took over a lot of that Dominican business.
So, he's, uh, if he was busy before, he's definitely more busy now. More busy now. Well, no, it wasn't announced how much of the business went to him, though. It was not announced?
I believe we were told there were two factories that were involved. There is two? Yeah. I don't remember what the other one was.
The other one's Placencia. But I think that AJ took like 70 or 80 percent of the work. Right. That's what was not announced.
They didn't say how much of the workload. Allegedly. Has he rebuilt his factory? I have no idea.
Probably. I saw AJ Fernandez's place down there. Is this a place down there? Yeah.
Is that pre or post fire? Well, it was just recently, so it'd probably have to be post, right? Yeah. He's got a couple.
Only AJ. Only AJ. Only AJ. Only AJ.
So, I mean, okay, so that's good for Romeo and Uliata to come out with a new cigar. I mean, when was the last one they released? They release new stuff all the time. Do they?
Yeah. Oh. Yeah. He's privy to that, I guess.
Yeah. No, he usually tells you about them, too. Like, on this show. He announces them.
Like, in this format. Yeah, just like this. Oh. Except we'll talk about them.
Yeah. I never see them in the good humidor, so, hmm. Maybe I just don't. Right now they got a lot of back orders from what I understand.
STG's very mainstream, right? So, like, you'll see them in your CI's and your other stuff. Over at Blend and Barrel? You think it'll be a Blend and Barrel?
The new Romeo and Juliets are Profundo? I don't know who it is, but I think they carry it over there, carry Romeo and Juliet over there. Yeah, I mean, I think that every store should have some, you know. I think you have one up there, right?
But the Profundo? I like the name Profundo. What's the blend? I mean, the stuff I already read you?
Did you read it? Yes. Are you sure? Yes.
Nicaraguan blend highlighted by an Oscuro wrapper, all Nicaraguan tobacco. So no real info. No, it was vague. Right, it was vague.
So you just said, yeah, I read it off, but it was vague. Because you didn't say anything that piqued my interest as far as a blend. Well, it was all Nicaraguans is all it said, really. Oh, okay.
Oh, it's a Puro. You ever notice that there's a hard push for that lately? The information of how the cigars made? It's not, like, they're not even saying, they're no longer saying Habano.
Always giving them very specific information. they're saying but no they're actually highlighting the fact that more of these things are grown in nicaragua right nicaraguan you're right there's more nicaraguan yeah why why do you think they would do that um i think there's a good argument for it i think there's a good argument for the location of whatever it is even if it was origin-based habano you know like ecuador habano nicaraguan habano would make sense to me so there so the statistics is probably reading that But when they say it's Nicaraguan, people are more likely to smoke it. I don't know if it's that. I think that other people got upset when you would say, "Hey, you know, I know the Mirapels argue Cameroon all the time.
Hey, it's Cameroon because it's grown in Cameroon, Africa. " Right. It's gotta be like 11 or 12 by now. What do you think?
Yeah. For all you playing at home, please comment on YouTube. What am I doing? I don't know what you guys are talking about.
Real Smoke Pod also said that the drinking game, he was... Oh, he was smashed, yeah. Well, it was the Wednesday show. It was right after he was here.
He was already wasted. Right. So, okay. Next.
What else you got? All right. Kesa Carrillo launching a Pledge Purple. Oh.
Carrillo. Okay. He's announced plans to launch a new extension to the Perez Carrillo Pledge Line. What?
Perez Carrillo Pledge Line, which the company is calling Pledge Purple. It will be expected the cigars to come decked out in purple bands and packed in purple boxes. As for the blend, it's a full-bodied blend that uses the same Connecticut-grown Havana Seed wrapper from Dun & Foster, the same one that used the original pledge that was released in 2020. Is that the one that hit Cigar of the Year?
I believe it was, yes. Okay. Just trying to hope lightning strikes twice at the same place. You know, the interesting thing was, like, you could still find that product available for number one cigar, which was kind of, you know, They kind of gave you the definition, like, it helped you understand that aficionado, I don't think, has the same amount of weight as it originally did.
I don't think they do either. It still has some weight, but it's not at the same extent. Like, nobody really talked about the list this year like they normally do. No, they talked about Padrón briefly and then just kept it moving.
Well, it's because, like, a lot of stuff on that list, other than you guys, really is the same. Yeah. Speaking of which, we've got to review the reviewers. All right, I think about that every time I see somebody to the list.
Yeah, we got to review the reviewers. We'll start with the top, the five big dogs and we'll go from there. I'll work on printing that out today. I'll do it today.
All right, they're saying this tobacco from that 2020 is now a decade old. It's only six years old. Well, it was probably aged prior to that. Oh, right.
Almost a decade old. Yeah, before they put it in the original cigar. It sat in a Pallone for seven years, or it sat in a Pallone for eight months, and then it sat in a bale after that. Right.
Does that change anything? I don't know. So it also has a Mexican binder and Nicaraguan fillers from SLE, Condega, and Omentempe. It's offered in a 6x50 Toro.
It's how much, gentlemen? Uh, go ahead. I thought the pledge was like 16 bucks. This is the purple pledge.
Yeah, so 16 bucks. I'd say $12. 18. Wow.
So it went up a little. Philly won. You got one. Hey.
Hey. Hey. All right, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust is revamping the Stilwell Starline for PCA 2026. Revamp?
Aren't they killing off a bunch of the brand? Like, isn't number one going to remain? That's it? Well, that's basically what this is saying, that only the sweet one sells, so we're going to make another sweet one.
Oh, okay. Aromatic number two. Let's see, what do they call it? The new incarnation will include three different blends at launch, each with the same two Vitolas, a 652 Toro, and a 5x48 Petit Robusto.
All three blends will feature a sweetened cap. It will be called the Stillwell Star Aromatic Dulce Maduro. Okay, so they're probably just going off of the Aromatic No. 1?
Yes, same blend as the Aromatic No. 1, but with a new name. Yeah, and now they're going to offer it in three different Vitolas. Yeah, well, three different cigars, the Silwell Star Dulce Claro, a brand new blend made from a hybrid of previous Silwell Star.
Silwell Star English Dulce Maduro, a tweaked, in parentheses, version of the English No. 27 blend, and that's the three new cigars. So, it's just different wrappers. Well, it's three different blends.
They're tweaking the blends and giving one a sweet tip. Look, man, you know, that cigar came in at a higher price point. Yeah. For flavor infused, right?
Right. Well, wasn't it kind of like the first of its kind? Because that was pipe tobacco, right? No.
Well, the Deadwood stuff is pipe tobacco. Oh, okay. It's definitely not. Well, there was one before Deadwood.
Naturals. Oh, that's right. Oh, that's right. Yeah, the naturals were pipe tobacco with sugar tips, and then they turned them to ladder rooms.
Ladder rooms, because you couldn't say it was natural. Right. Oh, we'll just change it backwards then. Just turn the printing over.
Yeah. That's funny. Make up a new word. So they will all be available at the PCA convention and trade show, which takes place April 18th to the 20th in New Orleans.
Yeah, it's got, I mean, it's got a tougher price point. That's the problem. And it gives that flavor-infused cigar consumer into that higher price point. I think that a lot of times you've seen like that acid 20th and some of those other things that were more deluxe did not really take off and they kind of faded them away, sunsetted them.
This is just another stab at trying to make it efficient, so. Do you think this cigar appeals more to current Dunbarton fans as an option in his line or people that smoke, like you said, an acid or something, give him something else to try? I think if it catered to the people in, that are already fans of Dunbarton, then it would already be selling extremely well. I don't think that, you know, look, your bold cigar consumers probably not say, and occasionally I like the flavor infused, you know, I can't ever say, I can't ever tell you a time when I was like, you know what I could go for right now?
An upsetter, you know? Ooh, that's a rough sweetened cigar. You think so? It tastes, tastes and smells like potpourri.
My wife doesn't even smoke those. It tastes and smells like potpourri. Smells more floral and flowery. You know, I don't ever, yeah, like crave one.
But I will say I did try one recently. What'd you try? Well, Pete and Steven Hernandez have their own. Oh yeah?
And I tried it and it was, it wasn't horrible. It was, it was good. It's a reigning endorsement right there. Yeah, no, I mean, it was good.
I really liked their label, which is cool. It wasn't horrible, and I liked the label that was on it. Well, I mean, like, I'm not used to flavored cigars anymore, you know, so, like, when I first started smoking, I was like, oh, man, you know, the flavor, like, hit me from the cap, but it went away after a little bit, and the cigar was good without the, you know, the sweetness for me. Gotcha.
So, it was just sweet-tipped? Yeah, sweet-tipped. Yeah. I think that's different than flavor-infused.
Is it? Yeah. Yeah, I think so too, because you only get it, you only get it through the length of the cigar. Yeah, I could get away with smoking a sweet tip.
Because it only lasts a little bit. Yeah, it's not, it's not the worst thing, you know? I get the Mac every once in a while. Yeah.
In category, like, let's say for the UTL, would you have to say the sweet tip is a flavor infuser? No, I don't think so. No? I don't know.
I'm sure it's fine. Yeah. They're going after stuff that's vanilla. Yeah, that's fruit flavored or something.
Chocolate. A flavor you can label. Right. Not sweet or sour.
It tastes like bananas. Right. Oh, okay. So like all the tatianas.
According to them. Okay. All right, now it's time for the industry's favorite show. Favorite game?
Why do we say favorite show? Favorite game? What's the score? Da-da-da.
Uh, uh. All right, June 5th, 2025, Brooks Whittington Cigars, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Trabajo & Trust, Limited Edition, Nicaragua Review, the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Year of the Duque. Strange enough fact, this is the only Dunbarton cigar on their review list. Really?
On whose list? On Half Wheel? Half Wheel. Really?
Yep. That's interesting. I know, I thought so too. I was gonna try to get one of the pipe tobacco-y ones to go with the story we did, but this is the only one that was there.
is there no meat caritas or anything huh no i mean nonetheless it's listed weird because normally it's the brand and then the name yeah it's got to be listed weird they have to review you would think so yeah like a sin compromiso i mean any of it yeah they've definitely reviewed those even the umbagog okay uh who reviewed this brooks whittington brooks whittington uh you want me Do you want me to go first, or no? Yeah. Are you looking it up? He's looking it up.
Well, I'm looking to see if there's reviews. Meekitya, Tricky Chaka, yeah. So, they're just listed under the other name? Yeah.
Hmm. So, it's not Dunbarton. Yeah, the 448, ooh, got a 93. Well, you can't do that one, then.
I'll forget in a week. No, you won't. Oh, rain starting. Let's see.
86. This is a good cigar. I'm going to go 90. Cigar reviews, Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust, Year of the Duque.
Country of Origins, Nicaragua. Factory, Fabrica de Tobacco, Hoya de Nicaragua. It's an Ecuadorian Habano Rosado wrapper. Binder, Mexico, San Andreas Negro.
35 a cigar, they smoked three. I'm holding 86. Yeah, I'm a stick 90. Do I sound like white noise?
Really? Yes. Wow. All right, clue number one, the wrapper lacked noticeable oil and despite some aromatic complexity, On one sample, the other two were noticeably tamer and less expressive on the wrapper and cold draw, creating some inconsistency across the cigars.
The negative beat off the jump. Wow. 86. Phil?
All right, you got that? Wow. I don't know. 90.
I'm going to take 90. I don't think that's going to affect it. Clue number two. Construction wasn't flawless.
Two of the cigars required burn correction in the second third, and another needed a touch-up in the final third, interrupting an otherwise solid performance. 85. They interrupted a solid performance? Yeah.
Yes, he hates when he has to relight things. 89. Sorry, clue number three, the flavor profile was consistently bold and layered, delivering full flavor throughout the excellent draws, strong smoke production, and evolving complexity, especially in the final third, where toasted bread, creamy cedar, and added floral or spiced nuance elevated the experience. 85.
88. I'm starting to sweat. That was a positive. And you went down.
Okay. Still at 88? Yep. Final thought.
While I definitely have my favorites, it is no great secret that I have been a fan of just about every cigar that Saka has released so far, and the year of the Duque is no exception. The blend is bold but refined. With main flavors that shift from ants, whatever that is, A-N-I-S-E, cedar, cloves, and earth, along with raisin and bready graham crackers, sweetness combined with black pepper on the retrohale. Two of the three cigars need multiple burn corrections to stab off larger issues, but those relatively minor construction problems can disguise the fact that this is an excellent blend and a wonderful tribute to the wonderful person who has played a role in Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust's success.
88, I knew you were going to go up like that, well, I guess I'll win, 89, 91, yep, 91, I figured he was going to go high, wow, yeah, it's Dunbar, I mean, most people tip their hat, this is going to not track well, What do you mean, like, sell? Yeah, in the industry, like, from consumers, a lot of consumers didn't like it. Really? Yeah, they got a lot of mixed reviews.
I just know the lovers of Dunbar, you know, they... Yeah, of course, but like, even with Brooks' first two things, you know, didn't sound like it was gonna do that well. Right. Brooks need to review all our cigars.
So, as long as you take note of it, Charlie, Brooks is now the only reviewer. The only reviewer we accept. Nothing personal. And just because Phil says you eat a lot of Chinese food, that has nothing to do with it.
Just because Phil's racist doesn't mean we're all racist. Right. We just prefer Brooks' work. Does he eat Chinese food?
Do we confirm this? I'd be curious to see how many, that's the one thing that they haven't disclosed. when they do the reviews, how many 91s does Charlie give? How many 91s does Brooks give?
And how many does Patrick give? That'd be a good step to find out. Out of X amount of reviews throughout the entire year. I would ask McTavish to look into that.
However, he's going to get to this episode probably in 2027 at this point. He's a little behind. Yeah. Is he watching him in order?
He's watching him in order. He just doesn't watch one every day. " He's in November? Yeah.
Oh my lord. And then we ramped up to every day. Right. Right.
Yeah. Oh, he's never gonna catch up. Yeah. Okay.
That Espinosa interview. Where are you gonna be, Mr. Palmer? I barely remember that interview.
Yeah. Next week on Wednesday, the 25th, I will be at Northport Cigars in Northport, Florida from 1:00 to 5:00 PM. Go see Mr. Palmer.
This weekend on the 22nd, I think it's this weekend, I will be briefly at Smoke Ring 72 on Sunday for shirtless Mike's birthday. Oh, nice. I'm going to pop in and wish him a happy birthday. That's lovely.
Okay, anything else? We have a special guest on Monday, I'm not going to tell you who it is. Ooh, okay. They're going to be in the studio audience.
In the studio audience? Yes. Okay. All right, hey, if you enjoy the content, please like and subscribe.
That's it! All right, thank you very much, we gotta go, bye! Thanks, bye!
Show Notes
On todays show
Youtube is down! Well it was?
A take out Pizza really took some teens out
If you thought no Gravity was bad what about killer asteroids and we have no way to stop them!
Then in cigars
Purple is the color for 2026, Romeo and Juliette is at is again and DTT is making a sweet decision!
All this and a mini game of what’s the score!