ACHP Episode 482 Its's A Wonderful World

Episode Summary

Episode 482 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast has Mike Palmer hosting alongside Michael Szczepankiewicz, with John Carney of Hooten Young filling in as guest host (Phil is absent). The trio opens with shop talk about cigar festivals — Carney compares Nicaragua's Puro Sabor to the Dominican Republic's Pro Cigar, calling Pro Cigar "the crème de la crème" and recommending the La Flor Dominicana factory tour to anyone who attends. Deeper Pro Cigar talk, plus the LFD relationship question, gets pushed to the Patreon. The show also pitches its PCA 2026 appointment Calendly links for retailers and media, with a Powstanie Wingèd Hussars hat for anyone who shows up, and recaps Powstanie's #2 Cigar of the Year finish on halfwheel and #6 at Cigar Press.

The non-cigar half is classic ACHP: two Florida man stories (a sunburned man on the Sanibel Causeway who claimed dolphins led by a boss dolphin named Gerald kidnapped him to build an underwater city, and a Brevard County man arrested for moving an occupied ambulance and then striking a paramedic while fleeing), a long tangent on walking workouts and cold plunge protocols (Carney's warmer 55–60°F long soaks vs. shorter sub-50 plunges), and a follow-up on the Misty Roberts Louisiana mayor conviction that turns into a real conversation about inconsistent age-of-consent laws state to state.

Cigar news covers the PCA's newly launched Alliance Program for business-adjacent members — bars, restaurants, wineries, breweries, country clubs and individual consumers — at $250 corporate / $99 individual. All three agree the concept is smart (credit to Joshua Habib Burski for actually executing on long-discussed ideas) but criticize that Alliance membership doesn't include trade show access, which they argue is the program's only real value proposition. They also cover Tradecraft (Gary and Robert Blumenthal of Tinderbox International) releasing the Gladius Belicoso and Azorian Corona Gorda at PCA 2026, with a candid aside about Tinderbox's decline and the few remaining strong operators like Craig Cass, plus Patina's Connecticut Copper, a 6x46 corona at $12.50 — praised for simple, pronounceable, color-based naming that removes consumer friction.

The episode closes with a high-stakes "What's the Score" — loser leaves the industry — using halfwheel reviews of the Room 101 Uncle Lee (Brooks Whittington, 2014) and a redux of the Saga Short Tales High Priming (Charlie Minato, 2019). Carney wraps with his upcoming Hooten Young appearances at Cigar Life in Lakeland with Norm Hooten, Lowball Louie's in Lady Lake, two America 250 cigar projects launching in June, and a trip to see Dave Garofalo in New Hampshire.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Pro Cigar vs. Puro Sabor
   John Carney and the hosts compare Nicaragua's Puro Sabor to the Dominican Republic's Pro Cigar festival and recommend the La Flor Dominicana factory tour.
2. 02
   PCA 2026 Appointments & Powstanie
   Retailer and media Calendly links, a Powstanie Wingèd Hussars hat giveaway, and a recap of Powstanie's #2 halfwheel Cigar of the Year finish.
3. 03
   Florida Man: Dolphins and an Ambulance
   A man found on the Sanibel Causeway claims dolphins led by 'Gerald' kidnapped him to build an underwater city, plus a Brevard County man arrested for moving an occupied ambulance.
4. 04
   Cold Plunges and Walking Workouts
   Carney explains why he runs his cold plunge in the upper 50s for 25 minutes to drop core temp and fight inflammation instead of short sub-40 shock sessions.
5. 05
   Misty Roberts Case Update
   The Louisiana mayor's mistrial, conviction and pending sentencing lead into a discussion of inconsistent state age-of-consent laws.
6. 06
   PCA Launches the Alliance Program
   The new $250 corporate / $99 individual membership for bars, restaurants, wineries and consumers — and the hosts' argument that it needs to include trade show access.
7. 07
   Tradecraft Gladius and Azorian at PCA 2026
   Tinderbox International's Blumenthal family releases limited Gladius Belicoso and Azorian Corona Gorda vitolas, prompting talk about Tinderbox's decline.
8. 08
   Patina Connecticut Copper
   A 6x46 corona at $12.50 with Ecuadorian Connecticut seed wrapper, and why simple color-based brand naming works for consumers.
9. 09
   What's the Score: Loser Leaves the Industry
   Palmer runs halfwheel scores for the Room 101 Uncle Lee and a redux of Saga Short Tales High Priming with Carney and Szczepankiewicz's careers on the line.

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. Welcome to episode 482. I'm Mike Palmer, your host and engineer. Look at that.

It looks amazing. With me today is, uh, what did I say we're gonna? Um, this is harder, it's harder to do. We don't have a Phil today because, uh, unfortunately Phil has been injured on the set of his new movie.

Yep. He, uh, the new movie's name is Phil and the semen, a nautical adventure. Yep, nautical adventure. Apparently he slipped and fell in some product.

Oh, that's not good. No. I hope he's okay. But he'll be okay.

He'll be okay. Is this being filmed on his private Irish island? No. He's on a cruise ship.

He's on a cruise ship. Yeah, it goes to the island. And then he's gonna stay there for 90 grand. Yeah.

That's where it's quiet and safe. And then when photos come up, he's gonna say, "I don't remember them. I'm not sure about them. I don't know who these ladies are.

Maybe they were with my party. " I traditionally don't talk personal things. Did this have a kid? No, he's got one in the oven.

Yeah. awesome he announced it on the show so he did it's fair game i saw it on social media so it's technically public anyway yeah it is very public um thanks for watching social it's in there i saw it on your social media probably dude you guys are everything that comes through on my social media feed is like 90 a cigar hustler podcast that makes me very happy yeah it's huge it's all the time constant yes you need to comment on all of it i should start calling i don't have enough I don't have enough time. Yeah, no, that's a lame excuse. It's like, oh, Jim, don't have enough time.

I'll call my own ones when I'm on, you know, and go and get in arguments with people. Fine. What else have we got going? Yeah, what else have we got going?

Yeah. All right, my co-host today is Michael Szczepankevich is right there. Yeah. And then as our guest host, so I guess there's three hosts.

Our guest host is John. Careful what you say about me. I run with Navy SEALs. Carney.

Yes. Yes. Great side, great side effect of the job. The job, to be honest with you though, with Hooten Young, is the badasses that you're with.

You get to work with the badasses. Yeah, they're literal badasses and it's, you roll deep. Were you at the Dominican Puro, what's it called? Puro, Nica Puro?

Puro Sabor. Puro Sabor. That's Nicaragua, no. No, we weren't.

You didn't go to DR? No, the DR is Pro Cigar. That's it. I used to go to it quite a bit.

Yeah, I've been like seven or eight times. So, no, I heard it was one of the best years yet they had it. It was a great show. And it is a really great festival.

I recommend anybody that's a huge fan of cigars. That's the creme de la creme, for sure. And Puro Cibor is excellent for my hair. I've not been to that, but Pro Cigar is something special.

That just kind of blew our Patreon out of the water, because he was not there. Oh, because, yeah. We had reason. We had questions.

Yeah, I can answer questions. We can still talk about it, but I'll be happy to talk Pro Cigar on Patreon. I got some drama if we got drama or whatever I can answer. You know what?

We can answer them hypothetically. Yeah. And I'll provide, you know, it's a what if scenario. Hmm.

Okay. All right. That's good. I like that.

If you do go to Pro Cigar, however, I highly recommend going to the LFD factory tour. There was nothing like it. See, that's also leading to that. We had questions about the LFD relationship with Mr.

Carney and where you guys are at. Yeah, we can talk about it on the Patreon, absolutely no problem at all. I would still love to talk about it. I'd be happy to talk about the Pro Cigar stuff too.

They do a great job. Okay, I'll shut it down, moving on. Okay, so. All right, on today's show, we have two Florida man stories, and then in cigars, we have some PCA news, two new cigars, and then we have a loser leaves the industry, what's the score game?

A loser leaves the industry. That's what's on the stakes today, gentlemen. That sounds amazing. We're going right out of the gate, a loser.

Yeah, there's some fucking losers. Low IQ. Right? All right.

Man, we're going to cause some problems with this. I guess out of the gate, there's three things that I know are going to cause controversy with me here, so let's go. Yeah, absolutely. Let's do this.

All right, before we get started, Michael, how do you get some of that CHPod swag? Ooh, great question. What you want to do is check out the slider. Look at this.

Can you see the slider? Yeah. Okay. com.

com, where you can check out all of our swag. We buy one, you get the second one 40% off. Spend $100 or more, John, you're gonna get free shipping. Now, listen, there's something else I gotta tell you, though.

If you're a retail partner with us currently, and you're going to the PCA, And you want to know what the future looks like as far as what we got with next product coming out, what our plans are to keep continuing growing and keep keep riding the wave of having the number two cigar of the year from Haftwheel, check out the Calendly link on our YouTube below and set your appointment to meet with us. If you do, you're going to get a special Polsanya Winged Hazars hat, okay? If you show up for your appointment. Yeah, you got to show up.

Obviously, you have to show up. But look, the fact of the matter is, if you're going to devote time and energy to us, we want to show you that we appreciate you spending time with us. There's a ton of people at PCA, a bunch of other brands, so coming and seeing us is very important to us, and we want to show you that we appreciate it. Also, if you're a retailer and you're not doing business with us yet, however, you're at the level where it's like, okay, I need to know what the next cigar is, what's going to be the big thing, and I don't want to waste money on something that I can speculate on.

Well, listen, you gotta come out and check out Powstanie Cigars, #2 Cigar on Half Wheel, Cigar Press #6, I mean, we crushed on a ton of review sites this year, and we got nothing but new and better things coming out in the upcoming year. So, again, any retailer, check the link below, log in, see what's available, the appointments are gonna fill up fast, so make sure you jump in. And if you're a media member, there's one there for you too. So, and guess what?

This year, Palmer, you're not going to believe this, we're going to be giving a hat away to the media guys too because same scenario, man, you guys have all of these people to cover and we want to show our gratitude and that we appreciate you coming. So log in, look at the, we have two calendar links below on this YouTube. The first one's going to be for retail. The second one's going to be for media.

Get your appointment set and we'll set, set aside some time to spend with you. " Very true, this is something that, you know, the board is brand new for us, so we're kind of fine tuning these kinks, but I love these mics, this is so It's so much better. I don't need one on me anymore. We're gonna continue to tweak it so that the sound sounds better.

Paul, I know that you're upset about that. It's not as crisp as the Shure mics, but we're gonna get it as close as possible. " Thank you, Mark. In regards to Misty.

Oh, I have an update on that story. that story oh do you excellent uh and uh t money says jacksonville is the largest city by mass outside of alaska there are four massive cities in alaska that are larger david morris says uh at 312 love you too mr palmer and uh yeah that's it i mean mark palmer said jacksonville might as well be in georgia just saying basically is yeah pretty much and lightning 1993 said stifler's mom So, that's the link right there. Stifler's mom is the Misty story. What did you guys talk about that lady in Texas?

Misty Roberts in Louisiana. She's a mayor and she had a-- That was Louisiana or I thought it was Texas. It was Louisiana. Louisiana, yeah.

Yeah. What's the difference? Misty's not in Texas, apparently. Yeah, she's apparently in Louisiana.

So, we had a good conversation. It was just the two of us and that was definitely one of us. Was it live on the show? Well, we just covered it last episode.

Oh, nice. Yeah, I have to jump on the last episode. I've had a crazy week, so. Yeah, you need to get on it.

Comment. And if you, hey, listen, if you comment and we like it, it may make the next show. You know what I need to start doing is... Watching the show?

Well, I know I do my workouts in the morning. I go for my, I go like six, seven mile walk in the morning. So I'll take my son out because he loves, he loves being pushed in the strollers. So we'll go until my nanny shows up.

And I've been, I listen to podcasts when I want it, I need to start doing that in the morning because I'm getting tired of the ones that I'm, I'm not gonna say the one I'm listening to, it's just the same old, same old stuff right now, it's well, you know, I've got the Iranian thing going on, all the political stuff, and it's great, but it's like I can only listen to those updates so often, so this week's been exhausting, so I was walking it in, I didn't listen to anything, and I was just kind of listening to some white noise, and I was like, you know what, that actually would have been a better thing to have done, so I can add that on there for sure. Can we talk about the fact that you call a six or seven mile walk, like a workout? That's not really, that's just a walk. Six or seven miles?

Yeah, it's just a walk, you're just walking. I mean, I go at like 15 minute pace, bro, it's basically a jog. Okay, alright, okay. I mean, how far do you walk every day?

I don't walk at all. Okay. Yeah, I walk like a normal human being, up and down. Yeah?

See, I go, I have walking sticks. Oh, yeah. Which is great. People make fun of it, but you burn 25% more calories, and it also helps with balance.

And it also helps with balance as you're walking on things so you can hike, and then also if I walk at night, it's a weapon. There you go. Can you smoke a cigar while holding a stick? No, but when I do my workouts, I don't smoke.

When I'm out walking, I'm trying not to get too dehydrated, especially as it's gotten more humid, and I've found if I do walk and smoke, I tend to get very dehydrated very quickly, so I don't walk and smoke often anymore. Occasionally, I'll go out after dinner and do like a little walk around the block with like a little cigarillo, but no. No, I mean, you could walk with the sticks, you just have to have it in your mouth the whole time. Hmm, okay.

Oh, that sounds like a lot. How are you pushing the stroller? Yeah, how do you push the stroller with the sticks? When I do the stroller, I don't use the sticks.

" The stroller, I push the stroller, it's a running stroller. Do you do like the bike thing? Like, you know how you attach it to the bike and just attach it to you, your body or whatever? No, he sits in the stroller and we push the stroller.

It's a running stroller my wife uses as well. With the big roof? Hey, people that don't go out and walk and want to be healthy by walking, I don't expect you guys to understand this, okay? Yeah, I get it.

That's a casual shade, you know what I mean? I didn't say anything, I walk. Let me know when you want to hit the gym, buddy. Yeah, I know, I got a shoulder injury, I've been doctoring for about the last seven years.

Palmer, you walk? Last seven years. Not six or seven miles, I do laps around the neighborhood, I don't know how far I go, until I get bored. My goal is about five to six a day is a good, specifically for just a workout.

So I go five to six miles and then stop, and then I mean I do others throughout the day, but specific five to six mile, heavy, quick walk, I mean fifteen and a half minute pace is fast. I get it. So you're comparing your workout to a geriatric, it's fine, it's perfectly fine. So it's okay.

I would say his walks more of just a casual walk. He just goes and does laps. I walk, I go hiking, I go through botanical gardens, people's backyards, I do cold plunges after. That's good.

That's good. In people's pools as you're going around. In people's pools, yeah. I just stop and get snacks.

You got anything? I do live near a cigar shop, so occasionally if they're open, I'll stop and get a drink of water or use the restroom there, and the owner gives me a hard time. " That's true. " And I'm like, "Well, okay.

" It's a great toilet. But anyway, regardless, you know what, I'm going to start listening to the podcast in the morning, that's actually a great thing to do, because you guys go every day, too, so I could get something if I like it, I listen, if I don't, I don't listen. There you go. , it would warm my heart.

m.? m.? m.? That's when it goes live?

Yeah. Perfect. New every day, fresh. That's right.

I won't have to wait for my other podcast that goes at 9:00. Yeah, that's ridiculous. What kind of podcast is that? We both probably listen to it, the same one, I'm just, recently I'm kind of annoyed.

I haven't listened to it a little bit. Yeah, I'm just, I love it, it's just this, it's all the same discussion right now, it's around the circles, yep, so this week I'm exhausted with it, so I'm gonna do a Cigar Hustle podcast, and if I like what I hear, and see, maybe I'll get some swag. It's excellent edutainment, yeah, well that'd be great, that'd be great, we would love your support. Edutainment.

Edutainment. I freaking like that. Yeah, yeah, okay. Copyright in.

All right, Palmer, let's go, let's hit it. All right, first story is about a Florida man who was found sunburned and disoriented on the Sanibel Causeway. Oh, John Carney? What was the name of John Carney?

I do have a funny story, though. Well, this is a funny story. This one's funnier. Go ahead.

All right, he claims he was kidnapped by dolphins. Oh, you told him to go ahead. Ooh, okay. I don't know if your story's going to be better.

It is better than this. This is hilarious. Okay, go ahead, go ahead. He was kidnapped by a group of dolphins and forced to build an underground city.

Underwater city, sorry. That's amazing. So the funny part is, though, when the police started to interrogate him, he drew very detailed blueprints in the sand of the underground city. Well, there were those alleged military-based dolphins that had escaped.

Do you remember that a few weeks ago? Yes, maybe these are them. Maybe they found him. Maybe these are them.

S. Navy uses dolphins to defend a lot of their vessels when they're in port. They'll have dolphins because they're aggressive. Yes.

And they'll attack you. So they use them specifically to protect boats. Allegedly, it's believed that they ram you with their heads. Bam.

Yeah. I think the ones that got loose, they trained with poison darts. Yeah, they had the darts. They had poison darts.

Well, apparently they needed a city. Apparently, yes. This is like, so this is in Sanibel Causeway. They fell in and walking on Sanibel Causeway.

He was sunburdened and disoriented. I like that this made the news, this is amazing. He claimed he was taken three days ago and that there was a headwind, let's see if I have the headwind's name here. How do you not let that guy go?

What a trip. Let's see, they took him 40 feet below the surface where they needed help building structures. He told officers the dolphins communicated through a series of clicks and eventually he learned their language. And there was a dolphin named Gerald.

I get it. Gerald was the head dolphin. They kept my word for three days. Gerald handled that.

I didn't ask questions. You don't ask Gerald questions. That was an actual quote? That was an actual quote.

You did not want a made-up Palmer quote? Nope. This is a real quote. Real quote.

This is amazing. You don't want to mess with Gerald. Do they have body cam footage of this? I would imagine.

Wow. Of course they do. It's released in like 30 days. Yeah, they have to hold it for a while.

Yeah, we've got to process that. Apparently the blueprints were detailed enough to be disconcerning to the policeman. To be concerning, sorry. Wow.

It included what appeared to be condos, a town square, a recreation center. He told officers he was released because the Dolphins were satisfied with his work and that they'd be back for phase two. We've got to track this guy. He had, whatever he was on, or if it was real, what an experience.

Can you imagine if it was real? Nobody believes you? Yeah, well, I love it's like all the detail, the things, while he had the conspiracy, he had detailed blueprints, yeah, his mind was working on overload, of course he had blueprints, and by the way, blueprints, anything that's designed had elaborate blueprints, somebody came out of their mind, right? Right.

So he's probably got some obvious skills if they're that detailed, and man, he had it, I love that they had names, everything. Just the one, Gerald, the head one had a name. The head one. The other ones don't have names.

And you don't ask him questions. Yeah. Yeah, you don't ask Gerald questions. It's like Planet of the Apes.

He's a very serious man, Gerald. My room by my house is named Gerald. Is it? Yeah.

Don't ask you questions. Do you get to talk to him or not? He doesn't. We've unplugged him.

He wasn't really. We were not satisfied with his work. Yeah. No, it didn't really work.

Isn't that the way it works for everybody who's had one? Yeah. I've abandoned my Gerald as well. I call him Alfred.

We had a one that mopped and one that vacuumed. You had one of the mops. Yeah. Man, the mop ones, they looked great.

And I think they are the first, the first time I used them, but then they don't like. The one I have now, it just runs into stuff. He runs into stuff, and he does okay, but his battery was running out before he'd get the areas that needed to be covered, so then the recommendation is get the higher end one, that you can then map the property or whatever. One of the guys two doors down from me has one of the lawnmowers.

Yeah? Oh, I went to lawnmowers. Yeah. And that works?

Yeah, it worked. It was really freaking cool. It emptied itself out and stuff. He had his lawn mowed like twice a week.

Wow. The golf carts we do business with has them running around the front when I'm there. Yeah. " So they cut it all down, so now you have a clear view of the train track.

So there's still some bushes there, but the train can now see in the backyard, but it gave me several thousand more square feet in my backyard because it was about 15 feet out and about 120 feet long. Okay. So I go out to do my cold plunge, so I get my clothes off, everything, I'm standing. Like naked?

I'm standing naked, yeah. So I'm standing in the cold plunge getting, you know, getting jacked up to drop in, right? So I'm standing there and I hear the train coming, so I was like, okay, no big deal, whatever. The friggin' train stops.

Nice. Right on my backyard, bro. Nice. " It's slower because it's stopping, and it stops directly in my backyard.

Fantastic. So I'm standing there in my cold plunge. Did you hit it with like a Superman? I'm standing like this, kind of, yeah.

And then when I started to see it actually stopping, fully stopping, I just jumped into the cold plunge. It stayed there? But yeah, I sat there real quick, I called a really close friend of mine. I had a really close friend of mine.

We were crying, laughing on the phone. " He's like, "Hopefully somebody got a picture and they'll post it online. " Yeah, video. Florida man.

So did it make you stay in the cold plunge longer than you normally do? I have my cold plunge a little warmer. Then I don't put it down to the 30s. I have it in the upper 50s so I can sit there for like 20, 25 minutes.

And I really try to drop the core temperature down. I'm not trying to get the shock value. I'm trying to drop the core temp. So I go mid to upper fifties.

Sometimes, depending on the time of the year, it gets warmer. But it never gets above 60. But I'll go in for like 25 minutes. And when I'm out, I found that better for me than just doing, because I've done it in the 30s.

They have 34 degrees. And yeah, you get shock and you're in there and then you start getting freaking frostbite, you know, and your extremities get cold. So I prefer it warmer for longer time for inflammation. Got it.

Okay. So, working out is considered, walking is considered working out and cold plunging at 50 degrees. You cold plunge? Yeah.

What are you going at? I think it's like 45, 48. How long? Six minutes or so.

Anything past that is silly in really cold weather. There's different schools of thoughts with the plunges, right? And just methods of doing it. The colder it is, the shorter period of time you're gonna be able to spend in it.

And that has a different impact on your nervous system and different things like that, endorphins, what I find with that one is dropping my core temperature down, relaxes me more, and provides a little bit better on inflammation lengthwise, you get a deep cool. So I've enjoyed that a little bit more, and I do it more often that way as well, because it's just not as intense yet. My whole life's intense, I need things that are less intense, so for me it's like the cold plunge, I don't need more intensity, I need relaxation. Fair enough.

Fair enough. Okay, next story? An impatient man was arrested after moving an ambulance. Okay.

Moving an ambulance? Moving an ambulance. This is also in Florida. Is that the whole story?

No, no. A 50-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after the Brevard County Sheriff's Office said he climbed into the parked ambulance while paramedics were treating a patient in the back because it was blocking a driveway. I love that. Is that illegal?

Yes. Okay. He couldn't have just moved it? Like, hey, I'm just going to move this out of the way a little bit?

I got you? You're not allowed to get in to move an ambulance. Just let them know. You're still not allowed to.

Hey, man, I'm just going to move you up a little bit so I can get in this driveway. See, the incident happened when Brevard County rescue crews responded to a call on Sykes Creek. A paramedic worked in the back of the ambulance. They felt the vehicle begin to move.

One crew member stepped out and found a man later identified as Lane Fothergill behind the wheel. Ooh. There is a video of this one. He was behind the wheel?

He was behind the wheel when he moved the vehicle, and he hit the paramedic that got out. Wow. See, that's where he got in trouble. That's where he lost.

Yeah. " Was he trying to get in his driveway? Is that what they said? He was trying to get past the driveway.

So apparently they were somehow blocking the street, I guess, or something. I mean, he hit him. He hit him in his car. I'm sorry, when we got confronted, he jumped out of the rescue unit, got back in his own vehicle, and struck the paramedic in the leg while fleeing the scene.

So he could have, man, what an idiot. " Yeah, he could have said, "I'm sorry. Hey, I was trying to get out of the way. Hey, you can't do that.

" or whatever. Then he hit the dude. Yeah. And it's not like he was there for hours.

I gotta get to the hospital. " and then got in and moved him. I think I said, I'm a doctor. I gotta go.

I'm a doctor. There's a surgery that needs me. Something. Let me help the man in the back.

Did he hit and run? It said he struck paramedics in the leg while fleeing. So he left. Yeah, so he left, man, what an idiot.

Amateur, if you're going to move an ambulance, you stick around the scene to explain why you did it. Yeah, you say you're sorry while you're slowly driving away. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry.

Missed opportunity. You ever driven an ambulance? No. Me either.

Oh, you made it sound like you have. No, you ever driven like a police cruiser? No, I've been in the front seat. I've been in the back.

I believe that. I believe that. I've never been, I've been in the front as a kid, my daughter's, my daughter's been in the front seat, in the driver's seat. Yeah.

Winter Park Police Officer is a little thing. She drove it? It wasn't on, thank God. But they did let her turn on the lights.

Nice. Which is cool. I had a friend of mine that drove a, um, a Orange County Sheriff Cruiser and turned the lights and sirens on. Mmm.

All right. " Right. I believe the guy knows that he did it. He's well aware, yeah.

But he had no, you know. He had no knowledge. No knowledge of it actually happening, but it was freaking hilarious. That's pretty good.

It was absolutely hilarious. So that was the closest I got to driving one, but he actually did it. That ambulance thing, people are crazy, man, on the roads. Like, what is going on with people that they have to be so on time to things that they're going on?

On time to things that they're going to, you know, they just didn't leave at an appropriate time, yeah, I, people are just crazy man on the roads, what they do, the entitlement on the road, yeah, right, is nuts, I was doing almost 90 coming home the other night, and a guy comes up behind me and starts flicking his lights like crazy, well, you're in his way, I'm doing 90, how fast does he have to go, 110, could you have gotten out of his way, no, I had to pass several cars, and then I got out of his way, was it a multi-lane highway, yes, well, then he can, It's Florida. You can go on any lane and pass people in this state. I prefer to stay in the left lane and make everybody's life miserable. Yeah.

I smoke a cigar. I'm that guy. Why don't you just do it in the right lane? Because I like to sit in the left lane.

It's more open space. He's aggressive. He likes to be aggressive. I'm assuming you don't generally drive incredibly slow.

You're at least going the speed limit or above, correct? It's about 10 over. Yeah, fine. 75?

Yeah, I don't get too worked up if I'm going over the speed limit and somebody's behind me blinking. Right. And I'm doing like, you can get around me. Yeah.

Okay. What else you got? This is Florida. That was Florida again.

Yes, that was Florida again. Wow. Yeah, don't come here. It's a terrible state.

All right. We have an update on the, uh, what was her name? Misty. Misty.

I was gonna say Sandy. Update on Sandy. Update on Sandy. Apparently the altercation happened in 2024.

Yeah, I was just gonna say, that's what I read. It was 24. Yeah, two years ago. The first trial was a mistrial.

It was a mis-trial, because the judges that heard the original complaint had recrues, what's that word? Recused? Yeah, thank you, themselves from it, because I guess they knew her because she was the mayor. Right.

But they filed on it anyway, with the other judges signed off on it, so it was a mis-trial. So the second trial just happened. And that's where she got convicted? That's where she got convicted, her sentencing is next week.

What did they convict her of? Do you remember? Carnal Knowledge of a Miner, and I forget what the other one was called. Yeah, Drunk Sex with a Miner.

Something like that. She could do 17 years of jail between the two. Yeah, you know, in crude layman's terms, it is. Which episode was this that you talked about, Eliza?

I want to listen to it. Yesterday. I'll listen to that on my drive back. I want to hear what you, I don't want to say anything until I hear what was already said.

Okay. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. Yeah, was it interesting?

Yeah. Yeah, it's mixed. That's always a challenging one because I was talking to a friend of mine, we were down in Tampa on Wednesday when that happened, when the story was really coming out, it was on Tuesday, so we were talking about it and I showed him a picture of the lady and whatnot, she's attractive, and we're sitting there. It depends on the photo, there's a lot of photos of her out now, some of them is like eh, and then some of them are like wow she's really pretty.

I didn't say she was hot, I said she was attractive. Attractive, right, well there's some where she's not even attractive. But anyway. But I'm sitting there, and I look at the situation, and I'm like, the challenge you have that there's states in our country where the age of consent is younger than that.

Really? Yeah, and that doesn't mean it's not statutory rapes or things like that that can happen around that time there's age range, but like a 19-year-old in high school, I was 19 as a senior in high school, if I'm dating a freshman who's 15, is that illegal? Yeah, those are different circumstances. Those are different circumstances, and there's just, there's, there's things that allow for the different relationships and things like that.

Right. So you look at those, so, but... Not my 15-year-old buddy. No, no, well, I'm not 19 in high school any longer, and I also didn't date a freshman.

My ex-wife's brother did eight years because he was dating a young lady, he was 18, the young lady was 16. That's terrible. Eight years? Yeah, he did eight years.

What state? Florida. Really? Yeah, up in Stark.

Yeah, that's terrible. Yeah, that's awful. The mother press charges. So you look at these situations, and the exploitation of children is absolutely horrible, 100%.

What she did is completely ridiculous at the same time. Right. Well, on her part, 100%. Yeah, on her part, 100%, yeah.

So she deserves everything that's coming to her. But, this isn't a however, or a but, to excuse anything, we have a real issue in our country, in my opinion, where you have state laws and things that are different everywhere. I think like the age of consent in like freaking Mississippi is like 13 or 14 years old, so that's creepy yeah so then that's where you start blurring lines and then you got these crazy people who blur lines in their own minds right and you give them the ability to blur these lines you know it's it's very gray areas for me and then it's obviously it is different from man to a woman or woman to a man to 100% is and if people say it's not they're 100% It is very different. There's a difference between a 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, and there's a difference between an 18-year-old boy and girl.

There's a difference in all those ranges, right? Yeah. So it is very different on both sides, culturally, legally, but the gray area for me is all these different rules where it makes it murky for these people. Her situation is kind of interesting.

She was obviously, in my opinion, drunk also. Yeah, she was. She instantly texts them back, texts the parents saying, hey, I effed up, blah, blah, blah, I gotta tell you this, and whatever, so she came clean almost immediately. She got in a fight with the kids' mom.

That came out today, too. Wow. Yeah, yeah. She came clean?

She instantly, too. I think that's gonna help her in that regard, but I had a person that came to work for me one time, to apply for a job for me one time in a restaurant that I ran, and she'd applied for me, and she had the same thing. She had a pool party at her house. The kids were drinking.

They were 16, 17 years old. She was in her 40s, and she ended up hooking up with one of the kids. " Obviously, I couldn't hire her. " Right.

" Yeah, you're in hormone stage, so just don't put yourself in that situation, right? I agree. One, I'm not allowing my daughter to drink with friends around at my house under the age of 21. If I choose to have my daughter, allow her to have a glass of wine or a drink when we feel like she's old enough, that's a different story.

And I do feel like that's a way to control it, normalize things and talk about health and being moderation. Uh, but I would certainly never having a kid at my house that's under the age of 21 drinking anything, uh, let alone, uh, that situation that would never happen. But, uh, not even getting close to that. That's crazy.

People are frigging nuts. Absolutely. All right, moving on. They interviewed her ex-husband.

He said she was over. I mean, come on. The police, the police interviewed. Come on, bro.

She puts out. That's, I mean, it's a given. Is the kid, so the kid's 18. Yeah, the kid would be 18, though.

Is he in love with his wife? No, it ain't about that in life. No, I told you, he confessed to his girlfriend, he was trying to get her back, and he was like, well, you know, she offered what he did. Jarrett Sattalamakia, okay, the Major League Baseball catcher, was the catcher for the Red Sox for a while.

He married his high school gym teacher. She's 10 years younger than him. Sorry, he's 10 years older than him. Nah.

Yeah. It's like 10 years younger than him. Well, no. Bro, he was in his 20s when they got married.

Hmm. And she was late 30s. I'll have to look into that a little bit. Yeah, over 10 years.

Interesting. Before I weigh in on my opinion on that one. Yeah, look that one up. That's a fun one for the viewers to look into.

Jared Saltalamaki. If you can spell that, you can spell that. You can spell this. Right.

Exactly. Alright, moving on. Alright, Michael, you got a video for us today. You know what?

I did have a video, but we're going to let it slide in the beginning that we're at 32 minutes. Okay. We can move quickly through the other things. Do you want to do the video?

And I'll move quicker through the others. I like the video, I think. Oh, the video's pretty funny. Yeah, let's do the video.

Okay. He's going to have something we're not going to want to talk about anyway. It's pretty funny, dude. Well, we get into Cigar News next.

Um, how am I going to send this to you guys? Because I did not... Well, you're going to have to send it twice. Or, what is it?

Yeah. I'll have to screen record it. It's really bad. It's pretty funny.

Oh, you haven't screen recorded it yet? No. I have it here. We'll skip it.

Let's just skip it. We'll do it. We'll do it on Monday. We'll do it on Monday.

All right. Sorry. All right. PCA launches the Alliance Program.

We're getting into the cigar news? Yeah, now we're in the cigar news. Now we're in the cigar news. I said that when you were looking at your video.

Cigar news, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, PCA Alliance Program. Right. Okay.

That's one for people who aren't actually in the cigar industry. Oh. If you run a bar, or a restaurant, or a country club, or something. Business-adjacent.

Yes, and you would like to support the cause. Okay. So, wineries, breweries, restaurants, country clubs, individual consumers who want to do the part to support the business that sells premium cigars and pipe tobacco products, the PCA Alliance is an avenue to support the industry's advocacy through financial support and participation. Did you get to use the button where we're both on the screen at the same time?

Have you done that yet? no oh man now you're on now why wouldn't you do that come on now you're on you i'll leave it on the rest of it no i don't because it's this is a little slower switching who does all the editing we do right now oh you're editing on the fly yeah yeah the last episode we didn't have anybody on the board and it did it by itself by the mics oh sweet yeah so now so i'm just saying i'm like we're talking a little freer here yeah and you sort edits on the fly yeah interesting and you're I'm happy with it. Yeah. That's cool.

That's pretty cool. It wasn't great, but it was good enough. But right now, you're both on the screen at the same time, side by side. Yeah.

So the PCA Alliance, any details? It's $250 for a corporate member or $99 for an individual member. But being an Alliance member does not get you access to the PCA. What are the benefits?

Yeah, what's the benefits? You're supporting the cause. Go to the show. That's it?

Yeah, I think that's all you get. That doesn't sound like enough for me. The problem is with anything is you have to give value to a person. That's how it works.

I just don't understand why you wouldn't let them come to the show. You wouldn't let them buy, like you're in, let them pay to come to the show, too. Yeah, I mean, there are plenty of wineries that could say, "Hey, I would like a humidor put up. " Would they have to have their own tobacco license?

I wouldn't say you'd have to, because you can be discriminatory by you're the one allowing them to become a member or not. You don't, it's just not like a free-for-all, like I own a restaurant, so I can become a member. I would think you would have to submit your information and then potentially become a member, and probably what they're doing is soliciting. Yeah, you know, I see a lot of positives by giving them like a particular badge and letting them in the shelf.

Like, hey, you get to walk around, you get to meet people in the industry, you get to talk to retailers, you get to talk to brand owners, manufacturers, you know, maybe try a couple cigars. Don't get crazy with your trick-or-treating, you know? Well, that's up to the, I've always said that handing out of cigars isn't the responsibility of the brand, if you don't want to hand out, well I have to hand out, nobody says you can hand out cigars to people, that's up to you. Well, it's a fine line, because listen, La Tierra did me dirty one year, and it's never been the same.

They had just launched, I was still new to the industry, and I was like, hey, you know, can I try a cigar? And they're like, no, we don't have any samples. And then like, 10 seconds later, somebody walks up, like, oh, hey, how are you, man? But that's still their decision.

You get what I'm saying? So if you bring these people into the show, you could identify what they are, if they're a media badge or it's a retailer badge or an alliance member, and you could decide if you want, after a discussion with the alliance member. Right. I've told people no on samples.

People that come up that, hey, I do such and such. I've never heard of you. I'm sorry. My samples are tight.

I'm holding them for interviews that I have going on or my retail partners, which is okay. So I'm fine with the alliance member. I mean, to get some drama going, I guess, I mean, the media's in there, why couldn't, wouldn't be adjacent businesses have relevance to me, to be honest, and we've talked about this for years, Joshua Burski seems to be a guy that gets shit done, all these ideas that people are throwing around, he's finally doing them, like one of the ideas was, you should go around, the PCA should go around to their members and do events and be there and support them, right, on how they're doing it, right. One of them is, well, you should bring in, you know, there's a lot of bars and restaurants and country clubs that sell cigars that are, or could be educated on this more, so let's make them, allow them to become members.

I'm with you 100%, though. If you can become a member and then you can't participate in anything they're doing, what's the benefit? The only value in PCA, outside of the advocacy as an industry, is being able to go to that trade show. Right.

100%. Yeah. " That's usually my line. I'm not just gonna, if I hand it to you, there's a 90% chance that I never hear from you again, and you may or may not smoke the cigar, it's gonna go in your bag of whatever, and I'm like, I'm not about that.

So, you know, appointment only, you can get a cigar. So the Alliance program, you can just become a member with no member benefits. I guess maybe you go on the email list. Yeah, you probably get the magazine and that kind of stuff.

They've got to be able to come in the PCA. I agree with you. I'm 100% on that. If you're going to bring people in, they've got to be able to come to the show, because that's your Super Bowl.

You want them to see it. I think that's a better approach than the consumer aspect of it, because there are consumers there anyway that come with the retailers, Or, with brand owners. I like the consumer aspect of it too. I don't necessarily hate it, but I like this first.

, and sometimes the world, so, in one spot, absolutely. I've heard some things that will be on the Patreon at the end about something that's, unique things are going on at the Dominican Republic potentially next year at Pro Cigar. which is unique as well. So I'll save that for there, but it kind of touches upon these different things.

But I love the Alliance thing. Got to get them into the show. And by the way, get them into the show and make them pay for it. Right.

Or make someone pay for it. Right, give them a registration fee or something. Yeah, make someone pay for it. So I think that's a good step in the right direction.

And most likely there probably is some way, that might have been a negotiating piece. It's like, hey, we'll let them in. We don't want them at the show. Well, we got to do something.

Then once you have it there, then you start negotiating maybe to get them in. That would be a question to ask the PCA, what's your plans with this Alliance thing after the launch? The more people I can touch and talk to about my product, the better off the brand is going to be, the better off the industry is going to be, so. Okay, what do you got next there, Mr.

Palmer? Alright, Tradecraft releases the Gladius Bellicoso and Azorian Corona Gorda at the PCA 2026. We're at that time of year where everybody announces their new stuff, everybody's announcing their new cigars. Who's Tradecraft?

Gary and Robert Blomthal, fourth and fifth generation cigar men and owners of Tinderbox International. Oh, out of New Jersey. Yes, they're going to be releasing a pair of limited edition Vitolas for two of its core lines, the 2026 PCA and Trade Show next week. Okay, so now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Tinderbox, they released their own in-store brand cigars, and they were called things like Gladiator and all those other stuff.

So it sounds like now they're reaching out to other retailers by doing this, is that right? It sounds like they're gonna be selling their own cigars. Right. Which they have been, Tinderbox International has been doing that since they existed, that was one of the things of being a Tinderbox is you got exclusive products, so it seems like a version of what they're currently doing, or what they were trying, sorry, what they were doing, but obviously degraded with the slow disappearance of Tinderboxes, which is basically nonexistent at this point.

Yeah, there's still a handful of them out there, but like, I don't know, have you ever come across a consumer that said, hey, you know, this Gladiator from Tinderbox was amazing, like, you gotta try this? I don't hear anyone discuss the brand Tinderbox outside of, occasionally, the Tinderbox International when something comes up with like a licensing agreement, or that's been an issue, like the guy in Waldorf, right, in Wall of Maryland, or, and then, yeah, Raj, and then, the biggest, the biggest name in Tinderbox is, Craig Cass in North Carolina. So those are, you know, when people think Tinderbox now, when I think Tinderbox the last 15 years, I think Craig Cass first. And there are some others, Memphis, Tennessee's got some four or five Tinderboxes that do very well.

Yeah, great ownership there, husband and wife, really good people, but I don't know, I don't hear anybody, there's very little that I hear people talk about in general though, it's always shocking to me how some brands, when I see them, it's like, how does this work and how does this make sense? And if you're just not around in a shop every single day of the week, you'll miss it. And even if you are, you miss some of these things. So I don't know.

I think they have that store, their main location, which is like their corporate headquarters or whatever now, is a really nice store. But I didn't even know what Tradecraft was. It's not a knock on them. I just feel shame on me for not knowing it.

Right. I honestly have no opinion, man. It feels like it's kind of a knock on them. Yeah, I'm not going to have any, I don't, I don't have any opinions on the 10 trillion things that come out every year.

The only opinions I'm going to have on the things that I am close to, people I care about, got a relationship with, and the companies I run. Yeah, that's why it's important as a retailer to know, have an idea as to who you're going to go see and what you're looking to grow your store, right? Like, you obviously have your CoreLine stuff that's been doing well with your particular brands, whether they're Legacy or Boutique, and then when you go to try and find that one or two new brands to bring to your store, you should probably do your due diligence. So that's how you buy something, and then it sits, and then you don't like it, and then it's not moving, and then you just kill it off.

I keep my ear to the ground on what the big companies are doing, legacy brands, vertically integrated companies, companies that are making a big splash, growing, and then instead people that I'm close with. So that tends to be what I pay attention to. And then most of those people that I'm working, you know, that I'm close with, you know, are doing things that are actually making an impact as well, so I'm looking at what's actually making an impact on all levels, whether it's consumer level, not whether it is all of these, consumer level, retailer level, and then media level, so that's what I tend to see, is what has the most impact on those levels, and that's kind of what I focus on, but that's a good gauge, in my opinion, what's happening, so I have no idea about this, I don't know how many they're making, I don't know if they're doing a trade show booth, but yeah, I wish them well. Are they doing a booth?

There's no mention of that here. Well, they just announced it for PCA. They are saying, according to Blumenthal, both cigars are scheduled to begin shipping within a couple of weeks of the trade show, according to Blumenthal. Well, then maybe they have a booth.

Maybe. Okay. All right, Patina Connecticut Copper is heading to stores. Ooh.

This is a pre-PCA release. Ooh. A new size of Patina's Connecticut line is on its way to stores after first being announced last June. It's called Copper.

It's a 6x46 Corona. They also have the size out in the Habano and the Sumatra lines, they're just introducing it in a new size, a new Vitola. Okay. See, it's an Ecuadorian grown Connecticut Seed Wrapper, Nicaraguan Binder, Phillips from Pennsylvania, Nicaragua.

The Connecticut Copper is priced at, who wants to guess? Mmm, Carney? That's all I got, man. Yeah, you need to take a shot.

Just guess. So, Patina. Patina, copper, 6x46. Who's Moe?

Moe's the guy who owns Patina. Moe owns Patina. Okay. Where's Moe from?

Moe's from Chicago. Okay, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know who you're talking about.

I was just trying to wrap my head around it. Cool, man. I think it's a... What's the price?

What do I think it's going to be? Copper? 20 bucks? I think it's like 14 bucks.

50. 50? Boom. Good.

Nice price point. I think the good thing with this, and something to take from it, is the colors and metals and elements all work and are very simple for the consumers to identify with. They can pronounce the word copper. It looks like a rock if you tell it's coming along called sapphire, which is pronounced, easily pronounced.

And the industry, which it thinks is innovative with this, the colors are a big thing. This is the Bentley White, McAuliffe White, this next white, everything's white, blue, green colors. That's not new in consumer industry. It's just something that's new all of a sudden in the last five to ten years in cigar business.

We're like, well, we have this new revolutionary thing. We're going to call this Johnny Walker's been doing it for 50 years. So I do like that type of stuff. I don't think you can do more things.

I don't think you can do too much that makes things simpler for a consumer to be able to pronounce it and buy it and see it. So the likelihood, if somebody sees that, they like it, they can identify it, it's a very easy word to say. Copper's probably easier than even Patina, right? So I think it's a good move, marketing-wise, I haven't seen it, but that would be my comment on it.

Whatever they've done, whatever they're doing, they're doing the right thing in the naming, and I'm assuming in the color scheme. Got it. Okay. That's what I look for in things.

Is it simple? Does it make sense? And does it have a barrier to the consumer knowing what it is? Yeah, I think Patina's doing alright, man.

They're doing well with a lot of their stuff. stuff so okay all right now it's time for the industry's favorite game what's the score you're supposed to do that supposed to do it too i thought we were talking about the losers no no we have a loser in the industry it's a what's the score thing oh whoever loses the game has to leave the industry oh so one of you two forever that's how this that's what the what the score stakes are today i'm gonna pick one i'm gonna go one the whole way and i'm gonna lose and I'll be out of here. I can do... What's the score then?

I mean, I thought we had... Up next was the losers leaving the industry. Me too. I wonder who is the loser.

It's going to be you or me. I don't know. It's going to be one of you two. All right, here we go.

All right. Well, this is awkward. This is the end of a run for both of us. One of us.

Yeah. I'm not going down alone. So if I'm out, I'm taking you out too. I'll just go.

Well, one of you have to lose. I don't play. I'm the emcee. Oh, okay.

Perfect. And the engineer. And the engineer. Did you give him a raise for having the engineer thing on the background?

When you bring an engineer in, it's expensive. He's starting to get some money. Good. He is.

I worry about him. Am I? Yeah, you are. Don't worry about it.

The check will clear. Yeah. We got $11 of YouTube money. Is it up to $11?

I think it's like to $15. We have $65 and Rumble, but we still can't cash. My meta dropped down to $15. I was doing $25, $30 with the kids and they don't like those pictures anymore, apparently.

I've given up on my... Yeah, I got banned for about six months. I wasn't getting paid anything. What do you get banned for?

I've never been banned once. I put up a picture of me and Mike as kids doing the podcast and somebody reported me. What do you think Saka gets banned for? Yeah, he's banned at the moment.

He doesn't post anything provocative. He can't post anything in any groups. Yeah. Somebody complained.

That's what happens. Yeah, someone complains. He doesn't really post anything provocative. He's just, he posts provocative things about cigars.

He says Snickers too much. I don't mean provocative like sexual or anything like that, he doesn't say anything that even gets anybody riled up. " And then that's it, and then he gets bad. " I can tell you.

I know what it is. Yeah? Yeah. You ready?

Yeah. Too many words. You think so? Yeah, yeah.

Somebody starts to read it and they realize it's a long commitment, it's reported as spam. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that could be.

Yeah. That's a good call. That's a good call. Report.

That's the only thing I think it is long. It's wordy. What's wrong with this? Too many words.

Very wordy. Yeah, wordy. I mean, he could have just summarized it in a paragraph, but instead it's a soliloquy. Yeah.

Alright, here's the first cigar. Okay. Because we're running along. December 18, 2014, reviewed by Brooks Whittington.

It's a Honduran limited edition cigar. It's the Room 101 Uncle Lee. Oh. Do you want to go first this time?

Yeah, I'll go first. Okay. 88. 89.

It's the Uncle Lee from Honduras, the wrappers, Ecuador & Habano, the binders, Nicaraguan Corojo, fillers, Dominican Piloto Lajero, and Honduran Corojo, $10 Cigar, they've reviewed three. It's Honduran made? Yes. It's Honduran.

This is one that was from the current 8 Room 101 stuff? No, it's old school. This is 2014. This is stuff out of Camacho?

This is 12 years ago. Uh, factory, I cannot pronounce, Agrondusteria, La Ipa. Man, I wanted, I wish I, I was gonna say 89. Well, you have plenty of times to change.

Yeah, I'm gonna go 89. I'm gonna go 90. Alright, clue number one. The Room 101 Uncle Lee delivers a rich and involving flavor profile, highlighted by dominant notes of sweet cedar, creamy leather, and from the backbone of the, oh wait, a cleany leather.

Sweet cedar and creamy leather that form the backbone of the cigar as it progresses and enjoyable fruity sweetness reminiscent of dark berries emerges and becomes more pronounced in the second and third adding depth and balance alongside complimentary notes of roasted coffee, nuts, oats, and spice. This layered progression keeps the profile interesting from start to finish. Let's stick with 89. Are you on shooting from both of us or are you on the split?

Uh, it's both of you at the same time. Nice. 90. It has been since the patina story.

Oh. Construction is a major highlight of Uncle Lee. The cigar burns evenly with an excellent draw throughout the entire experience, producing thick, plentiful smoke with every puff. This consistency allows the flavors to develop smoothly while maintaining enjoyable smoking rhythm, showing strong craftsmanship in both rolling and blend performance.

91. I'll stay 90. Clue number three. While the overall profile is flavorful, the retrohale starts off with an extremely aggressive black pepper note in the first third that can feel somewhat overpowering.

Although it eventually calms down as the cigar progresses, the intensity early on may be a bit too sharp for smokers who prefer a more balanced, smoother start to their smoking experience. Ooh. 85. Look at them shifting.

90. Still a 90. Final Thought: "I've always been a fan of Matt Booth's unconventional way of doing things, and since redacted packaging for the Uncle Lee was one of the most original packaging for cigars had ever seen, everything works for this cigar: the unusual Vitola, the rich berry sweetness on the finish, the strong creamy cedar base, and even the aggressive black pepper on the retrohale. " Oh, boy.

This is your final score. 91. Damn, that's tough. That's tough.

You know what, man? I think you're going to nail that, but I'm just going to stay 90. It is 90. Whoa!

You're out of the industry! Nope, there's one more. You've got to nail it now for a tie. Yeah, the best hope is a tie where you both get to stay.

We both get to stay. Okay. All right, this is from March 18th, 2019, reviewed by Charlie Manado. Okay.

It is the Saga Short Tales of High Priming. The only guy who did like it was Coop. Yeah, I don't think he liked this. Okay.

The High Priming? High Priming. By Charlie. Charlie reviewed it.

85. I was gonna start it in 80. Alright, the cigars, the Saga Short Tales, High Priming, it is a Dominican Republic cigar, Factory is De Los Reyes, it's a Nicaraguan Jalapa, Binders Indonesian, filler Dominican Republic and USA, Connecticut Broadleaf, it's a 4x58 nub, and this is a redux, so they only smoked one cigar. i'm going to say 85 83 okay are we all of a sudden uh gang pulling up on it yeah it looks like it all right first clue the cigar offers a bold and robust flavor profile that would appeal to smokers who enjoy strong full-bodied blends core notes of earthiness and oatmeal are supported by layers of toast Coffee, Raw Sugar, While Persistent Red Pepper & Spice Add Intensity and Character Across Much of the Smoking Experience.

85. Smoked this while they had breakfast. 84. Clue number 2.

As a cigar settles in after the early portion, the flavor profile becomes more defined and enjoyable. Coffee and subtle sweetness from raw sugar begin to complement the earthy core and the construction improves on the burn as the burn stabilizes. Once past the initial inch or so, smoke production becomes more consistent, and the cigar performs much better through the middle portion of the experience. Eighty-five.

Eighty-four. Third clue, the cigar struggles with construction early on, particularly with an uneven burn that requires frequent attention to keep it properly lit. This inconsistent burn is the first portion, makes it difficult to fully appreciate the flavors, and can interrupt the overall smoking rhythm before the cigar finally settles down later in the smoke. 85.

I'm going to stick with the 84. All right, final thought. I'm like boxing you in here a little bit. I see that, I see that.

I was genuinely curious to see if nearly three years of time in the humidor had taken any of the edge off the tails of high priming. Unfortunately. Obviously it didn't. Yeah, just the way it's worded.

But it didn't. The answer is yes, but not by much. For the first two inches, it didn't appear that time had done much to change any part of the tales of high priming, but by the final third, there were some signs of a bit more manageable profile coming in. Where to go from here is an interesting question.

After looking over my notes from the original review which said that the cigar performed better with more humidity, my plan is to take two of my remaining cigars and place it in a humidor around 72 percent. While leaving the other two in their current 67-68 Humidor, a handful of years from now, I'll report on the experiment, for now, this remains a very strong cigar, a good cigar for 8 dollars and 50 cents, but far from the best of the Short Tales series. You've got a tough call here. Yeah.

I'm going to stay 85. I'm going to stick with the 84. Reduxes tend to be, do tend to be a little better. I feel like it was '86.

John went the wrong way. '86. '87. '87!

Alright, so I'd like you to make some calls. Call Mr. Hooten right now. Let him know that you're done.

And call my boy over at Bentley, Mr. Schuster. Say we're parting ways. You're going to become...

Even the company in the hands of Mike Wilson. You're going to become the cart man at Costco. the Germans and the Americans at the same time what am I the French yeah pretty much pretty much hey the French did they did do a couple things good for us you know yeah they just sent down an aircraft carrier they had an aircraft yeah they got several a few yeah a few of them um to where to the Middle East to fight the Americans no to help to help to help you had a fight it was funny I saw this meme yesterday, and it said the Muslim countries are mixed on the support of the Operation Epic Fury, and it had pro Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, all in support, and it was UK, France, and Spain for other Muslim countries that weren't in support. Yeah, interesting.

Yeah, I love the what's the score thing, by the way, it's great, and the half wheel is the perfect people to use for it, because it's, it's, you got three different people doing the reviews, all different personalities, trends in different ways over the last decade plus of doing it, it's really great, like, what other, what other review site could we sit down, and this is not a knock on anyone, but what other review site could we ever talk on and be like, the third clue is, well, the construction, well, here we go. Yeah. Yeah, you know, we've all, we've all had a cigar that was either ours or somebody that we're close with that's in there, and it's like, the best cigar ever, the best cigar ever, and then, but, there was this, and it's like, 83. 10.

Yep. So, love that, love that. Perfect. Uh, are you gonna be anywhere where you'd like to tell?

No, I don't have a job anymore. I'm a loser. He's retired. Where are you gonna be making hamburgers?

Man, what have I got going on, man? I got so much stuff going on. We got, so PCA stuff, everything's last minute, always with every cigar company. I mean, that's one thing that every company I'm involved in is part of, and I'm responsible for those things, so I got a ton of stuff that's going on in the next three weeks, we've got...

It creeps up on you, man. Well, yeah, it's fast, and then at the beginning of the year, you can't start working on stuff really in January, you can start working on it, but you can't do anything 'cause nothing's open in any of these countries, really, for the most part. So I've got a bunch of stuff going. We've got two America 250 projects that we're doing cigar-wise for Hooten Young.

Are you going to be anywhere? Well, that's what I'm saying, yeah. Is there anything coming up? So with that regard, this weekend we'll be at Cigar Life in Lakeland.

Oh, they're good. Yep, Norm Hooten will be with us for that. So we'll be down there doing that event. Next week, we're mostly local here in the Florida market for the next three or four weeks leading into the trade show.

makes sense yeah we'll be at lowball louise and lady lake uh next week also and those that's what i got the next two weeks but really then the next three weeks for me is all wrap up pca get all of that stuff done make sure i'm able to show it at the show and then with america 250 i have to have the things ready to go and our team has to be ready to launch these things in june got it so quick turnaround yeah but we'll hit it and a lot of exciting stuff but yeah in terms of travel i'm I'm going to New Hampshire next week for a day to go up and visit our friend Dave Garofalo, so I'll tell him you guys said hi. So yeah, I'll be up there next week for a day just for some meetings, but no, my travels slow this month simply intentionally because there's just so much coordination. You know how it is. You got a small group of people doing things and it all falls on a very small group at the end to execute.

100%. Yeah. When you see Dave, ask him when he's going to come in and be in person on the show. Just let him know.

Well, man, he's got snowed in up there the last couple of weeks, so hopefully he'll get down here, but I think it'd be fun to have him on. I think he'd love it. It'd be great. He's done some, he's done a little bit more, he's done some traveling this last year.

He did a, he did an event at a retailer in like Pittsburgh, which is cool. So I, he's a man of his word. So if he said he wanted to come down, he will. He'll certainly try to figure it out.

He's coming down to the Newman factory, doing a tour there or something. Paul, are you going to be anywhere? I'll be on Chi-town Cigars next Tuesday. 6:30 Standard Time or something like that?

It's 7:30 Central Time. Central Time, there you go. Okay, perfect. Well, again, if you liked the edutainment that we provide for you, please like and subscribe wherever you're viewing or listening to this show.

And thanks again for watching and listening. That's it. All right, guys, we gotta go. I think we're here sometime this month or next month, right?

Maybe. I don't know. I'm not in charge. Yeah, Alex is doing a Putin Young thing here.

Okay.

Show Notes

On today’s Show We have two Florida Man Stories and In cigars we have some PCA News, two new cigars and then   a Loser leaves The Industry What’s The Score Challenge.