ACHP Episode 484 The Sky Is Falling
Episode Summary
Episode 484 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast finds Mike Palmer and co-host Mikey Preston (with Automated Phil McGuffey in engineering) opening on listener comments about scissor cutters (Xikar's classic scissors get the nod) and the show's new microphone setup, before rolling into a wide-ranging news block. They dig into the "cash envelope" spending trend that's making the rounds again — pulling out a set amount of cash for the weekend and leaving the credit cards home — and compare notes on Dave Ramsey-style budgeting, the cost of dinner for a family of five, and no-tech family dinners. From there it's a Chicago couple who baited porch pirates with a box of dog poop, a stolen pressure washer, the Rihanna house shooting with a local connection, the LA Marathon's 18-mile cutoff controversy, and the Van Allen Probe A satellite falling back to Earth after 14 years in orbit.
The cigar news segment covers three notable releases. Rocky Patel Premium Cigars announced the Sapphire, a Mexican San Andrés–wrapped cigar over dual binders from Estelí and the Jamastran Valley in Honduras with Condega, Estelí and Jalapa fillers said to be six to seven years old, made at Tabacalera Villa Cuba in Estelí and debuting at the 2026 PCA Trade Show in New Orleans (April 18–20) before shipping in April. E.P. Carrillo's Perez Carrillo Deep Blue Limited Edition 2026 gets a soft launch March 14 — a 6 x 56 Toro Extra with a Jalapa wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers, limited to 2,500 numbered boxes of 20, with Ernesto Perez-Carrillo describing the blend as a journey inspired by the deep ocean and Hades. The hosts also break down the Opus X Society's new Havana Miami collection of S.T.Dupont-style accessories and cigars, and speculate about Jonathan Drew's repeated on-camera Opus X appearances possibly hinting at a Fuente collaboration.
The episode wraps with PCA planning talk for Powstanie — including a Calendly link for retailers wanting appointments at the show — and a round of "What's the Score?", where Palmer guesses halfwheel's redux score for the La Imperiosa Magicos (Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro wrapper, made at My Father Cigars), landing on 88 against the actual 89, with the original review scoring a 91. Palmer also plugs an appearance on Chai Town Cigars and an upcoming event at Human Refined Cigars in Dothan, Alabama.
In This Episode
- 01Listener Comments: Scissor Cutters and New MicsThe hosts answer a question about scissor-style cigar cutters — praising the old-school Xikar scissors over cheap sets — and address feedback on the show's new microphone setup.
- 02The Cash-Only Weekend Spending TrendA look at the 'take out cash Friday, leave the credit cards home' budgeting trend, Dave Ramsey's envelope system, and what dinner really costs for a family of five.
- 03Porch Pirates and the Poop PackageA Chicago couple baits package thieves with a box of dog poop, sparking a conversation about Ring cameras, missing deliveries and a stolen pressure washer.
- 04The Sky Is Falling: Van Allen Probe A ReentryThe 1,323-pound NASA Van Allen Probe A is set to crash back to Earth after 14 years in orbit, and the guys debate reentry odds, space-station hygiene and whether astronauts should smoke cigars.
- 05Rocky Patel SapphireDetails on Rocky Patel's new Sapphire — San Andrés wrapper, Estelí and Jamastran binders, aged Nicaraguan fillers — debuting at the 2026 PCA Trade Show in New Orleans.
- 06Perez Carrillo Deep Blue Limited Edition 2026E.P. Carrillo's 6 x 56 Toro Extra with a Jalapa wrapper and Honduran binder, limited to 2,500 numbered boxes, soft launching March 14 at $22 per cigar.
- 07Opus X Society Havana Miami CollectionThe Opus X Society's new accessory-and-cigar collection inspired by Manny's move from Havana to Miami, plus speculation about a Jonathan Drew–Fuente collaboration.
- 08What's the Score? La Imperiosa MagicosPalmer plays the scoring game against a halfwheel redux review of the Crowned Heads La Imperiosa Magicos and reflects on the original Las Calaveras blend.
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
All right, go ahead. Camera one. I like being camera one. Welcome to Cigar Hustler Podcast, episode 484.
I'm Mike Palmer, your host, and with me today in engineering is Automated Phil. Automated Phil. Automated Phil, McGuffey. And then my co-host, Mikey Preston was just here.
I can't even stand up, I'm so excited. Step on, give it. Wow. You added that for today.
It's Tuesday. Must be Tuesday. Must be Tuesday. On today's show, we have a new spending trend.
Poop Pirates, The Sky Is Literally Falling, And Then In Cigars We Have A Plethora Of New Sticks, Then A Mini What's The Score? But, before we get started, and after Mikey shuts the curtains, how do we get some of that CHPod swag? com where you can get all of our latest swag. Shout out to Mr.
079. Are there any of these live? I think there is five remaining. My boy, Travis Peterson, just placed an order.
Ooh. Shout out to you, Mr. Travis Peterson. That's team money, by the way.
Thank you for clearing that up. And, yeah, that's the one I got, because we did Brian Robertson and Mark Palmer yesterday. Yeah, so shipped today. Yes, so, if you like the edutainment that we're providing for you, please like and subscribe wherever you're viewing and watching, and we've got some comments.
Want to talk about some comments? Some comments right now. Right now. Just happened.
Yep. Uh, responded and unresponded. , I saw you cut your cigar with a scissor cutter. What are your thoughts?
They got in an inexpensive set, and they sucked. So for me, I have the old school Xikar Roma ones. That's what I have. Yeah, and I absolutely love them.
I don't remember asking, but it's fine. Just participating in the show, Michael. Well, I mean, me too, me too. Well, I have my original pair.
You run like your 37th pair. Yeah, yeah, I kind of burned through them a little fast, so I tried to get as many of them as possible, and I love them. They're fantastic. I have a set that I carry on me, a set on my desk, and a set in the car, so.
They had a set in here in the room, there's a set on the floor upstairs in the warehouse, and probably one in the kitchen. Hmm. " The last episode, we were working on fine-tuning the echo and getting more voice isolation, and it was a little bit dimmer, but this episode should be better. I mean, we're only at episode four of us using them, and we're getting better every single time.
Wouldn't you agree with that, Palmer? Yes. So, which show did Rook's Coding comment on that he didn't like? Today's one that released.
Today's episode? Yeah, gotcha. I thought it sounded pretty good yesterday. Yeah, but it was a little low.
I can fix that in post-production, as it said. Yes, exactly. And that's all I got for today. Alright, now the news!
Hold on, if you want to hear your comment, if you want to hear your comment, On the show, comment below on our latest episode, and if it's funny enough, or if it's a good comment, I will respond and read it out loud on the show. So, now, without further ado, Mr. Palmer, the news. Well, you'll respond to everything.
You said you'll only respond if it's funny. Yeah, I do respond to everything, but I won't, I won't, I might not mention it on the show. Right, right, alright. Alright, now the news.
Okay, so there's a new trend going around in banking. Yeah. So, what people are doing, so they don't use their credit cards, they're taking out cash on a Friday. The amount of cash they think they would need for the entire weekend, even the credit cards at home, and then you use the cash, when the cash is gone, you're done playing for the weekend.
Right. And a way to keep their credit card debt down. Okay. Do you use a lot of cash?
This is not a new trend. You ever hear of a guy by the name of Dave Ramsey? It may be a new Dave Ramsey thing, but it is a trend sweeping the nation. People in your generation are doing it now.
This has been going on for years and years. You know, what he would do is he had like three envelopes, and he would make sure that, you know, he had one for spending and one for savings and one for your bills or whatever. Right. So, like, this has been a thing.
Now this new trend is where they just pull the cash out and that's what they get to use for the weekend. Right. Uh, no, I do not have cash on me hardly ever. Oh.
And the majority of my life is... Like none? Yeah. It's usually pretty low.
And I use everything on credit cards. Oh. I always have some cash. Maybe not large amounts, but I always have some.
Like $2? No, no, a little more than that. I'd at least have $5. Oh, five?
Just in case. Yeah. Well, and that's also the price of the bagel upstairs if, uh, Steve gets me breakfast. Ah, so you can keep a five on standby.
Keep a five, just in case I do indulge in a second breakfast. Okay, sometimes I have a little cash on hand, but it's very seldom. Yeah? Yeah.
Oh. But I mean, I'll burn through it pretty fast if I have it. It's really easy. Oh, see, I don't.
If I have cash, I seem to spend less. I don't know why. Because you don't want to spend it? I guess, yeah.
I don't want to not have it. Well, you got to remember though, if I go out to lunch or dinner or something, it's dinner for five, right? And that's something that I love to do, I look forward to that, going out and eating with the fam, right? There's no iPods, there's no iPhones, there's no iPads, none of that.
Oh, your kids don't travel with those things? I won't let them use it. I won't let them use it when we're out eating. I know Jax has a phone, does any of the other children have one yet?
They have iPads. iPad. But I won't let them use it. I don't let them use it in the car.
Oh really? Yeah. I won't let them use it in the car. We're going to talk.
We're going to interact. We're going to say something. You don't get to... Eat half their muffin?
Eat half their muffin. Yeah, exactly. They get to eat half their muffin and then leave the other half in the car. That's a callback to a different conversation we had personally the other day.
Right. Thank you for explaining that to our viewers. Well, I'd like them to be involved. Yes, yes.
So, but like, I bought little chess boards. Yeah? Little magnetic chess boards. Sometimes we bring them out to dinner and we'll, you know, I'll play kids in chess.
Oh, like three games going at one time? Usually two. Ah. Usually two.
And then, you know, bang out some tic-tac-toe or whatever, but I won't let them use tech. Good for you. If I have cash, then that covers, that's good for dinner, but more often than not, I'm just trying to figure out what card to put it on so that it's not, I'm like, can I get, well. What's the total, honey?
Is there room? Let's see. I'll figure this out. Would you mind splitting it, sir, amongst these three cards?
How much is it? 60 bucks. All right. We'll put 20 on this one.
Right. 25 on this one. And then 15 on this other one. And no tip.
That's a great process. That's a great thing to do if you're trying to stay budget-friendly and you have X amount to spend. Right. It's more difficult when you have a family of five.
Oh, I would imagine, yeah. Like, you better be bringing a stack out with you. Right. Well, they were talking about this on the radio this morning, and they were saying the average price for a couple's dinner with a couple of drinks is $150, which seems kind of high.
That's high. That's high. I mean, Adrian and I, a couple of drinks and dinners are usually around $50 to $80, depending on where you go. That's like you're older.
What is that? What? I eat less? Do you get like the early bird special?
No. No, but I did get a haircut the other day, and the lady rang me up for a senior haircut. You did? She did?
Yeah. I didn't ask, but I noticed on Richard it's a senior discount. I'm like, oh, look at that. Oh, thank you.
How'd you know? Right. What gave that away? Yeah, what gave that away?
What was it? I mean, no, I think dinner for us, for the whole family of five, was probably like 150, 200 bucks. Kids still on the kids' menu, or do they get grown up? No, no, no.
It's a mixed bag. Jack's is on adults. Well, he's oldest. Mike Szczecin is sometimes on adult, sometimes on kid, and then Teddy's meal, whatever we order she doesn't eat, so that's standard, you gotta love that, I'm just like- - Do you take it home, or is it just like, it's just there?
- I mean, there are different strategies, there are different strategies that happen. - Right. - Sometimes I'll ease up off my ordering, you know, and this is, backfired every time, like, because there's always two meals left, and sometimes I'll just eat their meals, right? Sometimes, but if I'm like, hey, you know what, I'm just going to have an app that we can all kind of pick at, and then I'll just wait and see what you guys do, then they usually eat all their food.
Eat everything, and you're going. Yeah, then you're screwed. Yeah, you eat what you get home. So yeah, you're, you're.
You eat peanut butter? I don't eat peanut butter. I'm screwed either way. Sometimes, you know, then I just order, what we've been doing with, like, the Mexican stuff is, like, we've been getting, Brittany and I have been doing, like, the couple's fajitas, which is nice.
You know, fajitas for two. Right. That's a good move. So, but I'm overdue for a date night, man.
You are? Yeah, just the two of us going out, it's gotta happen. You guys were doing it pretty regularly there for a while. We were, it was in good rotation, and then sports took over more, and then, you know, all that good stuff, so.
Checking the clock. I started it late. Oh. Uh, yeah, so.
I have one job? The clock. Oh, I gotta perform for this show. It's not really a job.
I gotta deliver. It's not really a job. It's tough sometimes. This is the easy part.
You think so? Alright, we're gonna move on now. Okay. We're at 38 minutes.
Oh, it's seconds. You're at 14 minutes. Alright, there's a couple in Chicago. They got tired of the porch pirates stealing their packages off their front porch.
Okay. So, they have a big dog. So the man went out, picked up all the dog poop, let it pile up for a couple of days, I think he was a couple of days, piled up all the poop, put it in the box, put it in an Amazon box, put it on the porch, went to bed. Four o'clock the next morning, the ring camera goes off.
Somebody stole the box of poop. Ooh. Is that the end of the story? Well, I mean, they don't know what happened to the thing afterwards, but it was just, this brings up a porch pirate discussion between us, where, with Dingle was here, I'm sure, it seems like he would have more problems than...
With porch pirates? I don't know. He's in an older neighborhood, so maybe, I don't know. Nah, how often do you use Amazon?
Oh, a couple times a week? Okay. Possibly. So there's always a package at your door?
Yeah, and we have a pretty open front porch now. Right. Have you had any bad experiences with it? No, we haven't, but there seems to be a lot of messages on the Ring Camera Network about packages disappearing.
Oh, really? Or packages being misdelivered, which could mean disappearing. Uh, I mean that could go either way, and sometimes it could just go to the wrong place or whatever. I'm trying to not do this.
Okay, that's better. I think we've had one delivered to the neighbor, but they brought it over without us even asking. Yeah, so the Amazon dude is just an income poop. Yeah, house off or something, right.
Yeah, he's an income poop. How about you, do you have a porch pirate issue in your house? No, no porch pirate issues, and we have a ton of packages coming in, you know. " You know, so, um, and our streets relatively busy.
You do have a busy street, but you, I guess your porch is kind of open too, isn't it? I don't know what's on the porch, depends on the season for you, but, um, yeah, no. There's nothing to hide it behind or anything. No, no, it's flat out out there.
Now my neighbor, he did lose, uh, someone stole a pressure washer from him. The car drove by, saw it, you saw them circle back on the video, scoops it right up, boop, gone. Brand new one in a box, or he just had one? No, it was used and it was just kind of outside.
Oh, wow. Yeah. It took that away. I need a pressure washer.
Oh, I need a pressure washer. Look at that, it's outside. How much do those things go for now? Uh, gotta be minimum $100, spinning on the size.
This was a power, uh... A big one? Big gas powered thing? Yeah.
Oh, it might be three, four hundred bucks. Yeah. That's a tough loss. Yeah.
That's a tough loss. That's if he likes to wash a lot of things. Yeah. Did you hear about Rihanna's house being shot up?
Oh. Uh, yes. And I have a story. You do?
Yes. So, you probably heard the part of the story that the young lady who shot up her house was from Florida. I did not. Yeah, she was from Florida.
Ah. Well, Steve, upstairs, his wife is a teacher. Yeah. That lady who shot Rihanna's house, her child was in Steve's wife's class.
Oh, really? Really? She had met her on a couple of field trips. Oh, really?
Said she was crazy. Oh. He was telling me this this morning. No kidding.
Saw that coming. Well, I don't know if you knew she was going to shoot. Why did she shoot Rihanna's house out in California? I don't know.
There's some random, like, there's some videos of her, like, she believes. This girl, I think, is insane. There are videos of her acting like she's in these people's lives, in Rihanna's lives, in Drake's life, and all this other stuff. I think that when there was a Drake-Rihanna rift, she sided with Drake, apparently, and that's the story that I'm understanding.
That's my man, what did you do to him? Yeah, something like that. So, well, that's a little crazy. These are Drake's babies.
Yeah. And did you see the LA Marathon runner that went and finished the race while the other, like, blew past the guy at the last second, or whatever? No, we briefly brought this up yesterday, we were gonna talk about it yesterday. Well, so, did you, a marathon's what, 23, 26 miles or something?
Yeah, it's like 23 miles or something. Okay, so now you can finish early? That's the other thing, yeah. Do they provide the vehicle to pick you up?
I don't know. 291 miles. Okay. However, apparently in LA, if you, because of the temperature.
Because of the heat, I guess. If you ran 18 miles, you could say that you won, you ran the whole marathon They would drive you to the front. You can go to the front. Oh, and then you just get out and sort of walk across the line?
Yeah, you skip the last eight miles. So does that mean you could be first? I mean, I guess. I mean, because if you stop at an 18 and you get picked up, let's say you were fourth in line, those people are still running, depending on the speed of the vehicle, you could win!
But I mean, that kind of defeats the purpose, does it not? Yeah, I don't know why. Why'd they pick 18? Why not half?
I don't know. I guess that's the determination of when it becomes... Well, if you take the heat and you divide by the coefficient of 2 and add the temperature, 18. They figure the last 8 miles are the most strenuous?
I guess. I would imagine the end is the hardest. Yeah. Well, that sucks.
What about the people that finished it? Well, I don't know. I don't know. Is it like a golf cart at 18?
Okay, everybody, stop. That guy's about here, get in. Well, I saw video footage of this guy that was running, and then there's apparently a teacher that was running behind, and he was going full on at the end. And he barely beat this guy on the finish line.
And I think the other guy was from Kenya or something. Oh. Yeah, we don't fact check. No.
But yeah, and this guy was like a teacher. So, it was pretty cool. That's cool. If you come across the video, it's pretty badass.
So, the American was the one that got in a car? No. Oh, this is... Two different stories.
Oh, gotcha. Sorry. Yeah, the American got in the car and won the race. No.
Well, that's what I thought you were saying. No, no. This guy ran the whole thing. " But at the end, these two were running at the end.
One of the guy from Kenya was like exhausted. He was barely getting through. And the other guy was like full-on sprinting to close it out, and he barely beat this guy. Oh, wow.
Yeah, it was awesome. It's usually someone from Africa or something that wins that kind of stuff. Not anymore. Apparently not.
America. I think they run a lot over there. We took hockey from the Canadians. Oh, and now we took running from the Africa.
We're taking running, running from the Africa. We're just dominating. We're just dominating. Wait until we get into ping-pong.
We're gonna crush the Chinese. We're gonna crush the Chinese? Yeah, we're just gonna dominate. Domination of everything.
Yeah, we're taking over every sport. All sport domination. Supreme beings. Like the fifth element.
Me protect you. Me protect you. Yes, sir. All right, today is March 10th?
Is today the fifth? Today is March 10th. Well, but this will release on March 11th. Oh.
Sometime later today, a 1,300 pound NASA satellite is gonna crash to Earth. Stop it. Nope. You're lying.
It comes today. Nuh-uh. We don't know where it's crashing? We don't know where it's crashing.
It could be anywhere? It could be anywhere. A big NASA satellite will crash back to Earth on Tuesday, March 10th after nearly 14 years in orbit. So the spacecraft in question is a 1,323-pound or 600-kilogram Van Allen Probe A.
You know those are the big ones. Right. Right. It launched in August 2012 along with its twin, Van Allen Probe B, which is not crashing.
To study the radiation belts around the Earth, which they are named. So, they turned both these things off in 2019, and the Van Allen Probe A has, what's it called, the orbit has degraded enough where it has entered the atmosphere and it is pummeling to Earth. So, we can't just turn it back on? No.
Once it goes through the atmosphere, parts of it burn. It's not made for re-entry. But, okay, so obviously we didn't think this all the way through. No, no, the majority of it, all 1,300 pounds isn't going to crash into Earth.
The majority of it will burn off, but there still will be pieces that will fall all the way down. Right. Okay, why did we turn it off? Couldn't we just turn it on and then gone and got it?
Well, it was only made to stay out there for so long. Yeah, but shouldn't there be a guy for that? s space force they're charged satellites got it okay so so it did its job right batteries run out right turn it off because you got no more power crashes into earth not our problem well it depends on where it goes they don't know where it's going to go possible problem possible problem the earth is 70 water they're hedging their bets i like these Biggest chances. Right.
But, it could hit something. Okay, so. m. Tonight.
Eastern? Tonight. Yes. Eastern.
Or 23:45 Greenwich Mean Time. Well, they kind of screwed that up with the Daylight Savings. Well, I'm sure they took into account for that. Just kidding.
It wouldn't change anything. It'd still be the same time. 6:45 or 7:45 for Daylight Savings. Oh, it says plus or minus 24 hours?
That's weird. It's gonna take a bout. It could come in around. It could come in today or tomorrow.
Yeah. Possibly. So, if you're watching this on the day it comes out, 7:45, start looking up. Our YouTube post that hit over 2 million views.
Yes. About the gravity thing. Yes. " Like, all kinds of crazy.
yeah yeah we went deep down this rabbit hole n-a-s-a you'd have to rearrange you gotta move i like why are we adding the t i don't you know like it's not like you put a t at the end and it's satan that's what's running through my head yeah no no that's that is nasatan or something right no no no nas nasat it'd be s-a-t-a-n is satan so you would have to you'd have to rearrange and put the n on the end yes put the t in the middle that's stupid yeah so it's uh it's pretty It's pretty funny, it's pretty comical with some of the comments that you get. But yeah, so. So, most of the spacecraft is to burn up, it travels to the atmosphere, some components are expected to survive, re-enter. If you could control the satellite, where would you want it to hit?
Well, in the water. You want it to land in the water. That's where you, I'm talking about you. Oh, me personally?
You know what would be great if it landed here? Well, do I want to use it as a weapon? I don't know. You tell me.
I imagine the water so nobody gets hurt. Or right out back? Right out back. Right out back?
So we could see it. I don't know how big an explosion it's gonna make. That might be a bad idea. I think there's a couple places I'd root for it to hit.
And I'm like, oh, that's so... Maybe five different locations? Possibly five. Possibly five.
I'm like, oh my god, I can't believe that happened to you. Of course, I don't want anybody to get hurt. I just want it to be... Right, that's what I was saying.
I just want it to be miserable for them. The chances of it hitting in a populated area is one and forty two hundred. Okay. That's still, you know...
Not zero! Yeah, that's not a huge thing. You take your chances. Take your chances.
Take your chances? Yeah. It might hit you in that car with no roof. Whatever.
Then NASA has to like honor me and give me a wing somewhere. You know, name a defunct launch site after you. " He died. As soon as you guys go up to the space station, you all have to smoke cigars.
At the space station? Yep, yes. You can't have fire. No, I don't care.
You can't have fire up there. No, they gotta figure it out. They gotta figure it out. Get Elon on it.
Get Elon on it. Yep. I want it all organized. In honor of the guy that died, cut by satellite.
I was reading something about it. Like the hardest thing for them when they're up there is bathing. Because you can't, you can't take a shower. They use like wipes.
Yeah, they use wipes is what they do. They use wipes. Didn't seem that complicated. I feel like I figured that out in less than 10 seconds.
Well, yeah, but I mean, it's still, it's not a, you know, a shower. Yeah. It's, you know, wiping off with a baby wipe. So?
How do you wash your hair? With a wipe. I think that's why they have hats on a lot. Yeah, you think so?
And you always see the women with the hair, it's just... " Hi. Okay. 02 percent.
Okay. I mean, realistically, though... Oh, it'd be funny if it hit somebody, first of all. 02 percent, like, God hates you that much that a satellite came down on you.
Right, a satellite came and hit you. Oh, that would be hilarious. I don't even know what I was going to say now after you said that. Oh, as it gets closer, they will be able to narrow down, obviously, where and when it hits.
Right, of course. So, in the coming hours, more and more better data comes in. Okay. I don't know.
I found that at the last minute this morning. It just seemed interesting. You love that. You love that.
You love your NASA stuff. I like the space stuff. I mean, where else, other than the ocean, where else are we gonna go? I think if we have any future, if this planet gives up, we gotta go somewhere.
We ain't going anywhere, buddy. We're gonna die with the rock. We're gonna go to the moon. I got news for you.
When the Earth decides that it's gonna become a cold, dead rock, there's nothing we can do about it. No, there's nothing we can do to stop it. And we're not, no one's getting, I got news. There's no one, you are not getting on anything.
You are not important. Well, I'll be dead, hopefully, by then. You are not important. I am not important.
You might have a problem. I don't have a shot. I don't have a shot. Oh, you're not important?
No. Oh, it's like the movie Greenland, they're not taking us anywhere. I don't have a B in my bank account. I'm not closely tied to any supreme leaders.
What if they wanted someone to keep cigars going? Yeah, they, believe me, not even considering that. Raphael, they're going to take Raphael the doll instead of you? " And, you know, they've got to have Nobel Peace Prize.
Maybe you win the lottery. I'm still not even in that conversation. You still haven't had a conversation either? No.
What if one of your children is super smart and they invented something and you get to go as just a gimme? They would probably just take the one kid and they would dupe him. Daddy goes, "No, Mommy, Daddy have to come too. " No, no, they do what the government does best.
They're like, "Yeah, yeah, sure, we'll bring them all. Bring them all. " Right, get in the car. " Yeah, get in the car, we've got to tell you something.
We're going to set up your family. Drive! Drive! We're going to set up your family, and you know, yeah, that's exactly how it works.
He's up against the back window, "Boof! " Right. That's how that works, for sure. Bubbles!
Bubbles gets to go. Bubbles is definitely going. They've got to repopulate the dogs. Do you have a video?
Uh, nope. Wow, you impressed me flipping videos back and forth for an hour and a half today, nothing for this show. I had a really funny video, but it's not screen-recorded. Oh, alright, well, maybe for tomorrow.
Okay. Alright, now we're moving into Cigar News. Cigar News. Oh, this works out well, I forgot to do a, uh, what's the score?
Oh. Alright, Rocky Patel, the cigar that John Carney mentioned the other day. John Carney mentioned the other day, is shipping the Sapphire in April. Sapphire.
Sapphire. Didn't you mention it? We mentioned it. No, John Carney mentioned it the other day.
Oh, did he? When he was talking about, I think he was talking about how Rocky Patel is not a big deal anymore. Is that what he was talking about? I don't think so.
I don't think that's what he said. But let's just imagine that he said that. All right, the Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. has announced its first new cigar for 2025.
This is 2026. Carney plays it safe. Yeah, even the stuff he said on the Patreon wasn't that controversial. He's very good at navigating through and around it, where we kind of just drive through it, and then someone's like, hey man, what you said was messed up, and you hurt my feelings, but was it accurate?
If it was accurate? Well, even after being with the same company, for what, 20 years? Is that how long he was able to do that? He was smart enough not to say anything bad about anybody for that 20 years, so he could get another job at the end.
With somebody else. And he still doesn't say anything bad about any of them. Not even LFD. Right.
Anyway, the Sapphire uses a Mexican San Andreas. Everybody's coming out. Ooh. Why is it the first cigar of 2025?
Is this 2026? I don't know, maybe it was just... Half wheel. Are you sure that you got it today?
Yeah, I got it this morning. So it's over two binders, one from Esteli and the other from Hamastron Valley. In Honduras. The fillers are Condega, Esteli, and Jalapa regions of Nicaragua, and are said to be six to seven years old.
They're not quite sure because they lost a little piece of paper that's stuck on the pologne, so they don't know exactly how old it is. It looks like they've already corrected it for 2026. Oh, no, it still says 2025. Screenshot.
Send that. Maybe it is the first cigar 2025. First... Outside the wrapper, all the tobacco comes from the company's own farm.
I didn't know Rocky had his own farms. Uh, maybe he does now. He apparently does, or maybe if that's wrong too, I don't know. Sassfire is made in Tabla Calera, Villa Cuba, in Esteli.
How many factories are in Esteli? That is a great question. There are some small ones that nobody even knows about. Oh.
I mean, there are like seven or eight megalodons. - Right? - But they're, I mean, you know, what constitutes a factory? A pair?
- That's a good question. I would think two pair. - A place that has a couple bales? You know?
- Two pair would be the minimum factory. - Two pair? Two pair. - I think two pair.
- I think two pair. - One pair could just be a husband and wife having dinner. - Or rolling cigars. - Well, as part of the dinner plan.
- Oh, we have the dinner, then we roll. - Right. Pay for the dinner. So anyway, they will debut it at the 2026 PCA Convention Trade Show, which will take place April 18th to the 20th in New Orleans, which is actually correct, that is the days of the people allowed at the… The people allowed?
But we will be there on the, I would imagine, the evening of the 16th. Oh yeah, and I forgot! If you're a Postanya fan, you're a Postanya retailer, make sure that you check out the calendar link below and set an appointment if you're going to be a PCA, And we're going to give you a Winged Hazara's hat, and we're going to talk about what we've got going on, we're very excited about the new stuff that's coming out this year, and if you're a retailer that is looking to take on something new, who better to take on than the number two cigar of the year from Half Wheel Palmer? You can't buy the number one cigar.
Yeah, you can't buy it anywhere. Or the number three, I guess. Or the number three, there's just us. Just us, so we might as well be the number one.
Yeah, so we're out here dominating, and we want to work with you to help you grow your business and make more money. So, hit the Calendly link below. Yeah, and make more money. Yeah, more money.
We would all like more money. Yeah, we would all like more money. Hit the Calendly link below, set the appointment, and we look forward to seeing you and meeting you at PCA. What are you doing?
It didn't switch to you when you were talking, so I moved my mouth so it would look like that. Oh, nice. To cover the words. Thank you so much.
The company plans to ship the cigars to stores immediately following the show. Now, let's follow up on this later and see how immediately this becomes. They may already have them. Well, they might, but still, I want to see.
You know, it's a pretty, it's an interesting strategy. Like, here's the funny part, when it comes to PCA, a lot of retailers overspend, and they max out their cards, and they come up to Klein, and then they usually just cancel the order. Right. If that's the case.
We've had that happen. So, a lot of companies, what they will do is they will have the pipeline filled with cigars, and as soon as they'll place the order, they'll start shipping, They'll start shipping while they're still there. Oh, run the cards before somebody else does. Run it and shiver, run it and shiver, run it and shiver, run it and shiver.
Guy's got a $10,000 credit card budget and he spent $20,000, you know. You might not even be third on that list. Right. All right, Perez Carrillo, Jack, make Jack happy.
Deep Blue Limited Edition 2026 is launching this weekend. Another blue cigar. Ooh. Is blue the color for the year?
Maybe it's very in right now, it's very posh. It's very posh. There's normally a Pantone color of the year, I wonder if it's blue. It's possible, I'm no longer blue right now.
Alright, this weekend the newest release from Kesa Carrillo will get its soft launch before the national release later this spring. The Perez Carrillo Deep Blue Limited Edition 2026 is a 6x52 Toro Extra. Everything's extra. 6x52 Toro Extra?
6x56 Toro Extra. Okay, so it's bigger. It's extra. It's a little more.
A little bit more. Okay. So, it's got a wrapper from Jalapa over a Honduran binder and fillers from Nicaragua. A lot of Honduran tobacco seems to be coming out this year.
Really? Seems like everybody's using it. I wonder what's up with the crops. Yeah, do they have a bad crop in Nicaragua?
Well, but you just started with San Andres, Mexico. Yeah, for the wrapper, but I'm saying there seems to be more Honduran tobacco inside the cigars. - Oh, really? Maybe.
- This is the first release for Deep Blue, though the names certainly hinted at subsequent ones from later years. Each cigar will have an MSRP of: Perez Carrillo, 6x56 extra. - $13. - $22!
- American dollars? - And production is limited to: - $10,000, sir. 2,500 numbered boxes of 20 cigars. So, 5,000 cigars?
5,000 cigars. The first boxes will go on sale on Saturday, March 14th. Do we have these? What's that?
Did we get these? No. Who is our rep for this company? No.
Oh, I do know. Who? Jeff Groover. Oh, is it Groover?
Oh, that's right, yeah. He always gives me a hard time. Oh, yeah, so. Oh, they're going to be at the Great Smoke, is that this weekend?
Uh, I think it is. It might be. I think it is this weekend. Oh.
No. Invite for us again this year. I think if you just asked him, he'd say sure. He's got a million things.
I'm sure he would. Yeah. Hey, we wanna go, you know, can you get us a couple tickets? He'd be like, sure.
Right. I'm sure he would. He's a very nice man. I'm like, sure thing, Skippy.
What does he call me? He calls me Skippy. He calls you Skippy. Yeah.
Calls you my wife or something. Your significant other. Yeah. Wife.
Tell your significant other. Deep blue was blended as a journey, said Ernesto, the company's founder in a press release, the wrapper speaks first, the binder stabilizes, the fillers carry you deep. It's a cigar about discovering what lies beneath. The company says the name was inspired by both the deep depths of the ocean and Hades, the Greek god of dead and king of the underworld.
Why is blue the, oh, in the cartoon he's blue. He is blue. He is blue in the cartoon. That's right, with white fire.
Is Hades affiliated with blue? Yes, he is. King of the underworld. I thought it would be maybe from the movie called Deep Blue.
Wasn't that the sharks with the big brains? Where iced tea or vanilla? No, no, no, no. One of the rappers was the cook and he had to hide in an oven with his parrot.
I have no idea what you're talking about. Movie Deep Blue. I never saw it. With the sharks.
Never saw it. Really? No. However, I will tell you that Hades has been frequently portrayed with blue skin or blue flames to represent a calm, cool demeanor or the coldness of the dead.
However, this is not a traditional Greek mythological association where it's usually associated with black, gold, or dark earth tones. Oh. Very nice. Yeah.
Okay. We had 31 minutes? Yep. No, you're at about, you're approaching 40.
Oh, even better. Alright, the Opus, Opus, Opus Society. Yeah, but there's an X on the end, so do you pronounce the X? There's no space, O-P-U-S-X.
Opus X. You just say Opus X? Yeah. The Society announces the Havana Miami Collection.
Now the picture looks like a soda machine, but I think it's just a... It's a humidor. Yeah, it's a humidor. But the way it stands and looks, it looks like a Coke machine they put cigar in.
Oh, yeah? Pretty funny. Like many people in the cigar industry, Manny left his home in Cuba and settled in Miami. This year, his company is using the journey as the inspiration for the new collection aptly called Havana, Miami.
So this guy just makes accessories to go with the Opus. Gotcha. Oh. What?
It's a totally different brand company. Oh. Opus X Society. Right.
They sell ashtrays. They sell humidors. They sell accessories. No.
Again, if you just let me finish my whole sentence, I could happily explain to you. Alright, go ahead. They have also released their own cigars from Opus X. And we have them upstairs.
Yes, yes. But I thought the cigars came from Fuente and the accessories came from these people. But no, you're saying these people now make cigars and accessories. Well, I mean, it's a question of how you're asking it, right?
Like, do I make my own cigars? No. I do not make my own cigars. You, personally?
We're talking about you. Right. No. Nico Suenio makes my cigars.
Right. So Opus X Society has Opus X cigars. They don't make them, but Fuente makes them for them. Oh, okay.
Well, that was the next question then. How do they get away with using the name? How do they get away with that? How do they get away with that?
He got mad at the one company that just put an X on the cigar. Yeah. CAO or whatever? Yeah, I think it was CAO.
You're right. Right. You can't do that. Oh, it will include four different Eli Blue accessories, each offered in multiple colorways, along with the new cigar.
The flagship offering is the Opus X Society, Eli Blue Havana, Miami. Trying to get to the price. Very fancy. Probably $10,000.
He's making a hundred of these cigars, 6 1/2 by 50 Toro Batola. That could be an extra 6 1/2. It's a cigar that was released in 2024, currently only offered in a six and a quarter by 49, Batola. There'll be five different colors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, trying to get to the price of the accessories made by Ellie Blue.
MSRP, here we go. Oh, it's not, the company says that it will announce the MSRP for each item at the PCA trade show. We don't know yet. We're going to get back to you on that.
We're going to get back to you. We don't know how much money we're going to take from you people. Oh, Jonathan Drew did another video. Did he?
Smoking an Opus. Yeah, what is that about? I don't understand. Right.
And it's very predominant. I mean, he has it turned just right so you can see the logo. Right. It's leaning into the camera, so he is saying something.
Okay, so here's what I think is happening. Yes. Realistically, he's working on making collabs with everybody. Sure.
So obviously the first collaboration that he's going to do is going to be with Fuente. Oh, you think that's what he's hinting at? Yeah, I think he's making an Opus X collab for San & Sons online presence. I mean, that's smart.
Called the Opus X San & Sons? Opus San X & Sons. Oh. Yeah.
Wow. That's what he's calling it. Yeah, that's what I heard. I'm like, I'm looking for the Opus Son, Ex and Sons.
Hmm. And Son, just the one. He's got the one. Yeah, just the one.
Yeah. Just the one cigar. Yeah. That's why he's probably promoting it, right?
Oh, you think the cigar he's using is the Opus X, Son and Son? Nope. Nope. Just an Opus.
I just think that he's, he's purposely, like, what's the cigar that has, like, the most notoriety in, in the world, right? Like, as far as, uh, high-end and, uh, Would you like to know? Yeah. The Powstanie, San Andreas, Bellicosa.
Obviously that one. It's the number two cigar in the world. Right. It should be the number one.
You can't buy one in three. That's true. I think that, you know, more often than not, you see the Opus X used in Hollywood. You see it, you know, you see it used in a bunch of things.
And when you're looking for that high-end customer, that's the one brand that you can see. That's what I see over and over and over again. I mean, obviously Padrón, but like it's not distinct. When you see a cigar in a movie, do you try to figure out what it is?
Every time. Yeah, I do too. What is that? Oh, it's too fast, I've got to back up.
It's like, what are you doing? I go, and then I go, you know, and if I can tell what it is, I get very excited. Yeah. Even in sports outings, when somebody wins a game and they're smoking, I'm like, ooh, what's that?
Oh, I don't watch a cigar. Yeah, you don't watch sports. I don't watch a cigar. I don't watch a cigar.
I don't watch a cigar. Uh, basketball? World Series? No.
Yeah, it's basketball. The World Series of Basketball? Yeah, World Series Basketball Championship. That's my favorite one.
Yeah. It's a good one. Or the Baseball Finals. Yeah, the Baseball Stanley Cup?
I like that too. Baseball Stanley Cup. Yeah, that's very nice. That's a good one.
Yeah, I like that one. Right. Okay. Um, oh, there's, all the accessories are produced in Lomagues, France.
Whoa. I'm sure I said that wrong. three colors blue red and yellow each limited to 12 numbered pieces per color each ashtray is for okay they showed pictures and stuff i don't like it kind of funny looking yeah yeah let me take a look here double guillotine double guillotine uh j15 single flame torch lighter you don't like the Is this the Tiffany Blue? Nah, not excited.
It's very, it's very Cuba-y for the accessories. Oh, they've been working on this for 12 years. It took that long? Yes.
I wonder why they don't know the price. No kidding. Well, the original price is definitely not the same as today's price. A lot of nice things about Carlito.
He's lovely. He's a lovely man. He's a lovely man. Lovely man.
All right, you got anything else? That's all I got. We can play What's the Score, if just you want to play. I'm going to try you on What's the Score.
I'm going to pick one here. Let's see. What am I going to do? Let me see.
Perfect. Now it's time for the energy's favorite game. What's the score? I didn't know where to go.
Today, we have Mr. Palmer just playing against himself, and we are doing the La Imperiosa Magicos, from October 9th, 2017, reviewed by Charlie Minado. All right. Oh, just from the name, I'll go 88.
You know what? I haven't looked at the score. Yeah, it's at the bottom. So I'm going to play with you.
Oh. And then I just don't get one last one. Okay. I'm going to go 89.
So you have two, your last scores before you read the final thought. Yes. Oh, excellent. And then you get the change.
I get the final thought. Okay. 5, Gauge, 52, Petite Robusto, Also, MSRP 875, not anymore, release date July 2015, number of cigars released regular production, oh, this is a redux, number of cigars smoked for redux, oh, oh no, what score did you say? First?
89. Oh. Um, I'll go 87. I'll go 88.
Uh, let's see. The La Imperiosa Magico starts a lot milder than I anticipated with some red rice, milder peanut flavors, creaminess, and some happy. Some happy, it says. Red rice?
Yeah. I'm not familiar with red rice. And some happy. And some happy.
Hoppy? Happy. It remains largely the same through the first third, though the dominant flavor is chunkier peanut butter. As the cigar enters the second third, I'm a bit surprised that things remain largely the same.
Peanut butter, peanut flavor picks up and even more as the cigar gets medium full with earthiness and a soggy waffle flavor adding themselves to a mix. Mr. Palmer? I'm thinking.
I will go 89. I will go 87. Oh no. What?
Uh, I just saw the score. You're done. Construction is a fantastic for the first third. The ash is a bit flaky, but it manages to hang on long enough for me to get the picture.
Unfortunately, I need to make a touch-up in the second third to keep the cigar from going out. Fortunately, that cigar makes it through the final third without any other use of the lighter. This is the second clue. Second clue, and then we're going to final flop.
Oh, no third clue. Yep, 'cause I just scroll right down, it's like, boom! Yeah, it's right there, 'cause reduxes are shorter. Yeah.
Uh, so what score are you at? You have to stay at what you were at. I am stuck at an 87. 87.
All right, then I will go 88. Okay. I do remember reviewing the La Imperiosa and specifically grappling with the thesis that this was a regular production of Las Calaveras that Crownheads could make. And I think that still holds true, but it certainly is challenging to take the cigar And you're at what again?
I'm sorry. You're at 87. I'm stuck at 87. Hmm.
Wow, it's going to be right in that area, too. I'm going to stick with 88. You went the right way. Ah, is it 88?
No, it's an 89. Oh, so close. You were there. Now, bonus.
What was the original score of the Lomperios and Magicos? I'm going to go with... How about you do this? - Higher or lower than the Redux score?
- Oh, um, I'm going to go lower. - You went the wrong way. - Oh, was it right now? - It was a 91.
- A 91, wow. - Yeah, yeah. What's really kind of funny is, that's true, when this cigar was released, it was based on the fact that, hey, this is the original Las Calaveras blend, and now it's going to be a core line. And though it was a great cigar, that original Las Calaveras, I don't even remember the year, the original Las Calaveras was amazing.
And I feel like we've been constantly trying to find that Las Calaveras again. When he said he wished he had more two-year-old ones, I thought maybe the other one scored worse. That was fun. There you go.
It's fun to play. A little fun entertainment for you. Okay, anything else to add? I will be on, so this comes tomorrow, so you will have watched me on Chai Town Cigars, 'cause it's tonight at 7:30 Central Standard Time.
- I'll try and watch when I get home. - Yeah, there is a live version from what I understand. - I'll comment. - Oh, excellent.
All right, guys, this has been episode-- - Where are we going to be at the end of the month? - Oh, we're going to be on Friday and Saturday in Dothan, Alabama at Human Refined Cigars. And then on Saturday from one to four, I don't know which one's which. - Oh, we better figure that out.
- Well, I'm sure it says in the text message, say something. - Something, say something, I'm giving up on you. Say something, I'm giving up on you. Is it raining outside?
No, somebody's pressure washing, or washing a car. Oh. Um, let's see. Five to eight on Friday, and one divorce.
He doesn't say which one is which. No, you better specify for the following episode. Yes. Okay.
All right, guys. Thank you very much. Hope you enjoyed the show. Thank you for watching.
Goodbye. Thank you.
Show Notes
On today’s show We have a New Spending Trend, Poop Pirates, The Sky is Literally Falling! In cigars we have a plethora of new sticks! Then a mini What’s The Score!