ACHP Episode 489 Fast Food, Flight Fails & Cigar Politics
Episode Summary
Episode 489 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a loose, wide-ranging round table with host Mike Palmer, co-host Mikey Stefan Kevich and engineer Phil McGuffey (Preston is away on spring break). The crew opens with podcast housekeeping — CHPod swag deals at chpod.com, the sold-out "Mr. Magoomer" pre-order, and the new Winged Hazards hats that retailers and media can only get by booking a PCA appointment through the show's Calendly link. They also brag on recent Halfwheel scores, including 91s for their San Andres Corona Gordo and San Andres Belicoso, plus mentions of SBC and El Oso Fumar Connecticut, while pitching retailers on carrying the line.
The news block is heavy on lifestyle and current events: McDonald's leaked "McValue 2.0" plan for $3 and $4 meal deals launching in April; a brutal travel day with roughly 12,500 U.S. flight disruptions (8,500 delays, 4,000 cancellations) that stranded Great Smoke attendees like David Lafferty in Orlando; Daytona spring break arrests and shootings; Cuba's island-wide power grid collapse and the geopolitical squeeze over oil, which leads into a genuinely interesting debate about whether reopening Cuban cigar trade would actually help the U.S. premium cigar market (the hosts argue it would drive curious new consumers into brick-and-mortar shops, even if the cigars disappoint). They also riff on AI image generation, a Cigar TV brand bracket they were left off of, and a released treasure-hunter sitting on hidden gold.
Cigar news covers a new Chinese-made portable draw analyzer priced around $600–$700 debuting at TPE, compared against Cigar Medic's larger factory-style machine, with a skeptical take on whether any consumer needs pascal readings on their draw. On the legislative front, Missouri Representatives Donald Mayhew and Bill Lucas have introduced the Veterans and Gold Star Family Property Tax Relief Act, which would fund veteran property tax relief by raising tobacco taxes 2% of wholesale (vaping sits at 10%) — a move the hosts call out as the same state that just granted an indoor smoking exemption. They also break down Amar by A.J. Fernandez, a May release born from the fire at Tabacalera A.J. Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua in Estelí, made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco with a Habano wrapper at the San Lotano factory in Ocotal, with the name nodding to A.J.'s Cuban and Lebanese heritage ("to love" in Spanish, "moon" in Arabic).
The episode closes with "What's the Score?" guessing on Brian Burt's Halfwheel review of the Lost & Found Buck Fifteen — an all-Dominican 5x50 robusto from La Aurora, limited to 100 bundles of four — which scored 68 after promising early flavor collapsed into harsh pepper, bitterness and serious construction and burn problems. Upcoming appearance: Boll Weevil Cigars and Humidor Fine Cigars in Dothan, Alabama, March 27–28.
In This Episode
- 01Swag, Hats & PCA AppointmentsCHPod apparel deals, the sold-out Mr. Magoomer shirt, and the Winged Hazards hats available only to retailers and media who book a PCA appointment.
- 02Recent Halfwheel ScoresThe crew celebrates 91-point ratings on their San Andres Corona Gordo and Belicoso and pitches retailers on carrying the brand.
- 03McDonald's McValue 2.0A leaked internal email reveals $3 and $4 value meal deals launching in April after the $5 meal drove a 6.9% sales bump.
- 04Mass Flight Delays & Spring Break ChaosAbout 12,500 U.S. flight disruptions stranded Great Smoke travelers in Orlando, plus Daytona Beach spring break arrests and shootings.
- 05Cuba's Blackout & Reopening Cuban CigarsCuba's national grid collapse and oil cutoff spark a debate on whether legal Cuban cigars would grow or hurt the U.S. premium market.
- 06Portable Draw AnalyzersA new $600–$700 Chinese portable draw tester debuting at TPE gets compared to Cigar Medic's factory machine — and mostly dismissed as a gimmick.
- 07Missouri Tobacco Tax BillRepresentatives Donald Mayhew and Bill Lucas propose funding veteran property tax relief with a 2% wholesale tobacco tax increase.
- 08Amar by A.J. FernandezA May release born from the Estelí factory fire, all-Nicaraguan with a Habano wrapper, made at San Lotano in Ocotal and named for A.J.'s Cuban-Lebanese roots.
- 09What's the Score? Lost & Found Buck FifteenThe all-Dominican limited robusto earns a 68 from Brian Burt after construction and burn failures wreck a promising start.
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 Cigar Hustler Podcast, Episode 489, Take 3, I'm Mike Palmer, your host, and today Hey, in engineering, Phil, say my name more, McGuffey, I want to be famous. Hello. And as my co-host, Mikey, I miss Preston, he wasn't here today, Stefan Kevich. Aw, I do miss Preston.
However, Preston's at the beach, and it's very cold outside. He's at the beach? It's spring break. Oh my God.
You know, people have beach vacations and stuff, and then it becomes 45 degrees outside. Good, I'm glad, he's skipping podcast work, good, I'm glad it's cold. Oh, you're trying to, oh, that's not nice, that's not nice. That's not nice.
He's not my boyfriend. Oh. You want him? I can say anything I want.
You wish. He's not going to withhold from me. You wish he was your boyfriend? No, I don't.
No, no. He seems high maintenance. Yeah, no, it's pretty... Too much energy.
Too much energy? Too much energy. You're a lot of energy, too. I'm old.
It's too much. Okay. Well, I mean, now at least it's nice and cold. I get to wear my Espinosa knuckle sandwich sweatshirt.
You're not wearing your Roma Craft Tobac, I only have one jacket? It's a 2XL for me, XL for Palmer, like we said earlier. No, I'm going to get one, I figure out how I can get one. How do you get one?
Rosales calls me all the time, I'll just ask him, he'll send me one. You think so, you can guilt him into it? " He just sent one to, what's his name? What's his name?
Gordon. Julian Gordon. The better Gordon? The better Gordon, yes, yes.
Palmer, get two. Oh man, you're on your own. I can only get one. Oh, come on Palmer!
You're on your own. You're still trying to get his dum-dums, we're going to dum-dums. Ugh! I'll do better.
Alright, on today's show, McDonald's has a new deal, more travel delays, I spelled travel wrong, Cuba has two new problems, and then in cigars, Missouri steals from one to help the other, it's only AJ still, and when you thought cigars couldn't get any better. All this and way too much fun on this episode of A Cigar Hustler Podcast. Oh yeah! But first, Mikey, how do we get some of that CHPod swag?
What are the links? How do, can you read some comments? You take my lunch order, Boots is a double extra lunch. What you want to do is like and subscribe while you're reviewing or listening to the show.
com for all of your swag from this podcast. If you buy one piece of apparel, you get the second one 40% off, and you spend $100 or more, you're going to get free shipping. The pre-order of the Mr. Magoomer is done.
Done, they're out. How many did you sell? Five. Five.
Five. So plus me, six. Six. I have six with me, so I can wear my Mr.
Magoomer. So those will be coming out soon. I do have a present for you guys, after I throw this into the ashtray. The...
More than one. Yes. The Winged Hazars. How's that look?
Oh! Nice. That looks good? Yeah.
It does look good. The Winged Hazars hat for the appointments. Oh! Oh!
Oh! Bad throw, and you adapted. Nicely done. Thank you, thank you.
I've been practicing at home. Yes! Get off the tables back. Oh, yeah, yeah.
I've been practicing at home with having my wife throw clothes at me all the time. The only way you can get these hats is if you book an appointment at PCA. If you're a retailer and you're already a customer of ours or you want to be a customer of ours, we're going to give you one of these hats just for you spending some time with us and we appreciate that. I know, it's a good hat.
Look, if you're a media member, same thing. If you want to do an interview with us, book the appointment, hit the Calendly link below. that it was on yesterday's episode congratulations welcome back thank you very much yes did you fix it on the one before or no just left it no oh they are nice look at that okay yeah they are nice oh the uh trains here greg is around okay hold on stay on track here sorry sorry you're gonna mess me up sorry uh so like if you're media and you like to book an appointment one hat per appointment look yeah listen we hit number one or we hit 91 again on half wheel bang san andreas San Andres, Corona Gordo, 91. San Andres, Bellicoso, 91.
Bang! I don't know if you- SBC 24, 62. 7, 5. We got a 5 on that.
Bang. El Oso Fumar, Polsanya Justice, Connecticut. Like, all of our cigars rank really, really high. You're doing yourself a disservice by not carrying it in your store.
And you're not helping your customers. Right. So, check us out. We would love to work with you.
Hit the Cali link below. Appointments are filling up. I have no additional orders from the show, but I do have some comments. Comments?
Team Money just dropped in. It's Mikey's comment section. Mikey is angry in this show. Did he impress and have a fight?
Yes. Now we have to drink. Somebody else mentioned pressure. Come on, Mikey.
You know better. First of all, Phil would not be hiking, and if his wife fell in a hole, he would have been running the opposite direction instantly. He is the self-preservation king. Oh, I've been working on a shirt for you and it's been, it's been jacked up, it was a bing bong, but I can't get the background to work right.
Every time I try and correct it, it's a disaster. Maybe I change it to self-preservation king. You should just put a picture of my face with this mask if you'd like, and then bing bong at the bottom. I like self-preservation king, and in the background, his wife's been eaten by a bear.
Yeah, and him running. Him running. Yeah. And the back tee is being eaten by a bear back here.
I think Bing Bong would sell. Yeah, well, maybe, but like, for whatever reason, also the image on the face with the mask, it just kind of looks weird, looks like you have a droopy eyeball. Yeah, because the mask is weird. I've been looking at a rabbit mask this morning.
Did you? I have a real good one, but you've got to see it first. I might have crossed the line. Is it a bunch of dicks?
No. Ah, then you haven't crossed the line. It is made out of leather, though. Ooh!
Is it expensive, though? A rabbit mask? like eight bucks yeah oh nice adjustable for your large melon does it zip does it mouth zip shut no no is it only the eye can we do one with only the eyes it is from the nose up as you requested the nose up yeah right under the nose up so your mouth is open for but i can breathe out my nose do you know where your nose is you can breathe out your nose i'm assuming i know where my nose is Nose, ear, what is it? Eyes, ears, and I don't know how that song goes.
Ears and mouth, ears and mouth, yeah. What? What are we talking about? You don't know, you never saw that song with the kids?
You do the song, we go nose, ears, eyes and something, but I don't know how it goes. Eyes and ears and mouth and nose? Head, shoulders, knees and toes? That's not how it goes.
No? Yeah, it's something about toes too. It's head, shoulders, knees and toes. There you go, head, shoulders, knees and toes.
Ears and mouth and nose, that's how it goes. Yeah. Don't sing it again. Yeah, check the box.
I'm going to check the box. Any copyrighted material on your show? All right. Yes.
Nursery wraps. All right, now the news. We're ready to go to the news? I think so, yeah.
All right, now the news. McDonald's is set to launch a new value meal deal. McDonald's. Another one?
We're covering more McDonald's crap? Yes. You know how social media works. Once you read things.
Yeah. Like, I looked at a suitcase on Friday night. All I see are suitcases now on TikTok. All I see is the fighting.
Fighting? Like random fights. Oh, you like the fighting stuff. Yeah.
Alright, so the current value meal they have is $5. Okay. It's too expensive. Okay.
They're missing out on the poor people. They said it nicer, but they're missing out on the poor people. How do you say that nicer, first of all? How do they say nicer?
Lower class? Lower income. Lower income. Yeah, lower income people.
0. Really? Now, this was reported on Fox because they got hold of an email, an inter-office email that McDonald's just sent around. That looks good on you.
Thank you. It fits very well. There's a lot of holes left in the back. Oh, he's excited.
It might not get small. Well, yeah, because normally I'm on the last hole and I have to glue the thing together. Right. It might not fit normal-headed people.
It might not get small enough. It does. I learned that the last one that I bought, it only came in one size. Right.
This one had two size options. Oh. So I picked the bigger one. Yes.
Anyway, they're doing a $3 and a $4 meal deal, comes out in April, featuring menu items and meal deals for less than $5. Is it called the Poor People Value Meal? It's featured to only those that pay with EBT. 0.
0? Yes. That's what it's called? Yes.
9% last year with the $5 meal deal, they're expecting much more this year with the $3 meal deal. I thought it was $4. $3 and $4. So there are $3 options.
But what are these options for this meal deal? Well, we don't know. They got an inter-office email that somebody gave them. We don't have all the details.
Oh, they haven't even said it yet. No, no. It has not been released to the public. Ah, someone leaked it.
But we get advanced notice. So wait a second. You mean to tell me that we can get leaked McDonald's information? Yes.
But we can't figure out the Epstein files? No. Well, we are not privy to the Epstein files. No one dropped the bomb on them?
They have those, they just don't show anybody. I know, you think so. Well, no, the whole list has come out, I told you, I've seen the four or five page list of names. Oh, yeah.
Well, the clown's not secretive. Yeah, the security with the clown's a lot less. " That was for the pre-check. Yeah, yeah.
And then I fast forward to just like a week later, and I see people just camping out in the airports right now. Well, we're about to cover travel delays. That's not TSA pre-check though, that's canceled flights. Mmm.
But I did comment on the wall also, and I put the snippet that I had read that said the original plan was to close TSA, but they, not TSA, the pre-check, but then they decided not to. So when I covered the story, it was going to happen. Got you. Mmm.
Mmm. All right, travel, okay, that's all the McDonald's stuff. Perfect. That's it?
I'm ready to move on. Yeah, it's a short, it's a short thing. Yeah, the fast food stuff's getting old, but it was a slow news. You remember back in the day when you get like the, the cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke, it was like two bucks or a dollar or something?
What are Happy Meals then now? You have smaller children. Oh, they're... They're like five, six bucks, not bad.
Is that what it is? Every once in a while, that's what Adrian and I'll do if we're, we like, need food, but not starving. If we need food. Why?
That's weird. " And then she uses the toys at school. I have a friend that orders, like, kids' meals. And he's a full-on adult.
Everywhere? Like, he'll go to, like, Denny's and get the kids' chicken strips. It's not Phil, by the way, people out there listening. Well, it's definitely not Phil.
It's not Phil. He's not eating kids' meals. No. That's crap.
Yeah, whenever we, like, whenever we're having, like, fast food, he orders, like, a small meal, like a kids' meal. Oh. A Chick-fil-A or whatever, and, like, he's a good friend of mine. Right.
So I judge him. I let him know that I judge him. I'm like, oh. Is it Preston?
No, it's not. Preston's not a friend. He's family. You know, you can't argue with your spouse like that.
You gotta let that go. Well, he said you give him a hard time. He didn't say you argue. Yeah.
Is it the guy that went to the, I can't remember his name, the guy that lives down the street from you on the other side of the road? Guy that lives down the street. Works on cars in his garage. Went to a couple of cigar events with us.
You're talking about Kenny? Kenny. It is not Kenny. Not Kenny.
It's not Kenny. It's not Kenny. But I too would give, he qualifies as, he's in the realm of I would give a hard time to. Right, right, right.
Yeah. Yeah. I think he's the only outside this area friend that I've met of yours. Yeah.
He came to my house. He like showed up at random. Kenny? Yeah.
On Saturday or Sunday. Yeah. And he brought like a dozen donuts. I'm sorry.
Think of a video in my head. He brought, he brought a dozen donuts into the house. Right. So, like, you know, I was like, oh, thanks.
Very nice. So I had three of them. I ate three. On Saturday?
Sunday. Oh, you said Saturday. You said Saturday first. First you said Saturday.
It was on Sunday. He caught me. So. Jesus knows.
So we hacked through these, like, the dozen donuts. The two of you just ate Saturday? No, my kids and everything. But I had three.
And he's like, wow. I guess I got to go get another dozen donuts to bring back to my house. I was like, wait a second, so what was I supposed to do? Like, have a half of one or something?
It was just one for everyone. What are we doing? He expected you to just eat three children, two adults, five. He expected you to eat five, and maybe the dogs, maybe seven.
So I texted him, I texted him later, I said, hey, or I saw him later on that day, I said, hey, remember that time you came to my house and brought donuts that I wasn't supposed to eat, but you offered them to me? Like, what are we doing? It's weird. Yeah.
You weren't supposed to eat. Maybe he was just stopping, he didn't want to leave him in the car because they would melt. No, no, he was like, hey, I brought you guys donuts, like perfect. Maybe he's just giving you a hard time.
Maybe it was a plot. Did you feel okay after you ate them? Did everybody get sick? No, my point is, though, that...
You shouldn't eat donuts on Saturday. Like, I'm not gonna eat, I'm not gonna eat just... I'm not just gonna eat one donut on Sunday, and I'm not gonna order a kid's meal for me at fast food, right? Right, yeah, I mean, yeah.
That's not me attacking you, either, just for the record. Do you know the apple slices? Do you ever get the apple slices? Yes.
They peel them completely now. There's no skin on them at all. So you can gum them down. Yeah, you can just hum.
Just straight to applesauce. I don't think they go bad either. It's kind of weird. The apples don't?
Yeah. They have to. There's definitely preservatives in them. I'm going to test that next time.
Buy them and just leave them in the fridge or leave them? No, leave one out and see how bad it is. Oh, outside the package opened in the air. Just bring them here and leave them on the counter.
It's not like Keanu's cleaning the counters anyways. " I don't know. I thought it was Thursday, and then one week it was Wednesday, and then last week I think it was Tuesday. It hasn't even been in butane anymore.
No. I thought it was real down here on the front line. And then Greg tried to light his slider. " Yep.
Yeah, Greg, you should be used to this. I got this one over here, but don't touch it, that was mine. All right, travel delays. Yesterday was not a normal day.
There was a major disruption and the percentage was unusually high. All the storms up north trapped people in Orlando. That was the footage you saw of all the people just sleeping, laying around Orlando. Oh, I heard it was going on in Houston, too.
Yes. Yeah, you can't get above, like, Georgia at the moment. I think today it's a little better, but yesterday was terrible. I mean, let's be honest, who wants to get above Georgia?
Well, if you're going home, though. I don't know why anybody lives above Georgia. Yeah, I don't either. I talked to somebody yesterday and I told them I live in Florida, it's the only place I want to live.
We should build a wall. Like we're, you know, like north of the wall. North of the wall? Yeah.
You know, it's just. Right, make all the criminals and everything sit on the wall and protect us from the north. Yeah, and then everybody, yeah, well, then we could be protected. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea.
Alright, so there were 12,500 total disruptions yesterday, delays and cancellations. I know of one. Roughly 8,500 delayed flights and 4,000 canceled flights. People are trying to get out of the Great Smoke and they're all jammed up.
Nobody from the Great Smoke could get home yesterday. Oh, my God. Who did I see? David Lafferty was stuck.
Oh, yeah, David Lafferty. I saw that one. Supposedly, it's a little better today. S.
typically runs 45,000 to 50,000 flights per day. So, 25 to 30% of all flights were affected yesterday. Nice. Did you see that he was at his hotel, and the lady had a heavy Spanish accent?
Yeah. " Definitely not from Florida. And he took it as cookies. Oh.
Galletas. Cool. Do you like tukis? Yeah.
He's like, no, no, I don't, you know what, I'll take those cookies. I'll take those cookies, see, hey, cookie? I was like, this is, what is this, double treat? What are we doing?
Did he press two to get the translation where it's just English with a Spanish accent? Oh, that's incredible, man. Life experiences. Also, this past weekend, Sheriff Chitwood arrested 133 people at the beach for spring break.
Well, somebody fired a shot. Yeah, there were four shootings, a lot of alcohol. Yeah. Four shootings only in one area.
I mean, there were shootings everywhere this year. It's a terrible weekend to go to the beach. I mean, look, spring break is no longer like, you know, we all shelter indoors when you're above the age of 23. He's like, I'm not going.
You know, what's crazy is like back in the day in Daytona, it used to be MTV used to come. And it wasn't even as crazy as it is now, right? Like there wasn't shootings and stuff like that before. Oh, it was televised though.
You don't think so? No, no, there wasn't. I think the problem is that everybody's got a camera now. Maybe, I don't know.
Yeah, too, because most of the footage is raw footage of cameras running around. It's not like the news crews down there. I heard that Houston is like wild right now. There are so many people that traveled.
For spring break? Yeah, for whatever reason. They all went to Houston. It's insane.
So like, I mean, I was driving down US 1 the other day, on Saturday. Mm-hmm. In your Denali? In the SUV one, yeah.
Oh, in the, oh, he's got two Denali. Two Denali. So, I'm driving down, I'm driving down US 1, and it's like, nothing but gangster rollers, like. Yeah?
Yeah, it's what it looked like on TV. It's what it looked like on TV. I don't want to sound racist, but it looked like it was, BC Argo was going on. Yeah.
It's too late. Here it is. I understand. I understand.
I'm glad it wasn't me today. That's why he said BCR. Maybe they don't know what I mean. You came across...
That's... Yeah. Anybody who goes to BCR or could go to BCR knows what BCR is. Yeah.
But it was unusual because that's not normally how Daytona Beach is all the time. Yeah. And I mean, it's spring break, isn't I mean? It's usually a mix of people.
Right. Yeah. A plethora of different cultures. Right.
The four police trucks with their lights on and sirens as they're, you know, moving everyone down the beach. Listen, if you live north of the wall, you have a lot of pent up anger. You come down here, right, and you feel free. I get it.
I get it. Look, north of the wall, Pat. Yeah, they used to do a MTV Singled Out exhibit. I remember exhibits, Pimp My Ride.
He used to do it on the beach. It was faked. It was fake. Wow.
He just shook his head no. Did we get that on camera? No. Of disbelief?
It was fake. It was fake. It's messed up to the exhibit. It was fake.
It's true. I know the cars, yeah, there wasn't real stuff. I mean, the show was real. Yeah.
But the stuff they did to the cars was not real. It was fake, yeah. And the people's reactions were planned. And Exhibit's not really a rapper.
He's not a good rapper. He's not really a rapper. He's a rapper. He's technically on his Facebook profile page, he is a rapper.
It says, I mean, I could. It says I'm not a rapper? I could change my Facebook profile as a rapper as well. You know what I mean?
Candy rapper. Just about everybody's now says social influencer. Yeah. Content creator.
Content creator. I was going with that. Yeah. I read the other day, the show where they used to yell, move that bus.
What was that called? Move that. Where they redid the house? Oh, that was Dreamhouse.
With Ty Pennington? My something Dreamhouse. Dream House. Anyway, there's still people trying to pay those things off.
The houses? Yeah, because once they did all those changes to your house, your property taxes shoot up. Oh, yeah. Okay.
And they don't help you. So you gotta pay the taxes. Yeah, but most of those people were, like, poor. Yeah, those were poor houses.
Yeah. Like, $10,000 houses, and now all of a sudden they're paying taxes for a $400,000 house. Yeah, like, this mom and her 10 kids, we're gonna make this huge house for... Right, everybody gets their own bedroom, and a brand new kitchen, and now all of a sudden you owe $50,000 in taxes every year.
Just sell the house. Makes no money. When are they going to live? What?
Then where are they going to live? I think they had to pay for some of the raw materials too. I don't know. Look man, I'm not trying to sweat the details here, but I'm going to tell you that if you upgraded my house and I went from a two bedroom to a 10, and then all of a sudden life went sideways and I couldn't afford it, sell the damn house.
Or get a job. Well, life didn't go sideways. No, you don't know that. They could be working.
Get a better job. Okay, but sometimes people are stuck. If they had a better job, they could have paid for the house themselves. Yeah, so just sell the house, take the leg up, right?
Take the W, and… Where are you going to live? Where are you going to live? Go rent somewhere or something. Can't afford that.
I don't have the first and last insecurity. You will when you sell the house. I got to pay off the taxes. I haven't paid them in eight years.
There's no money. That sounds like that's not a good idea. It's okay. You don't have to pay taxes.
Look at Wesley Snipes. I didn't make the TV show, all right? You just calm down over there. It's just not like look that was a scam to all I'm saying is that someone helped you right all those reality shows are fake and you and you start to like complain about that but you like there's you have an opportunity there to adjust so adjust you know I hate the victim mentality and stuff yeah I mean we've got 12 jobs I feel so bad for you if somebody upgraded my house and my taxes shot through the roof, - You'd sell more hats.
- I wouldn't be crying about it, yeah, I'd build a whole hat-making area. - Right. - There's four houses in my neighborhood that looks like your house, and they're all in a row. When we drive by it, we call that Mikey-Brittany row.
- Mikey-Brittany row? - It's a square house with a flat roof just like yours. Yeah, there's four of them. It's just odd.
All of a sudden, there's four of them right there. - I don't know why Ollie could picture when he said that. " All right, back to the show, we'll get back to the show now. All right, as of today, there's 47 delays and 13 cancellations out of Orlando, so 8 to 10% delayed, 2 to 3% canceled, total impact, 10 to 13% of flights affected in or out of Cuba today, or in or out of Orlando, sorry, the next story is Cuba.
Oh my God. Right, well, there's spring break in Cuba. Cuba has seized the United States of America? Right.
No, everybody's going down there, they have two cookies. They got plenty of cookies down in Cuba. David Lafferty, plenty of Cuban cookies for you down there, if you'd like. Galletas.
All right, Cuba's national power grid collapsed on Monday. Oh. 10 million people without electricity. Five people, no power.
The entire island is dark. The entire island is shut down. No power at all. No power for those five homes.
Because we have cut off the oil supply to them and now they have no oil to run the power plants. Well, hey, you picked the wrong side. I don't know what to tell you. Authorities say they're investigating and have begun efforts to restore power in some areas, but there's not gonna be anything.
In some areas means the rich people. Yeah, the rich people are enraged. People that are tight with the communist government. The photos they show is everybody walking outside on the street, it's pitch black and somebody's got headlights.
That's the only lights that are on. Hey, you know, this could be a positive. Maybe we reopen trade with Cuba, they become our buddies, you know? New cigars.
No, we don't want their cigars. Uh, I don't, I don't think we want to be friends with Cuba. No? I mean, Biden sort of opened that up, or Obama, one of them did, and Trump went, nah, I don't like them.
Maybe we could work it out now. And now he's cut off the Venezuelan oil, so they're like, mmm, sorry. You know, this is, I mean, this could be a slippery slope here. Start cutting off power to different countries.
You're going into world war. Well, they don't have any power to shoot the missiles. I can either do that. Dude, you got to be able to power that button.
You got to be able to power that button button. You thought like the stamp, where are the batteries? It doesn't work. Anybody that thought that there was going to be no repercussions of when he asked for help and they go, no, no help.
Did they say no help? Yeah. Who asked for help? Cuba?
No, no. Trump asked for help for the waterway. The waterway? What's the waterway called?
Straight to Hormuth? I was trying to get him to say it. Oh, sorry. Sorry.
You're Mr. Magooded again. I was answering your question. Thank you, Palmer.
Not his. 2XL, by the way. But yeah, no, he asked for help and everybody said no. Are you sure about that?
Yes. Yeah? They're only not letting our ships, Israel's ships, and there's one other country. If you're anybody else, they're letting you through.
Yeah, if you're the ally of them. Allied them? If you're an ally of them. Oh, is anybody an ally of them?
They have allies. Might not be, you know, anybody we know. I'm looking this up right now. So, and if you give them oil, we're going to raise your tariffs.
So, everybody keep that in mind if you're watching the show. Uh, I'm not giving them any of my oil. Not you personally, but if like another country. Well, I know we just released a whole bunch of our reserve, too.
We probably have so much reserve, it's ridiculous. No, we do. We have the biggest oil reserve in the world. We're stockpiling.
We're hoarders. Yeah. Yeah, so you're right. Apparently, uh, no countries are helping.
Yeah, nobody wanted to help. So, there's definitely gonna be repercussions, I mean. Do we need help? Can't we just, you know, there's already two aircraft carriers there.
Send a third. Well, push is going to come to shove. He's probably right now, what he's doing is, you know, he's playing chess, right? Chess, not checkers.
Yeah. He's like, hey, you know, okay, you guys don't want to help. That's fine. There, let's just see what happens in the next couple of weeks to everybody.
More tariffs? Oh, whatever. No power? Oh, what you're saying is because of the fact that they're not keeping things regulated, even the allies of Iran.
Yeah. Aren't getting oil. Like, here's the problem. S.
depends on everybody else. Well, everybody else does depend on us for some things, too. Interesting. You know?
So, maybe that's what he's doing. We're the hall monitor of the world. We're just watching everybody. I love getting my macroeconomics from you.
Thank you. For the record. It makes me feel... Make you feel smarter?
It makes me feel amazing. No, not smarter. It just makes me feel amazing. Yes.
All right. Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canal. Boy, he's got a long name. He's got a long name.
S. President Donald Trump repeatedly mused about overthrowing the government. " Nah, I'm just gonna push you out. Over the weekend, he told reporters he'll probably have the honor of taking Cuba.
It's a lot smaller than Venezuela. I can take this one. It's fine. Wow.
But he was unclear on how. We're not going to give that away. It's ridiculous. So listen, let's fast forward, I don't know, three or four years.
Let's say that you work out deals and all of a sudden Cuba opens back up. You don't think that that's good for the cigar industry? It's great. Yeah.
Why is it good? Yeah, why is it good? That's where everything originated, right? All Cuban seed, everything, right?
Okay. I mean, if you can grasp that land again, or grasp that trade, I'm sorry, I mean like grasp that trade, then you can grow the cigar industry more by having more product, right? Kind of. What about you?
Do you think it's good or bad? I don't know. I don't see it being an advantage. Why do we want more Cuban cigars?
I think that it would be great. Yeah? Yeah. Because here's what it would do.
A Cuban postaña? What? A Cuban postaña? No.
Here's what it would do. It would become mainstream news, right? " More people would come into stores looking for the Cuban cigar. Eventually they'd figure out that Cuban cigar is a complete ass in comparison to the other countries, and now you have more cigar consumers.
Gotcha. Right. Or they smoked a bad Cuban and go, "These are supposed to be the best. These are terrible.
" -You've met some of them. -The retailers? -Yeah, they're not all good. -No, that's true.
They are not all good. -But if you're Goodwin, I don't know why you haven't made an appointment with me yet. -Yeah, book the Calendly appointment. -It's ridiculous.
-Yeah, today. -The number two cigar, technically the number one. You can't get one in three anymore. -It's only been three months into this year, we already got another 91 on Half Wheel.
What are we doing? -This is great. Oh, as long as you brought that up. Cigar TV is doing one of those, I don't know, crap, I can't think of what it's called.
What's it when they do the basketball with all the teams? This team plays this team. Bracket? Bracket.
They're doing a bracket with cigar brands. Okay. There's a lot of them. Yeah.
We're not even on the list. Not even on the list. We're not one of them. No.
I asked him why we weren't. You did? I said, funny, we're the number two cigar and we're not even on this thing anywhere. They have an answer again.
No response. No. I don't know, but there's brands smaller than us that are on it. Really?
Who do you think is directing it? Who do I think what? Who do you think is directing it? The Cigar TV guys, I don't know which one of them does.
They have a lovely... I was going to make a joke, I'm leaving it alone. Interesting. And still, the episode with you has not made it to their normal rotation of shows either, that's kind of weird too.
Listen, we're going to go, apparently we have to go the really, really long way, right? shirts, hats, and our own show. Not just even the long one. The really, really long way.
Which is fine. I'm fine with that. How much more good stuff could we do? We start claiming we invented cigars like Sokka?
It's a great question. I'll get back to you on that. When you figure it out, you let me know. Yeah.
Alright, Cigar News, unless you have a video. Something else you think is funny that Boots and I want to understand. Of course I have a video. If you didn't have a video today, I had one.
By the way, that... You have told me that I don't have videos, and now guess what, buddy, I'm gonna have a video for you. That syncing sound thing works great. Thank you for bringing that up.
I never thought to do that with the videos. Yes. You're welcome. I'm missing you here.
Oh, here it is. This is not a funny one, but I thought... Wait, wait, what are we gonna watch it? I thought it was a good one.
You got it? Is this it? Is this the laser? No.
Is there music? I don't see it. Just to play. Oh, there it is.
No, that's okay, please. No. Is this that rare? Oh, you know, I didn't flip that part off, I guess.
Oh, wait, but so it's just the two? Yeah. So, um... So, for our listeners that aren't viewing, but are listening, it's a video of an Iranian missile being intercepted and blown up while people are kind of watching it at a party, so they see this happening.
Yeah. So, I thought that was pretty cool. The laser one's better. I haven't seen the laser one.
There's a laser one? Yeah, where Israel shoots a laser up and takes the rocket out of the sky. And that actually happens? There's a theory that, uh, the president of Israel is dead.
President of Israel or the president of Iran? President of Israel. Oh, why is he dead? That's what's going on right now, they're saying that, like, there's been AI images of him, and he's had like a sixth finger.
Oh, is that, oh, I thought they were talking about the guy in charge of Iran. No. Talking about him? " He was at, he was at a coffee shop.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, the coffee shop. I thought there was the other guy. But then people broke that down saying that there's a 78% chance that that was AI as well.
Well, the six-finger thing is probably a good shot. Do you know how AI loves to put extra fingers on hands? Yeah, but this one, even the coffee shop one, they're saying that the coffee shop one. I did one today for today's show and I put, you know, I have to have something, there's something in my hand, but it also, so it has me holding the camera like this, it has me eating something here, and then there's a third hand that has it holding a bag of food.
That's nice. A third hand would be useful. Yeah, it would be. You know?
Right. And then sometimes AI won't understand, like you say, can you remove the extra hand? Actually, you know, this one's gone, and I have two over here. Yeah, two left hands.
Or it'll turn it around backwards. I mean, we just don't know what's real and what's fake anymore. I know. Yeah.
I know. It's kind of scary. Is it? It's going to get worse as the technology gets better.
Yeah. No, I mean, the technology is good as long as you just tell the app what to do. Right? Right?
Like, if you get very specific with it, I mean, dude, I've taken pictures of people, you know, just kind of smiling, and I'll say, like, put a candy bar in their hand and make them, you know, eat it like a slob. And, dude, it's real. Really? It looks crazy.
Meanwhile, I can't get AI to properly move the background on my bing bong. " No, you didn't. So there. Oh, let me move, like I have a, I use an app that, that does all the AIs together.
It's like, oh, let me move it to a more advanced imagery, AI, yada, yada. And then it moves it there. It utilizes all the AIs? It does.
That's crazy. It's awesome. So, uh, then it says, okay, I switched to this one and now we did a thorough check of the background and then the background's gone and then it pops back up. It's exactly the same.
- Same, right. - I'm like, oh my God, what are we doing? - I'll ask mine sometimes why it can't do it, and it'll tell me, like, oh, I timed out, or tell you what, do it this way, and then I can do it, because it's trying to recreate it exactly from scratch, but if you send me the one you already made, we're a step past that, and it's like it's making excuses. - Yeah.
- Like, man, I couldn't do it that way, say this. - Like, I could, but I just felt like-- - If you're telling me to say this, can't you just do it? I just feel, you know, I just feel like this way is better. Right.
You know, it would really look sharp if we did it like this. Yeah. I'm sorry, it doesn't even look like me. Yeah, but that guy's better looking.
Great, thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right, Cigar News!
Wait, wait, hold on a second. Sorry. I've waited two days now to see if this hits the news at all, and it has not hit the news. What, okay, what is it?
Okay, this guy from 10 years ago stole a treasure chest from, from a sunken ship right he then hid the gold and they arrested him they found out they arrested him he just got released like a week ago yeah and he has not told anybody where this gold is you think he you think he finds the gold again yeah sure he knows right where he hid it so then how do you like offload this gold without on the black market don't you watch tv and yeah but it's Oh, like the CIA doesn't know the black market. It's the CIA. CIA's not worried about this guy that stole it. FBI.
Well, maybe the FBI. I mean, anybody. This is an international, this was an international water. So probably Interpol probably is probably definitely involved.
The guy's probably trying to figure it out. You get rid of it in small increments. He sits tight. You know, he buys a soda and drops a gold bullion.
Is that how you would do it? Right. You go, you buy a pack of gum, you drop a gold bar, and the next thing, you know, you take the change. Yeah.
Can you break this up for me? And that's how you launder money. Just like that. Allegedly.
Allegedly. That's a Wesley Snipes way, huh? Just like that. No, but, I mean, the guy knows that all eyes are on him right now.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's not like he got out of jail, grabbed a shovel, and went to the beach. Yeah. Nobody's watching me.
I just paid my debt. He's sitting tight. Man, how great would that be? I mean, I would do jail time.
10 years? Yeah, I'd do 10 years. Could you imagine how much money is in this chest? chest i don't know 10 years long time dude 10 years how old is he uh i think he's like 50 something now so he lost his like his 40s yeah he lost the you know the the my knees hurt time era and stuff like that you know he came out really jacked because he works out all day probably yeah he's very little i didn't see his they just showed his face there's no way i would give up I don't know.
10 years of my time. How much money are we talking again? A treasure chest. Okay, is it a big treasure chest, a little treasure chest?
No, no, no, it's a big one. Does it got diamonds and emeralds in it, or are we just talking about it? No, it's like these gold coins. They were talking about who it was from, but...
Call it 20 million bucks. 20 million? 10 million, a million a year? I don't know, I don't know.
One of those coins is probably worth like 100k. Just one. I'm not doing it. Yeah, no, I don't think so.
It's not worth it. I think it was like 500 million. I'd do five years. I like how he jumped in five years.
No, for the 10 million, I'd do five. I'd do five. Five's easy. You could do five.
Five's easy. I'm not doing it. Five's easy? Five's easy.
I mean, it's not like he's in maximum security. No, he's probably in a federal open, right? And he's probably in a nice one. Yeah, one of the nice ones with a Starbucks in it and stuff.
I miss out on all these opportunities with my family. No. Listen, guys, you guys do some for the next five years, okay? When I get out, we're gonna be millionaires.
10 million, here we go. 10 million is not enough. 500. 500 million?
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's life change.
Because it changes the life of my family forever. Right. Half a billy? Yeah.
Half a bill's where you, that's the number for you for 10? No, well, that was just the number that he threw out. That's the number I threw out. Oh, is that the number now?
He's going up with a number? You need to go less days is the way you're gonna get me, not more money. Less days? Yeah, like I'll do five years, not 10.
I don't care what the price is. That's because your time is short. Right. I might not have 10 years left.
But if I get in prison, free healthcare, and I get to work out all the time and, you know, eat bologna sandwiches, so I lose a bunch of weight. As long as they let you on Facebook and TikTok, you're good. Oh, I'd become, I'd be a millionaire from social media if I was in jail with access. How much content he could create inside of this.
Got a millionaire in prison. Right. Serving 10 years. Right.
I mean, well, I would be the number one cigar guy, not the number three. Yeah. One day. Imagine if Arturo Fuente and Bobby Newman were in jail, all three of us together, that'd be great.
Bobby Newman. You mean Bobby and Arturo? All right, sorry, I just, I couldn't believe they didn't make, like, all the things that he pulls. I was surprised they didn't come out.
Everything I see, I have not seen that. No. Yeah. Just McDonald's stuff.
Okay. All right. In certain categories I always look at, food is one of them. Space is the other one.
No, I don't look at space anymore and just don't. We had a rocket took off last night, but nobody cares about rocket tech. No, somebody wants to know if the rocket is going to bring back aliens and they're going to invade us. Like, if you would have said that, then it'd be...
Oh, I could make that. We can do that. Alien invasion has another 3 million hits on our Instagram page right there. Yeah, people are scared of aliens.
Which we're almost at 3 million, by the way. Are we really? Who is that not making money? $2,870,000, as of yesterday.
Palmer, your voice is bubbly. Just unplug, where do you plug? I turned it. Yep, there you go.
You turned it. I turned it because it was sliding off my leg. No, we got a new set coming. Yeah.
All right. All right. Cigar News. Raching Portable Draw Analyzer is coming out.
That's all those. Do you want one? Raching? R-A-C-H-I-N-G.
M-I-N-G, I don't know how to say it. I don't think that's how you say it. It's doing it again. How about now?
Talk a little bit more? Talk a little bit more? No, it's still doing it. You guys just finished the show.
I'm done. This is you shutting down? She's not going to be able to hear me. Just shut the...
I'll hold up signs. It's still doing it. You got to turn it off, turn it on. Maybe if they get too hot or something.
No, that's not the case. That one's defective. Yeah, we have one that's bad, and apparently it's this one. Yeah.
Alright, how about now? Yep, we're good now. Alright. To a point, here's what we're gonna do, is when we get the next set in, we'll turn them both on and test them, make sure they're both flawless, we'll run them for like a week, make sure there's no issues.
If there is, then we'll take the crappy one out of that, and then put these two together, and then send them two crappy ones back. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Alright, a Chinese company best known for its electronic cabinet humidors has announced a new portable draw test for cigars.
You asked me if I want one. Yes, do you want one? Are they going to give it to us? No, they're not, I don't know.
Who's the company? I'm addressing them, yeah. Because I'm not spending $600 on one. Is that how much it costs?
Yeah. Uh, portable, sorry, I got a text message from somebody I don't get messages from, it's just kind of weird. Oh. Portable draw analyzer is a new device that the company has included.
The draw testers and some more expensive humidor options... Oh, I didn't know they... So, what would I do with a draw tester? I know what they're for.
I know how they use them in a factory. Why would I want one? Uh, so you're not disappointed when you light up the cigar? You can check it and make sure that it's optimal.
Like, oh, this is the perfect draw for me. How much is this thing? It's like 600 bucks. I think for $600, I'll just, you know, roll the dice every time I light one.
It's one of those things where you, you know, "Oh, check this out. " Whoa, whoa, this isn't how we smoke cigars. We have to test them first. So this is right up there with the machine that you poke your cigar to get the humidification of your cigar.
You know, I was talking to the guy before, the draw machine guy, and I meant to get one and then I totally forgot. Are we playing a skit or is this really? No, maybe I'll run into him because I wanted to use it on the Patreon. I'm not sure the way you said it, Phil, it sounded like we were skidding.
It's a thing where we can compare construction. I was gonna be the guy. Right. Well, yes, I have them, I could give you one if you'd like.
No. Yeah, that would be cool. I mean, I've seen the humidity one, one time, Pedro had one. Yeah.
And I thought it was really cool, but I never bought one. Right. Yeah, but that's it. I mean, I'm gonna sit down on Saturday afternoon and check the draw and humidity of all my cigars.
Yeah, they're gonna sell like five of these things. Right. We smoked way too many cigars, even. I'd already had to use it twice today.
Yeah. But it is a good tool for like a podcast. Like that would be. Yeah.
Well, they should send one to every podcast. No, we're going to get one from the other guy. I like the other guy. Cigar Mechanic, I think.
How big is it? Is that the Magician? I don't know. Is it like the ones you see at the factory, the big wooden thing where I got to turn the crank?
No, McTavish has one. Oh. Yeah, you got to turn the crank. They tagged him on this.
A couple of people did. On this press release. Because he's got one. He's got the, not that one.
Oh. Are they from Canada? Are they Canadian? So.
No. So, John, when you listen to this in six to eight weeks. A year. Can you tell us how often you use the one you have?
Yeah. I use it all the time. Well, if it's 300 pascals, it's too loose. If it's 300 to 500 pascals, it's slightly loose.
500 to 1,000 pascals, gridlock zone. It's going to be tight. This is stupid. $600, there it is, $700.
$700. They're going to have it at the, oh, TPE. Oh, I got excited for a minute, I was going to go over there with a handful of cigars and just... They'll probably have one at PCA.
They're going to do it at the TPE trade show, which takes place March 3rd, April 2nd, in Las Vegas. Yeah, yeah, let's pass. Oh, Cigar Medic introduced a much larger but still portable machine design. Cigar Medic.
Sorry, I screwed that up, I said mechanic. Yes, that's all right. Things happen. Cigar Medic has a much larger Yadiana.
Horrible machine designed for cigar factories. Does Skip have one? No. I didn't think so.
He doesn't believe in them. Right. He just checks each one himself. He believes that it should weigh in and, you know, if you do that right.
It's not wrong. All right, Missouri has issued a bill that would cut property taxes for disabled veterans. That's great. Well, they're going to do it by increasing the amount of cash.
That's great. Well, they're going to do it by increasing tobacco taxes. That's terrible. Well, I thought too.
We're going to pay for it for them, apparently. For the most part, when elected officials want to raise taxes on tobacco, including cigars, it's done so under the justification of public health. Well, no, they voted, so that's why we're not going to go to the PCA. " We're going to give you an exemption for smoking inside the thing, but you've got to pay more tax.
So, apparently, we're a hot topic in Missouri. Yes, things are going on in Missouri. The cigar industry. Yeah, we're going to allow you to do this, but we're going to raise your taxes on this anyway.
Uh, there's only, uh, there's only two guys that think it's a good idea. Only two, whatever the votes are. I'm sorry, what? There's only two guys.
Only, who, two guys. He means like two people. Yeah, two people put this bill together. Nobody else likes it.
Oh, okay. Just the two guys. Yeah. Okay.
Oh, Representative Donald Mayhew and Representative Bill Lucas have introduced the veterans And Gold Star Family Property Tax Relief Act. Never trust a guy with two first names. Right. It's true.
I mean, you know, like, do you think veterans should be paying property taxes? No, I don't think anybody should be paying property taxes. Well, then that TV show would be off the hook. Yeah, then it'd be fine.
It'd be fine. Then you'd have your own house. How about the government? That's the way.
How about, you know, the government, the company steps in, And then the government wipes their, keeps their taxation the same, not increasingly. 2% is what they're looking to raise. 2% of the wholesale price. Oh, yeah?
For tobacco products, including cigars. 2%? I mean... That's how it starts.
Yeah, I know. It starts at 2. Next thing you know, they raise the property taxes, so they need more money, and it goes to 5. Yeah.
The percentage should be zero. There should be no percentage. Vaping is 10, if that makes you feel better. It doesn't.
You don't like vaping. No, I don't, but I don't mean- You don't want to tax that either? No. I'm not going to, listen, just because I don't like it doesn't mean that I'm pro taxation of it.
Oh, wait. Uh-oh. There's more. Okay.
Tax the battery suckers. So it's going to go to 12. See? They're only raising it 2%, but it's already at 10%.
Yeah. Well, there's less battery suckers now. It's talking about cigars now. Talking about cigars now.
Talking about cigars now. Oh, yeah, no. Welcome back to the conversation. Yep.
98. Got it. No. Not okay.
This is not okay. All right. Run through this. There's more facts, but apparently we don't care.
All right. J. Fernandez is scheduled for May. Ooh.
Rafael Nadal. J. Fernandez. Okay.
Continue. J. J. Fernandez for the company's next release, Abdel Fernandez is honoring some of the help he received following the fire.
J. Fernandez is a new line, it's made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco, capped off by Habano wrapper. While Amar is born out of the fire at the factory in Esteli, the line is being made at the San Latino factory, the company's second factory, which is located in Octal, north of Esteli. Offered in four sizes, the bladi, bladi, bladi, bladi, blahs, and the bladi, bladis.
The name has two different meanings in Spanish. Amar means to love. Well, in Arabic, the word for moon. So, they love the moon.
To love the moon. To love the moon. The company says it's highlighted Abdel Fernandez's heritage. He's known for being Cuban, but also has Lebanese heritage.
Oh, there you go. That's why it is love the moon. To love the moon. Yes.
" Aye, only AJ. I saw a picture of Rafael Nadal holding this up, and AJ was in the background, like, yesterday. Oh. That's why I thought it was Nadell's.
Oh, well, didn't Raphael set him up in the new factory? " He loves taking pictures. Raphael. I don't think Raphael set him up in the new factory.
But Altadis is now working with AJ for the majority of their production. I thought I saw a photo when the other one burned down of him like with his arm around AJ in some new factory. Like it was just set up and everything was nice and clean and new. Oh, D, you're right, they went and helped, yeah, there was something like that, you're right.
All right, now it's time for the industry's favorite game: What's the Score? Today's Cigar, April 5th, 2015, Brian Burt is the reviewer. Cigars is the Dominican Republic, limited edition, it's from Lost and Found, it's called the Buck 15. The Buck Fifteen.
Never heard of it before, it seemed like an excellent choice. 15. Phil? I went first yesterday.
You didn't go first yesterday, we went equal amounts yesterday. Eighty-five. Eighty-eight. I'll go first moving forward, since you're a crybaby.
All right, so Lost and... Okay, you two, stop arguing. The Lost and Found Buck Fifteen is Dominican Republic, factory, not sane. Wrapper, Dominican Republic, Binder, Dominican Republic, Filler, Dominican Republic, it's a 5x50 Robusto, back then it sold for $10, and they made 100 bundles of 4 cigars, or 400 total cigars, they smoked 3.
It was a bundle of 4 cigars? Yeah. 88. Yes, 100 bundles of 4 cigars.
Yeah, 85. The Buck 15 is a visually appealing cigar, especially with the absence of a band allowing full attention to the wrapper. The light tan color with a subtle mint green tint gives it a unique look and the wrapper itself is well applied with a soft, inviting feel. The pre-light experience is also enjoyable, offering delicate aromas of fresh alfalfa, honey, vanilla with a cold draw that brings an interesting mix of pepper and sweetness.
88? 85. Number 2. The first third delivers a well-balanced and nuanced profile featuring notes of pepper, caramelized sugar, fresh hay, and a light floral component.
While the flavors are on the milder side, they work together nicely and create an enjoyable, easy-going start. The cigars also perform well in this phase with a solid smoke production and generally even burn early on and draw that, while slightly open, still provides a satisfying smoking experience. 87. Um, I'll say 85.
Third clue. The cigar struggles significantly with construction and consistency as it progresses. Soft spots along the body lead to burn issues that require multiple touch-ups and relights, ultimately disrupting the experience. Flavor-wise, the profile takes a downturn in the second and final thirds, losing its earlier balance And becoming dominated by harsh pepper, bitterness, and even sour notes.
Eighty-one. I was supposed to go first. Oh, sorry. Say 81.
Eighty-five. Eighty-one. Final thought. The idea behind Lost and Found is an interesting one, and definitely a neat project to release cigars that might have otherwise never seen the light of day.
Sometimes, however, it seems that these cigars weren't released for a reason, I think that's what happened with the Buck 15. The blend seemed to be there with a decent profile up front and one that could have continued to be okay if the construction hadn't been such a mess. The burn issue went far beyond what was just a wavy wrapper burning but instead had entire sections of tobacco that almost seemed to refuse to ignite. The nature of this project seems that Lost and Found will have some good releases, some great releases, and then others that just missed the mark.
77. 76. Oh, you went the right way. Yes.
68. 68. Wow. 68.
Man, we've been, there's been a lot of, you know, as, as we read these through the shows, right, there's not a lot of good cigars out there. Like, especially on construction-wise. Well, yes. I've been trying to pick the lower scoring ones, because anywhere between 80 and 92, you guys are less pinpointy and more range, where you're just trying to beat, I mean, the idea is to beat the other guy, obviously.
But with the lower scores, you guys get more specific and get closer to the score. Ah, so Palmer's got a method. Well, there's not going to be that many bad ones, you know, but I'm trying to get things that aren't in the, like, 82 to 92 range, something above or below that. I gotta tell you, Phil, two out of three people in this podcast have methods.
Okay. The lower the score, the better, because, I mean, you go, a 44? How did they ever get a 44? Better say bye soon, because it's starting to crackle again.
All right, tell them where we're going to be, Michael. We're going to be at Bowl Weevil Cigars and Humidor Fine Cigars in Dothan, Alabama, March 27th and 28th. So, if you're available, you're in the area, and you want to come out, come hang out with us. Yeah.
And make sure you like and subscribe. We're reviewing or listening to this show where we provide edutainment. There it is. There it is.
For all our viewers and listeners. Thank you so much for watching. And Phil, anything else to add? Uh, no, just, uh, make your point on one of these dope little hats.
We may have a special guest tomorrow, just so you know. Uh-oh. All right, guys. Thanks.
Bye. Bye.
Show Notes
Fast Food, Flight Fails & Cigar Politics — Missouri Steals, Cuba Struggles, AJ Dominates
On Todays show Mcdonalds has a new deal, More Tavel Delays, Cuba has two new problems , in cigars Missouri steals from one to help another! It’s Only Aj and when you thought Cigars couldn’t get any better! All this , a what’s the score and way to much fun on this episode of ACHP.
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