ACHP Episode 491 Oil, Capes & Kings - Featuring Oliver Nivaud

Episode Summary

Episode 491 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast welcomes guest co-host Oliver Nivaud of United Cigars (Atabey, Red Anchor, Gold Star and more) into the Deltona studio with Mike Palmer, Phil McGuffey and Mikey. Oliver opens up about his path in the industry since 1997 — including 14 years in Las Vegas working for Michael Fry during the Casa Fuente era — and gives a candid, admiring read on United founder David Garofalo: a relentless workhorse who bought the diner he worked at as a teenager, DJ'd overnight, wrote "David vs. Goliath" to share four decades of retail promotion ideas, and who, in Oliver's words, simply outlives his failures. Oliver also explains his role running United's manufacturing and distribution side, from packaging and blending to overseeing a five-person sales team.

The meat of the conversation is retail strategy. Oliver pushes back on the common retailer habit of "waiting for PCA" to make buying decisions, arguing that brands like Red Anchor or Gold Star should get a couple of facings on the shelf early so a retailer knows what's actually moving before committing show-deal dollars — otherwise that budget gets locked into product that doesn't gravitate to their customer base. He also talks about life on the road (roughly 30 weeks a year), a 26-hour travel odyssey from Manchester, New Hampshire to Orlando, TSA staffing chaos, and why California's UTL registration is something he's choosing to wait out rather than burn cash on.

Cigar news includes Arturo Fuente finally shipping the long-delayed Rare Pink Vintage 1960s "Black Pink" — a Connecticut-grown Habano seed wrapper over Dominican fillers, initially limited to roughly 80 TAA retailers before a wider release in six months — plus Ontario, California's blanket ban on flavored tobacco, vapes, kratom and nitrous oxide, and the April release of El Rey del Mundo VSOP, a $10.99 6x52 Toro with Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper that has reportedly been sitting for four years. The crew also vents about missing out on an allocation of Tyler's Leprechaun Dust through a distributor, and a misdialed phone call wakes up the wrong "Sweeney."

The show closes with What's the Score, guessing Brooks Whittington's half wheel review of the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box Press Sun Grown Churchill. Clues point to creamy oak and dark chocolate early, then aggressive pepper and a loose draw — Phil's conservative 81 wins against an actual score of 80.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Meet Oliver Nivaud of United Cigars
   The crew introduces guest co-host Oliver Nivaud, who represents United Cigars, Atabey, Red Anchor and Gold Star.
2. 02
   Who David Garofalo Really Is
   Oliver describes United's founder as an unstoppable workhorse who turned a teenage diner job into a retail and distribution empire and shares his playbook in his book David vs. Goliath.
3. 03
   Oliver's Industry Path and Role at United
   From 1997 and 14 years in Las Vegas with Michael Fry and Casa Fuente to running United's manufacturing, distribution, blending, packaging and sales team.
4. 04
   Trending News: Venezuelan Oil, Florida Law and Batman Cops
   The guys riff on eased sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company, Florida's failed first-cousin marriage ban, and a Hillsborough County police car with a grappling hook.
5. 05
   Why Retailers Shouldn't Wait for PCA
   Oliver makes the case for placing a couple of facings of a new brand early so you know what's moving before spending your PCA budget.
6. 06
   Life on the Road and Travel Chaos
   Thirty weeks a year of travel, a 26-hour trip from New Hampshire to Orlando, TSA staffing shortages and the worst places to drive.
7. 07
   Cigar News: Fuente Rare Pink Black, Ontario Flavor Ban, El Rey del Mundo VSOP
   Fuente's TAA-only Black Pink ships with a Connecticut Habano wrapper, Ontario California bans all flavored products, and El Rey del Mundo VSOP arrives at $10.99 after four years of aging.
8. 08
   Leprechaun Dust Allocation Drama
   The hosts air frustration over losing their small allocation of Tyler's Leprechaun Dust through a distributor mix-up, plus a botched phone call to the wrong Sweeney.
9. 09
   What's the Score: Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box Press Sun Grown
   The panel guesses Brooks Whittington's review score for the Churchill, landing on an actual 80 after clues about creamy oak, dark chocolate, aggressive pepper and a loose draw.

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

Mike Palmer: Alright, welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast episode 491. I'm Mike Palmer, your executive producer today. In engineering, we have Phil. m.

McGuffey. Hello, people. , to be fair. That was just, today was a fluke.

Yeah, I was up before, too. And, Mikey, it's my show now, Shtepan Kiewicz, and then as our guest co-host today from United Cigars, Atabe, and several others, Mr. Oliver Niveau. Hello, Oliver.

Hello, Oliver. Hello. What's going on, boys? So, David Garofalo has sent his goons after us, apparently, since we have not taken on United.

I thought he was coming today for the show. No. He's like me, he's like me here, but like more money, more retail, you know. More success.

Yeah, so he, you know, he just hangs out there. They're hiring, by the way, quite lucrative positions from what I saw. Oh, yeah? They pay well at the shop up there.

Oh, you got a job? You pay well. We'll miss Palmer. You're dropping a resume?

Well. Cost of living is more expensive, so you may want to stay in Deltona. Yeah. Oh, nobody actually lives in Deltona.

Deltona? It's Deltona. Ooh, I like Deltona. We should change the name.

You said it's Kissimmee. Did I correct you? Well, you just, the way you said it was different. You said Kissimmee, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Kissimmee? Being up north, I said Kissimmee.

Kissimmee, yeah. Whatever he says. Kissimmee, too. You know what's funny is I think that I always say Kissimmee when I was just from South Florida, so it's not, but when I came up here, I guess it evolved into Kissimmee.

Yes, one of us. Right. Now I'm a Central Floridian. Now you're a Central Florida person, too.

Yeah. So. All right. On today's show, we have Now I Can Buy Venezuelan Oil.

Yay. Florida is still family first. Hillsborough County is one step closer to having a Batman police force. Oh.

Then in cigars, Rare Pink Black Pink is back in the news. Oh. Ontario says really no flavored products now. And then four years, we've been waiting to see who's the king of the world.

And then we have a what's the score that we're going to introduce to Oliver. But first, Mikey, how can we get some of that CH Pod swag, what have the people been saying about our show online, and how do they make an appointment with Postonius Cigars at PCA, but more importantly, can we get a Preston update? Have you guys broke up as a reason he's not coming in this week? Oh, yeah.

Because I heard he's now doing a show with the Cigar Guys. Oh, yeah? They call it the Flag Football Guys. The Flag Football Guys.

The Flag Football Guys. Yes. com for all of our CH Pod swag. Where you buy one, you get the second one 40% off, spend $100 or more, you're gonna get free shipping.

As far as YouTube comments, there aren't many today, my friend. There were some, I sell some new ones. Just got a couple. Oh, that's on the clips, we don't do the clips.

We don't do the clips. I reward the show. " Yes. Fantastic.

I can't wait to see that you didn't show me Palmer, the outfit, the potential new mask for Mr. Phil. Oh yeah, I forgot to show you yesterday. Yeah.

Oh, it was a new one. And then Jace1911 says, beat that volume up a little boots, still a little low. I don't think that your volume is low. I think that you can't just stay on the mic for whatever reason.

So make sure that you stay on top of the mic. Do you ever try to lean out around the monitor? Do you actually see us? No, I always look at the monitor.

I thought that might be it. No, but sometimes I'll go back like that. So maybe that's where it's at. You got to stay on top.

Because when I go to smoke a cigar, if I have the cigar in my mouth. Gotcha. In your mouth. In your mouth.

If you want to hear your comment said out loud on the show, if it's funny enough, put it on our latest episode on our YouTube page and it may, you know, maybe it happened. This could happen, it could not happen, who knows. Yeah, when you comment about boots, Mike, he really likes to read those. Phil.

Yeah, Phil, sorry, yeah Phil. It's your own name, right? For God's sakes, man. If you're going to the show, if you're a retailer and you're going to the show and you want to meet with us, hit the Cali link below.

We have the number two cigar of the year on Half Wheel, and we just got ranked 91 for the Postana San Andreas Corona Gorda. We are one of eight cigars that has a 91 rating or above on Half Wheel. So hit the calendar link below. We'd love to meet with you.

We're going to give you a free hat for your time. And if you're a retailer that already does business with us, please check us out. We want to update you as to what's going on the upcoming year and all the chaos that we're dealing with for having and bringing new cigars into the industry. If you're a media person, there's a link for you as well.

So Epicure & Smoke's already in, Palmer, you know that? - Yes, I saw that. - Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. - Bob the Cigar Guy is too.

Yep, yep, we got, we already got some, some big, I don't think Lee Mack is committed yet, though. Oh. And, uh, no, uh, Gerdegurdison? No, no Gerdegurdison.

And, uh, the, uh, Coop Coalition or whatever the name of the organization's called? Yeah. I have not either. Coop's Feeding Time?

Not committed. Not committed. Not committed. So.

So that's all I got for today, my friend. No, Preston, nothing? Oh, Preston? Yeah, you just kinda just really blowed over that.

Yeah, exactly. Nervous giggle, and then because I said his name, and then nothing. Things aren't working out so well. Oh, divorce?

Wait, where are we going? Yeah. Where are me and Palmer going? Well, I'm going to keep Palmer.

Oh, you're going. Sorry. I'm going to split the children. You're going.

America's so messed up today. America's so messed up today. To explain to Oliver, Mikey adopted a gentleman who does a flag football league. He adopted him.

He adopted him. Oh, okay. Am I on? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There you are. " So, I didn't know if I was on yet. Have I just been sitting here dead-faced? Yeah, your camera's not on unless you talk.

He hits a button. We flip. If you have something you want to say, you just point at him. Yeah, just happy to be here.

Palmer went in and he listened to a lot of the podcasts that you're on. Apparently, you're very well-versed. ChatGPT says you're very famous. Yeah, you're a big deal.

So I don't know what that cost, but I would like to know so I could pay it too. So you got to run ChatGPT through Grok, through all the others, and that's how you filter all the AI. That's where you get to it. Yeah, try that, try that, try that, yeah.

You got to tell us some-- Who's famous anymore? I don't know. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. You guys, you guys are on five days a week, like you're the face of the industry.

Pretty much. Oh, I like that. Clip, yeah, that's clip, yeah. Mark that, mark that.

We're the face of the industry. Wait, wait, hold on, everybody stop talking. Could you say it one more time? Clear.

Yeah. No, we're serious! Oh, you're serious! No, you're not.

Yes! You got it. Cut that and use it. So...

You got it. He's famous! No, I'm being quiet. Go ahead.

Go ahead. You guys are the face of the industry now. Thank you! Yes!

Mark 4, what time is it? 8:27. Okay, I got it. 7 minutes and 11 seconds.

Yeah. Eat that cigar, guys. And you were very generous. You gave us some cigars.

A lot of cigars. I'm smoking this. The Red Anchor. There it is.

i'm having this one right now yeah the gunner it's very good so far by 43 ecuador and habana wrapper that's a great size man that's a great time is it it is it's his favorite but for retailers i love it no no and i agree with you i only say that yeah but then once you put it on the retail shelf that never sells a 43 gauge i don't know right will your customers listen to you they'll launch it yeah i think that's what's important if they're going to listen that means you have to And I talked to them. Right. There's that whole thing. That is that whole thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's the whole hospitality side. That's why I was being genuine. Yeah.

Like when you offer, one, offering a drink is kind of lost in the art of our industry, just in general. Right. But then you crack the top. I did.

And that's a special, special thing. It's all about details. Yeah, but I'm being very serious, because I do that. But not many people do that.

Yeah, you gotta. He's gotta look like a guy that wouldn't do that. Palmer? Palmer, yeah.

Definitely would not do that. Yeah, only on Fridays. Only on Fridays. What happens is Palmer gets a little squirrely, he gets like nervous.

You know what I mean? It's not that he's unintentionally not hospitable. It's just that he gets scared around people too often, right? I thought you were wearing Velcro shoes.

Can you leave your microphone to the middle on your shirt? Middle? The middle. Well, when he turns and talks to you, we lose him.

Ooh. Oh, look at that. How's that? Do I have to button up?

No, no, no. You can go down a little bit. I mean, if you like to. In the middle, so then when you turn your head.

Yeah, you can lower it slightly so it's not bending your shirt. It's not bending your shirt. A lot of swivel. Yeah.

There you go. That's one of the downfalls of our little set up here. Dexterity. How's that?

The finger's good. Center chest. Better. Yeah, that's better.

Center mass. I was going to ask you to do it, Michael, but it seemed awkward for you to run over and start playing. Yeah, we're not quite there yet. You should have had Mikey do it.

I would have tried. Yeah. He seemed quite capable, though. So what could make this show better, you ask?

Maybe someone could do an audio check before the show starts, and with your guests, you could put it on. I had to do this myself. Yeah. Well, he was supposed to do it.

I'm talent today. Well, we had faith in him. I think I'm higher. There was no makeup.

Yeah. You've done, you're friends with the guys on Dojo. No. We don't know.

We honestly don't know if we're friends. Yeah, do they respond to our comments? It's hard to determine. I've only been on the show once.

It was actually in, you know, it's a nice garage studio, but they had like a little makeup thing. They have a favorite thing. Oh, really? You can pat your forehead.

I was like, do I need to pat my forehead? That's nice. I don't know. Because they have the nice lights.

They have everything looks... Right. But they had like a little makeup thing. What about green M&M's?

Did they cover the green M&M's for you? Yeah, did you have a writer? No, they had green tequila. Plenty of tequila.

Oh, plenty of tequila guy. Well, sorry to disappoint. I opened your water though, so we got that going. That's great.

You know? Okay, you ready to get into the news or what? Well, you know, that's all you want to talk to him? Oh, yeah.

You were telling Mr. Oliver a little bit about who Preston was. Oh, so he talked Preston into doing a podcast, which means I have to do Preston's podcast, and he usually comes in on Tuesdays, but this week he canceled Tuesday, he rescheduled for Thursday, and now he is canceled for Thursday. Yeah.

So, Mikey's in a much better mood on Preston days. You're not charging him. No, no, it's free. It's completely free.

That's why he didn't show up. There's no skin in the game. Yeah, you think so? Yeah, 100%.

Do you think maybe Preston's mad that Mikey took over the league or? Could be. Might be. I don't think that's the case.

No? Started his own league. Did you take over the league? I did not.

I'm not taking over the league. Not yet. Okay. That's like, I'm not going to coach basketball, and now you coach basketball.

You're still the line judge though for volleyball. I'm done with that. You're done being the line judge. That's over.

He's a volleyball coach. Are you reaching that age where you have to stop? Because you're competitive with sports. Right.

competitive with sports but i had to stop after a while because it was like the achilles hurt or i got i went i played like a men's league lacrosse i got whacked in the elbow i'm like how am i doing yeah i gotta go i gotta go to work oh you're talking about playing he likes to oh he's coach he's the coach yeah i coach i'll still coach he is the guy that puts everything together his 75 children he coaches yeah um but i will tell you this you know you're like the shack of coaching yeah i am like 75 kids he's gonna hold on to that he's gonna hold on to that one we should Don't make that a shirt. I don't know what that sounds like. That's another shirt. That's another shirt.

Yeah, soundbite. Ollie's Oliver soundbites today. I don't know. Pain is part of life.

I just deal with the pain. Mark. You know. Hold on.

13 minutes. I just hit me because you were making me laugh. I was inhaling it. Yeah.

Yeah, pain's part of it, but you need a paycheck. And you can't go down. Do I? Are you sure about that?

No, I don't know that. That's true. You know, I've been doing this for eight years, still waiting on that paycheck. Still waiting.

Oh, I thought you meant you just had more money than... Oh, no, no, no. Oh, no, very poor. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we're super poor. Welcome to Deltona. Not by the, not by the looks of the parking lot. You guys are doing very well.

Oh, thanks. Yeah. You saw the Ferrari then? Yeah.

Thanks. Yeah. Uh, the tow truck has not arrived yet to pick that up? The repo.

All right, good. Yeah, my Ferrari started the dealership. Yeah? Yeah.

Still there? mine's hidden behind the house yeah in my house so they can't get it so you got to tell me about dave like i just said it ruffalo yeah is he is he always nice or is have you you know what what's he like behind closed doors is a little bit of a bypass me yeah let's not talk right let's go straight to dave well we couldn't get him so yeah right right yeah you're just a guy wandering minds uh so i've been doing this um since 97 holy shit yeah and uh smoking cigars since night I've been doing this since '88, but I only say since I've been doing this since '97, because I've worked with some great guys, and I've met some incredible people, and I worked in Vegas for 14 years for Michael Fry, who now is just pointed to the board of the PCA, great, and he was partners in Casa Fuente, so I was part of that, so I've seen some great things, and I've learned some amazing things in the industry. David Garofalo is an absolute workhorse. You cannot outwork him, you can't.

And I'm saying that for some of the top guys, like a Perdomo, like a Perdomo, he doesn't stop working. He doesn't, but he does take time for himself and his family and the travel. Dave is constant and that's his brilliance, right? His first book that he wrote, because now he just wrote another one, first book, David vs.

Goliath, he wrote all of the promotional ideas that he's seen success with over the 40 years of retail, and he shared that with everybody to use in retail. But his success is he outlives his failures. That's not a bad thing. That's the top athletes in the world, the top everybody.

They outlive their failures because they don't look at the failure as a setback. They look at it as a lesson, And that's what I would say that that defines Garofalo. Do you think he just hates his family? I'm not going to say I'm working, I'm working, less family, they won't find me.

No, not, I think he loves his family more that he wants everything for them. Like he, you know, yeah, he's wanting to get on because he started out, um, he was working in a diner, I shouldn't tell his history because I don't know the full thing. He was working in a diner at 16, right? And then he bought the, bought the diner while he was still in school.

And then he was DJing, so he's, imagine being a DJ until two, three in the morning, then going to the diner at 6am to start flipping eggs, and then he built that all the way through, so he just doesn't stop, so, yeah, it's great working for him, but if you're looking for something to, you know, someone to work for and then take some time off, it doesn't happen, but it's a good thing too, it kind of keeps, you know, keep that edge sharp. He's cool, man. I like him. Yeah.

Oh, he's cool. He's a lot of fun. Yeah. He's laid back.

He's humble, but yeah. He's authentic. He's authentic. Which I like.

That is a great way to describe it. Yeah. Because some people can't take authenticity. Correct.

They say, "Oh, don't lie to me. " Okay, you look great in that shirt. Right. But he'll just tell you why you're wearing that.

Do I look good in that shirt? Right. You look great in that shirt. Thanks so much.

He wears the same one every day. He likes it when you comment on his looks. The more you tell him he looks good, the better. It's super important to me.

The more he might buy later. Yeah, you never know. You did come in. You know what?

We're doing so well, we don't even need anybody to buy anything anymore. Yeah, we're doing great. Don't even worry about it. Yeah, you can, or you cannot.

Take it, don't take it. I don't care. Who cares? Who cares?

We're doing this since '97. We're fine. Right. I don't know.

I retired ten years ago. I'm just doing this for fun. No paychecks. See, that's the attitude.

Now you're talking. Oh, yeah. You could definitely be on the podcast with us. Do you need the money?

Oh, yes. I need the money. But that's not how this is working out. Yeah.

This isn't an industry of making money until you start making money. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. How many years does that take all over? Because I got, I don't know.

Well, some come into the industry with a lot of money. Yeah. And that's where you see this. And that's when, and then it becomes less, and start with the big fortune.

Yeah, even things out eventually. Yeah, how do you make a small fortune in the sky industry? Start with a big one? Start with a big one.

Right, right, right. Because, I mean, for me, the checks just get bigger. Not for me. That you're writing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, with these lights, this is like, I mean, I'd watch out for the FBI to come down. Yeah?

I think you're running higher parks. You think so? Yeah. You got a whole grow room here.

Will we get more views? Yep, yep, it's a girl room, it's a girl room. I mean, I could use a vacation, maybe they come in, who knows? Maybe they come in.

Federal Penitentiary, it'd be a low security thing. They had cheeseburgers. Three square meals. We had Whoppers on one episode, come on.

From watching Narcos and all the mob movies, prison doesn't look that bad. Right. It depends, I guess, but it's all classified, you know what I mean, like how much, what classification of an individual you are, I'm not up there. Yeah.

Yeah. You just got to stab somebody when you get in there. General Pop. Yeah, I'd be in General Pop.

Yeah. Yeah, you just got to stab somebody when you get in there. Stab somebody? Yeah.

Get your rank up. Yeah. Put some tears up. Yeah.

I'm just going to tattoo the tears before I go in. Just fake it. So when's the show start? Any minute now.

Any minute. It's going to happen. Any minute. Three, two, one, action.

So Garofalo, yeah, Garofalo's great. And he's just, he's got his hands in so many different things. So, that's the beauty of it. But, you know, for United, which he started in 2009, he kind of turned it over to me in 2016 when I started, which is great.

He's given, I don't want to say free reigns, he's still signing the checks. So you're like, you're in charge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have to, yeah, I get yelled at.

I get yelled at a lot. So you're the number two? Yeah, I'm the number two. So like 2B, C.

2B, C? Yeah. Who's 2A? I don't know.

I don't know. So you are number two. I think he would be, I think he would be 2A. Well, he's a number one.

Yeah, I know, but sometimes the number one can also be two. He can interject? Yeah, he jumps in. No, but it's not.

Wears many hats. Yeah, but it's not the same. I mean, you're clear, like, Palmer's the number two. Yeah.

Right? Like, he does everything. He means I get shit on, so that's why. Yeah.

But, like, unlike... Some people pay for that. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

People pay good money for that. That's true. Yeah, no, I mean, I oversee for, on our United Manufacturing Distribution side, I never see operations, so I'm doing, you know, packaging, blending. Oh wow.

You deal with the sales force too? Sales, yeah. You do, I didn't know that you, I didn't know you were that big of a deal. I thought you were just a guy.

I told you, I Googled him. No, you Chad GPT. Well, that's what I call Google. Well, we have, we have four, four guys on the road right now.

They're independent. Right. And then we have, uh, Agnes who's in our, in our office. She does our calls.

So, uh, yeah, we got, I guess, five, five sales. Okay. That's pretty good. It's healthy.

Yeah, you probably cover like Florida, Tri-State, Texas. Yeah, well, yeah, Texas, we're looking. Oh, so you're not there in Texas. Yeah, we had coverage, but now we're looking again.

Is there, you want Pete Hernandez, Florida? Nothing, no comments? He never watches. Yeah.

The good news is you get his brother Steven, too. Yeah, you get Steven, yeah, Steven. We love Pete. Pete's a good guest.

You let him sleep at your house. Let him sleep at your house. I've had a conversation with him. Yeah.

But yeah, it just wasn't the direction we were going in. He is a big deal. He's trying to be diplomatic and everything. Right, right.

Man, you showed up on the wrong show, buddy. Is it not the direction? " Well, it's not the direction we want to go, so we're just going to part ways here, sir. Okay.

Cool. Well, let's get into the... We're 20 minutes in. Let's get into some trending topics there, Mr.

Michael. S. oil policy. American companies can now do business with Venezuela's state oil giant.

Because we freed them? Owned by? Owned by Venezuela. Only Venezuela?

Yes. S. companies to buy Venezuelan oil for the first time in years. But there's a catch.

Uh-oh. The payments don't go directly to Venezuela. They go through us. Oh, through Trump.

Right, Trump. Well, we're controlling it, right? Or something? S.

controlled account. As I asked. com. To Donald J.

Donald J. com. Venmo. Venmo.

Do you guys have cash app for that? Because we can't really have good records for this, so. Is this going to lower the prices of oil or no? I don't think it's going to.

No? No. We're going over war. We are?

I heard about that recently. What? Internally. Oh, well that's constantly bad, yeah.

Let me see, oil prices. Well, the Dow's down. S. allowed Venezuela to win the World Baseball Classic.

They gave them the win. Look, they're all depressed. And the lady who checked me in today, what did it say? Yesterday, was from Venezuela.

No kidding. So, there's a connection. There you go. So, she's riding high.

Was she wearing like a Venezuela t-shirt? I mean, how could you tell? No, no, I don't know, you guys do it in Florida because a lot of tourists, they say where they're from. Oh, gotcha.

Maybe she was looking for tips. Yeah. Put the Venezuelan tag on today so they get more money. I really thought you were from Venezuela.

What an interesting accent. Later, I'm going to the airport to check people in. He has terrible accents. We're great at it.

I'm a great Chinese accent. Yeah, pretty much. And a German. I can do those two.

Oh, German's great. It may sound Venezuelan, but it's German. Germans let more spit. All right, hit me with the next one.

All right, Florida, you could still marry your first cousin. They tried to put a law out that said you couldn't, but it didn't pass. We've got it down. It didn't pass.

Get out of here. House Bill 733 was introduced to ban first cousin marriages and expand restrictions on close relatives. The proposal actually had some traction, but it was taken into a larger bill. They tried to hide stuff in the bigger bills, and so it didn't pass.

And now representative whoever has resigned. Him and his wife slash cousin. Right. So, Phil, was one of your wives, from your bevy of wives, was one of them a cousin of yours, or no?

No. No? I love how it always goes to me, but me and you have been married the same amount of times. Doesn't matter, years or more, apparently years mean more.

I'm not going to attack the producer of the show. Executive producer, thank you. The only way that I attack the executive producer of the show is when he comes for me. That's when I encounter.

He did. He came at you with Preston. No, he didn't. That was light.

Oh, you liked it? He likes when we say his name. Yeah. Makes him giggle.

Preston's my guy. Well, not this week. So, yeah, well, you never ended. Why isn't he here today either?

I mean, you had that Monday he went to the beach or Tuesday, whatever it was. He had spring break with his kids. It's cold. How's he going to the beach?

I don't know. Listen, he committed to the beach. What do you want from me? Oh, he's like staying at the beach.

Yeah, now he's back and he's catching up. Now he's a week behind. Maybe tomorrow. Yeah, spring break Yeah, people actually take time off You're not going to believe that Because we don't I used to, my wife said today She goes, I liked it when you used to be able to take spring break off with me I don't own my own company anymore, honey Times were simpler before Right, I know, they were simpler before When you called me Big Papa That's all you had to worry about They say, hey, you hang around the house too much Go get a job, you go get a job Right, exactly, that was a complaint before You're always home Like, hey, you're not around the house anymore.

Like, what are we doing? It's no way to make them happy. Yeah, it's a lose-lose. My goodness.

Sorry to hear that, Palmer. All right. Now, over in Hillsborough County, they have started mounting grappling hooks to police cars. Yes.

I have a video. You have a video. But you don't have Oliver's number. I don't have Oliver's number.

Do you have Oliver's number, Michael? I do. Well, don't say it loud. Don't say it loud on the show.

All right. Free. Yeah, go ahead. Send me it.

That's why Justin Andrews released nine digits. Let him figure it out. Yeah. Somebody figured it out, by the way.

Oh, there's only so many combinations. Yeah, like, hey, just for the record, it's this, and I'm like, dude. Hey, Boots, you're getting it too. I can't confirm that.

Oh, I'm getting it too? Yeah. My watch is going to go off? Yeah, I'm going to send this to you.

So it's, for those people that are listening and not watching, it is a video of a police chase. The female officer hits a button in her police car at a grappling hook, shoots out the front, grabs the back driver's side of the car, and brings it to a stop. Fantastic. Like Batman.

Yeah, actually, the news reporter on the show calls her Batman, and they mention her utility belt. I am Batman. Wow. And there wasn't a problem with Batman for a female officer.

Well, we don't know what kind of fallback fell on. Well, some of them like that. Oh, the car's still trying to pull away. Yeah, and it can't.

If you notice, the back tire does not spin anymore. Right. So that's why he goes left and right and then gets stuck. Okay.

Yeah, love it. Yeah, that's pretty cool, man. A little technology, a little advanced. So we're advancing in our law enforcement and you can still sleep with your cousin.

Right. All in the same state. All in the state of Florida, right. All in the same state.

Perfectly accepted. We've got it going on for you. This is why more people are moving to Florida. We're moving to Florida.

Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, I do everything I can to deter that. I don't want more people here. I think we have plenty of people.

What do you think, Palmer? I think we have plenty of people. Where do you live? Texas?

No, I wish. I wish. I do not. Although, I say wish, but Texas is very large, so there are different areas that I would and would not live in Texas.

I'm in New Hampshire. Oh, you're up there. Yeah, Manchvegas, Manchester. Okay.

It's beautiful up there in the springtime. It is. I imagine now. The start of the season.

Yeah, I imagine now it's not that nice. No. no how often are you home are you on the road a lot or no yeah yeah uh i mean it depends on the month this month i'm i'm gone three weeks out of the out of the out of march so i'll be in dallas and then east texas uh next week i was in houston last week so yeah a lot of travel which is kind of odd because you're going into pca right there afterwards right right why is that odd i mean I mean, normally you would, I mean, wouldn't you kind of pull back a little bit? No, I think you want to hit them.

Get them beforehand? Yeah, a little bit, yeah. I mean, one, just to get the name out because people still need to know, you know, the brands, Atabe, Red Anchor, Gold Stars, like, you know, United, Oliver, who's, who, what, where, when, that whole thing. So you have to get out there and, you know, we've been doing some events.

We have an event tonight at Cigars on the Ave, next week at Tobacco Junction. We have a Red Anchor Lounge in Tyler, Texas. Okay. Paul?

Yeah, I think. Yeah, Paul. And Tony Cooper, the owner. So, you have to just kind of get out there.

" Right. So, I don't fully understand that. I know you want to set a budget, but especially if you're bringing something new in, and this goes for your brand, although your brand's all over the place. You think so?

Yeah, it's great. Oh, thanks, man. Where was I? Joseph's.

Did you get there? Yeah. Anyway, you're going there, too. I was there last week, but my point is, so retailers, when they're talking about waiting until PCA, if you're going to introduce a new brand, yeah, it's nice to sit down with the, you know, the face of the brand and figure out what's going on, but if you're considering it, I would say start early, right?

I was thinking of Gold Star. I was thinking of Red Anchor. Okay, well, let's do a couple of facings. Let's do, you don't have to go deep into it, but get it on the shelf, get some traction.

And then if you say, well, Red Anchor is working for us, Gold Star isn't, let's say. Now at PCA, now you take advantage of the deals. Instead of going to PCA, taking advantage of a deal, now you're 12 boxes or whatever. And then you're, you're that, that budget that you were holding is stuck on a brain that you didn't.

That's not moving for you. Right, that wasn't moving for you. Right. Or you don't know how to move, or it just didn't work, and you're not comfortable with it for whatever reason, or your customers didn't like it, but now you're deep into a product, and now you have to try to blow it out or something, because we don't always make the right decisions as retail.

I was on the retail side too, right? So you buy with emotion or logic, and sometimes that emotion, you love the cigar, but you just can't move it. It doesn't gravitate towards your customer base. So, yeah, we've been open up some new accounts before the show, and then hopefully the show, they double down.

Right. I mean, normally retailers will tell you it's too cold, retailers will tell you it's too hot, retailers will tell you they don't have shelf space, you know. Yeah. And I'm waiting for the show.

So, we don't have enough shelf space. I always say, well, you wouldn't be doing your job if it was empty. And if it was empty, if you had empty shelf space, I probably wouldn't be here because it means you're going out of business. Right.

Right, so your shelves are supposed to be full, but when's the next rotation? You know you always have to look at the shelf life how long is it sitting if it's not doing well then let's rotate through when's that next right decision point and if it's PCA then okay we'll wait for PCA but I don't know how many weeks do you think you're on the road a year I'd say about now about 30 30 weeks so about half yeah yeah I do I try to do about two weeks out of the out of the year because then when you you know when you're on the road you don't get as much work True. Right? Because I can make phone calls when I'm driving, but some states are harder to drive than others.

Right. There are little crazy drivers out there, so I can't be looking at the phone or trying to do, I shouldn't be, but emails or texts or whatever. Yeah, that's the hardest part, taking the notes and stuff from the phone call. Yeah, right.

Where does Florida fall on that driving catastrophe? Driving? Yeah, like top five? Orlando's a little crazy.

Yeah. Because it's just jammed. Like I was, what was I, in the 4, 191, whatever, whatever it was, driving here, yeah, and it seemed like there was a lot of construction, a lot of trucks, and then even though you're driving 30 miles an hour, if you have 15 feet of space in front of you, there's always that guy in the little Miata that wants to, yeah, cut through. So yeah, you just have to watch everything.

Luckily, I have, I think I've been rear-ended once, I hit a deer like three weeks ago. So, like, plowed through a deer. Really? Yeah, coming home.

It's the best way to do it. Um, so yeah, I mean, you know, you just have to watch everywhere. So what's the worst place to drive, your experience? New York, New Jersey.

Yeah? Yeah. And driving in the city, like, they're all assholes. Right.

Can't make a U-turn in Jersey. Ever. No? No, like, it's impossible.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's very aggravating. That's actually true. You can't pump your own gas too, right?

Yeah, yeah, I got to have a guy. Right. I don't want a guy. I want to pump my own guy.

I need a guy. You need a gas guy? Or an assistant. Yeah, somebody that just sits there and does all the other stuff.

How much does it pay Oliver? All the cigars you could smoke. Right. I might be him.

Not in his car, because they're rentals. And three square meals a day. Ooh, throw it in food. Three is not enough for Phil, just for the record, though.

Yeah, I need snacks. Snacks, yeah. Snacks included. Yeah, but it's a lot of travel.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of time. And then there's just all that wasted time in the airport. There's nothing glorious.

It took me 26 hours to get here. Right. So I was supposed to leave, what's today, Thursday? I was supposed to leave Tuesday morning, and then that got delayed.

That got pushed because of the weather out here, and then I guess there was bad weather in Philly. That got pushed to four o'clock. Then it got pushed to 11. Then it got pushed to four.

Then I ended up getting it on a five o'clock. And that 5 o'clock was supposed to go to Charlotte. There were, I guess, big headwinds. The plane coming in was late.

So instead of refueling in Manchester, New Hampshire, they just boarded the plane. We flew out, but we weren't going to have enough gas in case we had to circle Charlotte. So we got rerouted to Dulles to refuel. And then I ended up missing the connection in Charlotte to Orlando.

So I had to spend the night in Charlotte And then take a 7am on Wednesday morning to get here, so, it's just, travel's just insane. - Yeah, there's nothing glamorous about business travel. - No, so Dave doesn't let you use the private jet at all? - Oh yeah, no, no, no, there's no private jet.

- There's no private jet. - Are you sure? - Yeah, we're not there yet, no. - I think he's holding out on you, dude.

You show me pictures, I'm just saying. - Maybe, maybe, maybe. You might know more than I, you guys are the pulse of the, you ready? - Yeah.

- You guys are the pulse of the industry. - Michael, you laughed over him! Come on! Why did you do that?

You guys know more info than I do. Well, we make a lot of shit up too. Yeah. No, we don't.

Don't tell people that. We say we don't fact check, same thing. You know, what's funny is Palmer covered TSA being a catastrophe and then everybody, actually, not everybody, but Jack Taranio, Terrence Riley, and Skip all said, "Hey, that's not true. " It was the pre-check.

You fast forward five days later and it's complete chaos with TSA. No one wants to go to work anymore. Well, they're not getting paid. Yeah, I heard about that, yeah.

Yeah, and I think some TSAs, like some airports, because I was worried about going to Houston, but I flew into George Bush, but Hobby, which is like Hobby Airport, which is the, I think it's the hub for Southwest, it was right during spring break, so they had like a two, three hour wait. But also, I think that's just, that's not TSA pre-check, that's regular. Regular TSA. Right.

And so, I haven't had any issues. Oh, that's good. Because of all the travel, like you guys, all the travel, I got TSA, I got Clear. - Right, super important.

- Yeah, go through. Yeah, after waiting, I was waiting at Logan one time, this was early on, and I didn't have TSA pre-check, and I just saw these people passing through TSA, I'm like, and I signed up, got my appointment. - Right? - Yeah, I was like, this is ridiculous.

- I'm doing this. - I need all, yeah, I need all that. - You're gonna travel as often as you do. - Yeah.

- They're talking now about shutting some airports down because they don't have any TSA people. - Yeah. - Really? - Yeah.

- That's gonna be a problem. - Mm-hmm. I think it's the smaller airports, but they're like 30 to 40% call-ins now. Because you can't just not show.

You call in no-pay-sick or whatever they're calling. You call out sick, yeah. Right. Because you're an essential worker or something like that.

Sounds rough. Okay. All right, what else you got? All right, Turo Fuente ships rail.

Oh, you're going to Cigar News? How do you not cover Spider-Man? Because we already covered this, but the only thing they did was let the trailer loose. Yeah, that's a big deal, the Spider-Man trailer can.

Because we've covered Spider-Man. Spider-Man. He didn't pop last time like he did the first time. Well, Spider-Man's important to cover.

Alright, they released the trailer. There you go. Oh, thanks. Did you see the image where it's Spider-Man up high and then he's fighting a bunch of ninjas?

Like the hand or whatever? Something like that? Red ninjas? Wait, real ninjas?

Yeah, they're real. Yeah, they're real ninjas. Yeah, they're from Japan too, Ben and Sarah. So the theory, oh, there it is.

So the theory behind this image is that there's supposed to be other heroes. Superheroes in this image, but they have removed them from this, because of the fact that they don't want to reveal who else is in the movie. Oh. Yeah.

So the timeline they've kept current, so nobody knows who he is still. Why are you so blurry now? Is he blurry? Me?

Yeah. No? How are you even seeing it? I can see it on the little screen.

Okay. He has 20/20 vision. Don't remember that whole month when he told us that? Yeah.

Yeah, but it's not even facing him. Okay. So what were you saying? I don't remember now.

I don't remember now. Oh, and nobody knows who he is still. It is the next movie in the progression of the Spider-Man timeline. They didn't just like forget what happened last time.

Was it the same guy that did the last one? Same director or Tom Holland? Tom Holland. Tom Holland's still in it.

Yeah. But remember, to save the world last time, the magician guy had to cast a spell that nobody knew who Tom Holland or Spider-Man didn't know they were the same person. The magician guy. Oh, that happened?

Yeah, that was at the end of the last one. Oh, was it? Yeah. Is that the humidor guy, the magician guy?

The humidor guy? I'm not that guy. That's a totally different guy. What's your superpower?

I'm the humidor guy. Yeah. I have sparkly suits. Super sparkly suits.

Shiny forehead. I'm the humidor guy. Let me know if you need any help. Yeah.

So even his girlfriend and best friend don't know who he is. Oh, really? So if you watch the trailer, his girlfriend has a new boyfriend. Oh.

Oh, yeah. I saw when he jumped off the iron thing up high. Yeah. - When he found out that his girlfriend had a new boyfriend.

- Right. - Yeah. - MJ moved on. - Yeah.

- She wrote him a note. - Oh yeah. - It was like a dear John, but it was a dear home. - She doesn't know who he is.

- She has no idea. - She has no idea because the... - She probably knows. - No, she doesn't.

- You a big Spider-Man guy? - No. - No. - No superheroes?

- You got kids? - Yeah, 21 and 19. - That was the appropriate answer as a father, just for the record. Twenty-one and...

It's right there. And there's two of them. Carry the one. Boy, girl, girls.

So my son is twenty-one. Okay. And my daughter's nineteen. Or twenty.

Twenty. Nineteen. It's one of them. She's turning twenty.

Right. She's practically twenty. There you go. Practically twenty.

You smoke cigars with your son? Yeah. He's actually here. Upstairs?

No. No, no, no. Bring him down. Because we had this overlap, and that's where I tried to catch some of his game this morning.

And he brought cigars down, the team had a few houses that they rented, Airbnb, so he brought a few cigars down, and he was smoking in the backyard. What is a smoke? United. You better.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's where I was going. Like, wait a second.

Hey, listen, that car, that education doesn't pay for itself. Right. Right. And you should capture that youth.

Exactly. Capture that young market. Right, get more of your friends smokers. We need new smokers.

Right. We do. We really do. It's true.

So pass these out to all your friends at the games. All right, go ahead. Get into the Cigar News since you didn't want to cover Spider-Man. What about videos?

I don't get to do my video? Well, I provided a video so you can save yours. I have two videos now. He's super excited about his videos.

Two videos? Well, save one for tomorrow. Or save them both for tomorrow. If I saved one for tomorrow, then I'd still have one video for today.

Well, save two for tomorrow. You want me to save two for tomorrow? Save two for tomorrow. I will put into the show two videos for Mikey.

No, I'll just give you the one. We already have a video. I just did one. Yeah, I'll just give you one tomorrow.

So are we moving on? I'm confused. I guess. Are we going to talk to Oliver again?

I don't know what's going on. This is me shutting down. All right, Terrell Fuente ships Rare Pink Blackpink. Oh!

The one we talked about last year is finally shipping this year. The Blackpink? No, the Blackpink is Rare Pink. The Rare Blackpink?

Rare Pink is Blackpink. I'm so confused. Yeah, what's going on now? They started talking about this over two years ago, but on Friday, March 13th, Arturo Fuente began shipping the new rare pink, vintage, 1960s Blackpink.

You think it's the same blend? Just different? Yeah, it's just black. Yeah, it's just, it just has a darker band.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. He uses a, go ahead.

No, you go. He uses a Habano Seed wrapper grown in Connecticut over a blend of Dominican fillers. Again, he doesn't tell either, Michael. It pisses Mikey off.

What's the wrapper? The Habano Seed wrapper grown in Connecticut. So it's not Cameroon? Grown in Connecticut?

Yes. Connecticut Habano. Connecticut, American grown, Connecticut Habano. Yeah, they can't use a Cameroon.

Well, they don't have enough anymore. They don't have anymore. They don't have anymore. They can't get that.

They can't get that. It's been a fight or a disagreement or something. A divorce. It's been a divorce.

Another divorce. And the other group got the Cameroon. They got a letter, just like MJ. Things went sideways.

Are we getting to the Blackpinks, Michael? That's a great question. No, we are not, because they're only shipping to TAA stores. 80 retailers will get access to it now.

Maybe we can drive back Dave for something. I was about to say, you guys are TAA, I certainly are TAA, right? I think so. If you can put a winner in for us, we're trying to get the inside track.

We like one Blackpink. Here's the thing about TAAs, you don't necessarily, you know, like, in the past, I've known retailers that aren't TAA that have access to the TAA product without, like, no questions asked. " That's not gonna happen to us. Yeah, it's definitely not gonna happen to us.

We can't even get the real stuff that we qualify for. That's correct. Yeah, if they watch this show, we're really not gonna get it. Oh yeah, that's right, speaking of which, yeah.

Oh, that's right. So, you know how Tyler came out with that leprechaun dust, Phil? Oh yeah, I've been waiting on that, and I was gonna ask-- Oh, I thought you were asking Oliver, you started looking like-- No, I was gonna ask about it, 'cause I-- And Patina. Yeah, oh, they're very good.

Yeah, Patina. I've been seeing it. You know everything, that's what they say. i just i just chat gpt'd it did you put it through grok afterwards yes okay perfect oh there you go i'm listening so anyway uh yes go ahead i saw a post it i was gonna ask you guys yeah so i called tyler yesterday and i said hey man what's going on with the uh leprechaun does like oh you're not you're not getting any we were and we were on why are you guys like family yeah like yeah i guess distant yeah we're yeah not first cousin yeah yeah unlike florida we're not married to uh to our cousin so i was like hey what happened and he goes oh uh what is it city of palms what the hell Is that what they called?

Yeah, the distribution? Yeah, the distributor? Yes. Apparently, they tried to call us, and they couldn't get in touch with us, so they just sold it to somebody else.

They didn't bother asking. Why were they calling? They didn't reach out to Tyler. Nothing.

And what do they mean they tried to reach out to you? I have no idea, because my cell phone is attached to me, and my brother's is the same. And if they called the store... You don't even like me, and you responded.

Right? Yeah. Right. But you're growing on me.

I didn't, you know, you are tall, so, you know, I have a little anger growing down inside of me right now. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Because I was really looking forward to trying the Leprechaun.

Well, I find out who got ours, if you want to call them. No, I don't want to call them. Yeah, we can get you some. You just have to pay full retail for it, you know?

No, I would like, well, I mean, I pay full retail, you know. It's, uh, yeah. Well, yeah, we don't discount them. Right.

" Right, yeah, it's not like it was a long list, it was only 12 or 15 retailers. Right. Oh, right, right. Small number.

Because they did make a whole lot. So, guess what? Like, we won't be doing any business with City of Palms, or whatever the hell they're called. Or whatever the hell they're called.

Oh, who's your disparate? No, sorry, I'm good. Hey, I saw the Hearth Boys had some. Like, hmm, I'm out, yeah.

Well, he did their show, so they probably got samples. Yeah, that's not right. Yeah. We could do that?

Is that a thing? " Well, yeah, yeah, no, I like Oliver. Oliver's a great guy. " No, Oliver's great.

We get three cigars from people on the show? Yeah, you just got cigars. Yeah, you know what, Island of Palms, those guys, those guys are jerks. Is that what they are?

Island of Palms? Island of Palms? What are they? Palm Island.

House of Palms. Row of Palms. I don't know. House of City of Palms?

They're in Florida or something. House of City, Island of Palms? Isn't that a place we bombed a long time ago? I don't know.

No, I don't think so. Is your boy Sweeney bringing his cigars on Friday? Yeah. I want the very expensive Lancero.

We want the 21-inch Lancero. Does he distribute through City of Palms? Because we won't be supporting that either. I think they do.

No, I don't think they do. I think Sam Parai does. Oh, boy. He sells all his own cigars.

No, he's not selling shipping. Yeah, who's handled this? I don't know, it's Hiroshi. Who handles Distro?

Hiroshi? That's the factory. That's who makes them. Keep going, we'll figure this out eventually.

Well, Hiroshi doesn't ship them to the customers. Yeah, this is fun. So, who handles Distro? I don't think it's Island of Pumps.

If we had something we carried with us, we could contact people and ask questions. He has a rep. That's sales, that's not shipping. And that already shipped, that already went to retailers, right?

Because if it's... Sam Parai, yeah. Oh, no. Oh, you mean the Leprechaun does?

Yeah. Yeah, I saw people having it. Yeah, we got screwed. Yeah.

I mean, it's not like St. Patrick's Day is gone. Right. Yeah.

Now I don't get to enjoy it with my corned beef brisket and potatoes. Cabbage. Cabbage and potatoes? Yeah.

Not mixed, by the way. Potatoes, it tasted like cabbage. Yeah, they shouldn't be mixed. It wasn't bad.

Who are you calling? I'm calling Sweeney. Oh. Yeah, he's not going to answer that.

I'm not going to be answered if I'm wrong. Hey, what's up? Are you awake? Not much.

Hey, you're on the podcast, you got two seconds. Is that Sweeney? Huh? You're on the podcast, you got two seconds.

You didn't call Sweeney. Is it Sweeney? You got some comments? That's a wrong Sweeney.

That's a different Sweeney, I guess. Sorry, I got the wrong number. How many Sweeney's are in your phone? It's not like it's a common name.

Oh. That's a totally different Sweeney. Who'd you call? I just messed that cell up.

There we go. Oh, my God. He was sleeping. Was that the guy down in the islands or something?

Oh. Dude. Yeah. Oh, man.

Did you call Team Money? That's so bad. I just called him so bad. Oh.

If you're a fan of the show, we apologize for waking you up for our show content. And then he hung up on them. Yeah. I did.

I panicked. Yeah. I totally panicked. Did you start 6ix9ine before you called?

I mean, his last name was Sweeney. In your defense. This Sweeney says he's going to call us back shortly. He's also sleeping.

Apparently-- It's nap time for Sweeney's. Apparently you're the only, you know, big guy up at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday. All right. So yeah, I guess it's to be determined.

But yeah, so, I don't know, I don't have an answer. It's not like it was a big order, it was like five bundles, like that was all they would give me, and like, you know. Well, let's say, yeah, another phone call to Tyler and, you know. Well, Tyler said he didn't even know.

He's like, I don't even know, man. But he knew when you called him that we weren't getting it. How do you not know? Tyler, how do you not know?

Right. This is, this is why, what was he, was that Southwest, right? This is why luggage gets lost. Yeah, exactly.

That's why you don't know. They do have the best cookies, though. He's got some, Southwest? Yeah.

They have cookies? And they give you the whole can of Coke. Wow. Oh, David Lafferty got his cookies, did you see that on Facebook this morning?

Yeah. His cookies? His two cookies. Okay.

I said, did you get two? All right. Previously, a Torx one day said Blackpinks would be exclusive to TAA stores, but in six months, they're going to be available to everybody. Oh.

We have to wait. We made too many. We got to give it to other people too. Yeah.

That's covering. Okay. Covering. All right.

You know, it'd be a great idea if we sold these to everybody. It's a good strategy. If we don't, just take the black band off and put on a pink band. Then there's the pink pinks.

Yeah. Super rare pinks. Super rare pink pink. Alright, Ontario, California is banning all flavored tobacco products.

Oh, of course they are. I thought they already did that in California. Yeah. Nope.

In California, if you are a cigar over $12, you can be flavored and still be okay, according to that log book thing they put everybody in. So Drew Estate's fine? Yes, but in Ontario, which is right outside Los Angeles, nothing that is flavored. Ontario, like Canada?

Yeah, I thought it was a Canadian story at first, but it's Ontario, California. Oh. But vapes and dispensaries are fine in California. No, no, that's gone too, at least in Ontario, and no kratom and no nitrous oxide, it's all on the same bill.

So what's going on? This is a bill, so this isn't going to pass. No, it goes into effect next month. They've already approved it for Ontario only.

Oh, it's already happened? Yes, yes. How do you police it for just Ontario? Well, it'd be a store that is in Ontario.

So all stores, but like you can have it on you? Yeah, you just can't smoke it out in public or sell it. Got it. Okay.

" Yeah. Man, California's so weird. Yeah. Do you ever go out there?

No. I've slowed down in California. Yeah. So we didn't, we don't have the...

- UTL? - Yeah, or the UTL. - Right. - Because we don't have representation out there.

- Hmm. - So, California's tough. We still do business, but... - Right.

- Just the... - Small batch? - Yeah, small batch, we still do. - Yeah.

- And we have some accounts out there, but they have, you know, they have all the licenses. - Right, they all distribute it. - Yeah. - Yada yada.

All the UTL stuff is a nightmare. - Yeah. - You're registering? - No.

- Oh, yeah. Not at this moment, because it's kind of intriguing to me to see what some of the, like, behind the scenes is kind of happening and what they're trying to facilitate and work on, like, it's gone into effect, but it's not in effect, they're not pressing it, and they're trying to kind of navigate through it, and I think that, I don't know, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but it looks like there are plans for something to happen, so, I'm gonna... Wait it out. Yeah.

I don't want to just burn the cash, and then I'd be like, oh, just kidding. It's a lot. Right, and then he's like, okay, well, can you refund my money? Like, eh.

What money? Sorry, call Sweeney, and then they hang up. Oh, man. I haven't talked to that Sweeney in years.

You shouldn't ever again. Was that an enemy Sweeney? No, I don't have any. I only have one enemy.

Was it Sweeney Todd? The guy with those haircuts? No. No.

No. All right. It's totally different Sweeney. Sweeney responded.

He said that they distribute their cigars. Oh, you text him? Yeah. They handle their own distribution.

Yeah. Okay. We're still probably not going to buy them, but whatever. Dear God.

Is Alex coming tomorrow too? Does anybody know? No, but his guy Joey? Alex's guy Joey or Sweeney's guy Joey?

No, the new guy that he just hired Joey. I don't know. Sweeney's guy? Yeah, he wanted to get him mic'd up.

Yeah, he did a whole article. He wanted to get him mic'd up too or something. Yeah, that ain't happening. Yeah.

I told him I didn't know how many microphones we could do. Yeah. One. What is it?

Now you're inviting your own guest on the show. Now you want special equipment. I told him that wasn't my part. I said, I don't know how to do that.

Did you tell him it wasn't your part when he asked you if he could be on the show? No. No. How that worked was...

Okay, anyways. I'm not going back over that whole situation. This is my life. All right.

El Rey de Mundo, King of the World, VSOP, coming in April. Ah. But they've waited four years. They made this cigar four years ago.

It's been sitting around and now they decide to sell it. Is it the one with the paper? I don't know if this one has paper, but it is that company. Is that their marketing tag?

It's been sitting around? It's been sitting around for years, right. It's just enough words and sitting around. Just enough words, it's been sitting around.

It's been sitting around. It's a 6x52 Toro that uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, a Nicaraguan habano binder, and fillers from Nicaragua, along with Dominican-grown habano leaves. That's it? I just got a hmm.

That's all you got? Yeah. I don't know. I have a quote.

What's a retail? 99 per cigar. It is a budget-friendly cigar. That's still higher for them.

A little bit, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the ones we like are like eight bucks, right? Eight bucks, yeah.

2,000 boxes of 16 cigars, a total run of 32,000 cigars. 99 per cigar and is due to begin shipping on April 1st, unless that becomes a big April Fool's Day joke. It's been sitting around. For four years.

What are we going to do with these cigars? They've been sitting here. Look, these King of the World cigars have been sitting here for four years. We should do something.

Yeah. Hmm. It's a good plan. Good plan.

I like how they had that sorted out. I like it. Who owns that? Is that STG?

Uh, it doesn't say. El Rey de Mundo? It's got it. It's one of those guys.

Yeah. So they probably just found them. That's what I was thinking. They found these in there.

Oh man. Remember, remember when we fired Bob? Yeah. Well, he was in charge of El Rey de Mundo.

Yeah. Well, they've been sitting here this whole time. Right. Fueling the growth.

Feeling the gross. Okay. All right. Now it's time for the industry's favorite game.

What's the score? You're familiar with the game, Oliver? Yes. All right.

September 9th, 2020. Brooks Whittington is the reviewer. Ah, Brooks. The cigar is the Perdomo Reserve 10th anniversary box press sun-grown Churchill.

All right. So how are we doing? You're going to go first. I'll hold myself in the middle and then Oliver can go last.

Okay. Since he's our guest. I will go 65. 65.

I like the approach. Wow. I have to turn this so you can't cheat. Okay.

Yeah. He hasn't seen this car. I've never cheated one time. Mikey's always the one with the phone.

That's not true. That's not true. Definitely cheated. Watch him, Oliver.

I'm going to say 90. Wow. Aggressive. I feel like there is some emotion there.

Yes. That they would factor that in. And I would say, right now, 87. All right.

It's a good number. The Cigar Reviewed is the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box Press Sun Grown Churchill from Nicaragua Factory Tablicalera Perdomo SA Wrapper, Nicaraguan Cuban Seed Sun Grown. 25, they smoked three cigars. Sun Grown is a favorite of most.

Sun Grown what? The Perdomo. This is a Sun Grown one? That's what it said, yeah.

Yeah. That's all you got out of that. Yeah, that's all I got. Sun Grown.

And that was in the name. Oh, Sun Grown's my favorite. No, it's not my favorite. Which is very rare for cigars and tobacco.

Yeah. I don't know how long you guys have been doing this, but Sun Grown tobacco is very hard. Yeah. In the sun?

Yeah. In the sun. It's wild. Yeah.

Let's go 79. The description is interesting because it said Nicaraguan, Cuban Seed, Sun Grown. Which means it's Habano. Yeah, but the other one sounds so much nicer.

Does it? Yes. Cuban Seed, Sun Grown. I'm going to stick at 90 for the time being.

Going 89. Was this from Coop? Yeah, you know what, it'd be 100. Dude, wow, you just take my jokes and rip them away from me.

Sorry. I mean, my God, I was laying it up and then you had to just... Wow. You bunt it.

Wow, Phil. All right, let's redo it. Three, two, one, and action. It's too late now.

It's too late now. Was this Coop? It's box press. I feel like they don't like box press.

I think it was. You can put the picture right behind him. Yeah. Well, it's Brooks, though.

Yeah, it's Brooks. Brooks is always interesting. All right, clue number one. The cigar is described as extremely attractive with a silky smooth reddish milk chocolate brown wrapper, a well-done soft box press, and plenty of appealing pre-light aromas and flavors.

" You know, Oliver has seen the show, and he didn't take any of the bait, so I'm going to go 91. He thought he would suck him into a low score? Is that what it was? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, he must know what he's doing. He's on the show all the time. He said he watches the show. He knows you don't know what you're doing.

Eight. Wow. Eight. I'm going to say...

It's one out of 10 all of us. It's closest without going over, right? I'm going to move to 89, because I don't want to be so close to you, Mr. 91.

I'm going to hold fast. 87? 89? Oh, you're an 89 tune?

Oh, okay. Yeah, 89 and the last one, I'm going to hold that 89. You don't like the three? Not just to leave it on.

It's great because then you see all your reactions. Well, it's great because then you don't have to do anything. Yeah, you want to know how much more cropping I have to do when you just leave it on three? It's miserable for me.

Do you crop the clips? Yeah. For the scores? Yeah.

Yeah, the scores go up on the clips. All right, clue number two. The first and second thirds deliver an enjoyable core profile of creamy oak and dark chocolate backed by solid smoke production and a burn that evens out well after the early correction. You want me to switch the camera?

Yeah, to somebody else. I'm not talking anymore. What did you do? Fade to black.

Oh, don't do that. Well, I don't have a camera. Stop playing with the other buttons. We told you about that.

All right. 87. You can lean over. I don't have my mask on.

Oh, yeah. Well, do the hand thing. I'm going to go 88. Yeah, I feel like there's a lack of interest because he said the first and second.

Thirds. Ah, gotcha. Right? So he's grouping those together.

I'm going to go from 89 to 88. Okay. Palmer's going to oopsie-do us, trust me. He also didn't mention Coco Nibs.

Yeah, there was no Coco Nibs. Okay, clue number three. Sorry, I forgot Oliver was last. That's why I know Mikey to go.

The biggest drawback is that the profile loses balance In the final third, as the aggressive spice and black pepper overpower the nuance, while the draw stays a little too loose throughout the smoke. Yep, box dressing. Third clue. Yeah.

That was the third clue. I'm gonna go 85. I just love the fact that Phil's like, oh, well, you know. I'm going to come down to 86.

Oh. 86. And it tines up. Yeah.

And I'm going down to 87, back to the original. Oh. Oh. All right.

For the wire. Final thought. I've enjoyed the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne in the past, although I must admit, it has been years since I have tried one. So I was looking forward to seeing what the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box Press Sun Grown brought to the table.

What I found was a blend that featured a blast of molasses sweetness in the early part of the first third, followed by massive amounts of spicy oak and leather that dominated the profile for the remainder of the cigar. Overall, construction was good, but nowhere close to perfect as each cigar needed at least one touch-up. Each and the draw was a bit looser than I would like, regardless of how little of the cap I took off. In the end, while the 10th Anniversary Box Press Sun Grown isn't enjoyable enough cigar for the first two-thirds, the profile basically fell apart after that, leaving me wishing I was smoking a 10th Anniversary Champagne, and its combination of creaminess, sweetness, and complexity.

Phil? Palmer, what's the number? I heard he put the iPad away. I think you're safe back to that 65.

Yeah. Stick with that. Hold your guns. Yeah, I'm gonna go 81.

Ooh, damn. Torpedoed that. Gives me a little bit of playroom. I'm gonna go 84.

I'm comfortable with my 87. I think, I think an 86 might be my final, final guess. Okay, 86? What do you got, Homer?

I hate to tell you guys this, Phil won, it was 80. Yeah! Really? Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil.

So, so my original logic was, I was gonna go one below Phil. Like, whatever he picked, I figured he was gonna do 84. Price is the right strategy. And I was gonna go 83, 'cause I figured you were gonna stay up mid to high range in the 80s.

But then you totally flipped it on me, dude, when you dropped the 81. Yeah, you see what I did there? You see how I did the whoopsie-doopsie? Yeah, whoopsie-doopsie, that was your whole strategy, sir.

Thank you, thank you. Okay, are you gonna be anywhere in particular that you wanna drop and you wanna mention? This will be out tomorrow, so... Well, no, yeah, tonight we have the event, it's their 30th anniversary at Cigars on the Ave, So we did a special edition 10-count humidor with the Alfonso Añejo.

- I saw that. - And selection, yeah. So it was a special cigar for their 30th, so we'll be there tonight, which if it's airing tomorrow, we were there last night. - And we had a great time.

- We had a great time. It was a great turnout. - It was amazing. - Amazing amount of people.

- Amazing, right. No, and after that I'll be, yeah, in Dallas next week and then PCA. - Any events in Dallas or no? Just checking.

- In Longview. East Longview. Okay. At Tobacco Junction.

Okay. Do you know the date offhand or no? That'll be 27th? Like Thursday or Friday or something like that?

27th is a Friday. Okay. So is this upcoming next week? Yeah, 27th is Friday.

27th is Friday. Yeah. So there's an event Friday at the Taylor location and then East Longview on Saturday. All right.

Perfect. All right. Sounds good. Well, dude, thanks so much for coming on.

I appreciate it. Yeah. We're going to be somewhere, Michael. m i am doing an online hearth with the beer 9-1-1 guys nice look at you beer guy 9-1-1 your guy 9-1-1 your guy 9-1-1 yeah it's a zoom type thing there'll be a code they sent me the graphic i'll put it at the back end of this show awesome all right well again we will be at that actually uh during pca you guys are there thursday night we're doing an event all week we have a sponsored uh cocktail cigar pairing and then thursday night we're doing an event at cuban creation okay cool i don't know if you went there last year if you've It's a good spot.

Maybe. A cool spot, yeah. Okay, awesome. Yeah.

We'll have to check that out. Yeah. All right, well, again, thanks so much for coming on, dude. Yeah, appreciate you coming.

Appreciate it, yeah. Good times. We'll figure out more about the products and figure out what we're taking on. Yeah.

Take a walk through the lounge. There you go. All right. Since we have all that extra leprechaun money we didn't spend.

Yeah, since we have that leprechaun dust cash flow. Unbelievable. Boom. All right, guys, thanks.

Bye.

Show Notes

Oil, Capes & Kings — Featuring Oliver Nivaud

On today’s show We Now Can “Buy” Venezuelan Oil,  Florida Is Still Family First,  Hilbourough County is one step closer to having a batman police force!  Then in Cigars Rare Pink Black Pink is back in the news, Ontario says Really no flavored tobacco products, Four years now we have waited to see who’s King of the world!  Then a what’s The Score!

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https://calendly.com/mike-v-0/powstanie-meeting-pca-2026-booth

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