ACHP Episode 492 Chuck, Trump & Tobacco : Zero Chill Edition
Episode Summary
Episode 492 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a loose, roast-heavy roundtable with guest host Phil McGuffey bringing in Sweeney of Sans Pareil (Saint Pareil), the French-named "without equal" luxury brand built on tobacco from Hochi Blanco and Tabacalera Palma. Before any cigar talk, the crew works through news of Chuck Norris's passing at 86 (complete with a round of favorite Chuck Norris jokes and a celebrity "death pool" tangent) and a run of political/military headlines, including the President's "element of surprise" answer to a Japanese reporter about the strike on Iran and the deployment of the USS Tripoli toward the Strait of Hormuz.
The heart of the episode is a genuine industry debate sparked by a promo video from Terrence Riley and Fabien for the "Aganorsa Axe" — a hatchet given away at Aganorsa Leaf events. Sweeney uses it to make a broader argument about the PCA trade show becoming a spectacle of robot dogs, thrones, loud parties and giveaway swords, where attendees can't name a single memorable cigar they smoked. He contrasts that with the Sans Pareil approach: no brand name on the band, quality-first blending, and accessories meant to enhance the brand rather than bribe the buyer — including a chrome-tanned Dominican leather laptop bag made by Fiori. The hosts push back that the hatchet is working precisely because everyone is talking about it.
Cigar news covers South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden signing a bill allowing new cigar bar licenses after the 2008 Clean Air Act grandfathered only three, with the qualification requirements (humidor, enclosed space, ventilation, liquor license, 10% cigar revenue) laid out. Also: Rojas Cigars' new regular-production Quiet Morning, an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed morning cigar from Noel Rojas, and Don Emmanuel's Sun & Moon collaboration with Eladio Diaz debuting at Empire Cigar Lounge in Miami — a 777-box, rum-barrel-aged 14-count ($350) pairing a Connecticut "Sun" with an Ecuadorian Habano "Moon." The crew also shares morning-cigar routines (Powstanie Connecticut with coffee; a Petite Corona with a double espresso) and daily stick counts.
The show closes with "What's the Score," guessing Charlie Minato's 2014 review score for the Asylum 13 "99 Problems" Lancero — a $7, 7x38 Nicaraguan puro from the El Aladino factory in Honduras. Hickory, fruit, leather, cedar, popcorn and wheat notes couldn't overcome tight draw and burn problems; the real score was 81, and Phil's 77 and Sweeney's 78 both lost to it. Plus appearance plugs for the London House drawing room event in Orlando, Humano Refined Cigars in Dothan, and Bo Weevil Cigars.
In This Episode
- 01Roasting Phil McGuffey & Meeting SweeneyThe crew introduces Sans Pareil's Sweeney, recounts meeting Phil at the Cigar Vault in Austin during Weasel Fest, and spends the intro roasting the studio's self-proclaimed builder.
- 02Chuck Norris Dies at 86The hosts react to the confirmed news of Chuck Norris's death after a training-related incident, trading Chuck Norris jokes and celebrity death-pool picks.
- 03Trump, Japan and the Strait of HormuzA Japanese reporter's question about allies not being warned before the Iran strike gets the 'element of surprise' answer, plus the USS Tripoli heading toward the Strait.
- 04The Aganorsa Axe and Trade Show GimmicksTerrence Riley and Fabien's hatchet giveaway video sets off a debate about robot dogs, swords and spectacle at PCA versus actually selling quality cigars.
- 05Sans Pareil's Luxury Approach and Dominican Leather BagsSweeney explains the brand's no-name-on-the-band philosophy, its reliance on Tabacalera Palma tobacco, and a chrome-tanned Dominican leather bag from Fiori as brand enhancement.
- 06South Dakota Legalizes New Cigar BarsGovernor Larry Rhoden signs a bill ending the 2008 Clean Air Act's three-bar cap, with the humidor, ventilation, liquor license and 10% cigar-revenue requirements explained.
- 07New Releases: Rojas Quiet Morning & Don Emmanuel Sun & MoonRojas launches a Connecticut-seed cigar built to be the first of the day, while Don Emmanuel teams with Eladio Diaz on a rum-barrel-aged, 777-box Sun & Moon pairing.
- 08What's the Score: Asylum 13 '99 Problems' LanceroThe panel guesses Charlie Minato's 2014 review score for the $7 Nicaraguan puro Lancero from the El Aladino factory, landing on a real score of 81.
Brands & Cigars Discussed
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Transcript
oh hello people who wants to be on the show next mcguffey just call him and he'll set you up Phil, Pete Hernandez, was my snuggle buddy last night. Oh. They had quite the embrace upstairs. And they had quite the embrace?
They had quite the embrace. You think they had enough of the embrace last night? Yeah, maybe afterglow. Wow.
And as host of today's show, Mikey, I didn't agree to this step on Kevich. And as our guest host today, Phil, would you like to introduce your guest? Uh, no, I'll leave it to the executive producer. No, no, it's for you.
Oh, you want me to do? You want me to do? You introduce your guest today. Well, this is the super famous, most infamous Sweeney.
That's it? Yeah, that's what I got. What do you want? Not even his first name?
Who is he? Like, what does he do? What companies do you work for? Yeah, what does he do?
He's new. He's a master blender. Is that how you say it? Is that how you say it?
I've got about 12 of those names. Yeah. Saint-Paris, Saint-Paris, Saint-Periel, Saint-Pareil. How do you say it?
Saint-Pareil. But I'm sure if I went to France, they would say croissant. Yeah, no. It would not go well.
Saint-Pareil, Saint-Pareil, Saint-Pareil. And that is French for without equal. Without equal. Nice.
I didn't know that. So you think that they would be like, if this was an equal sign, then you could put like a line through it or something? You could. Like that would make more sense.
Bingo. That could be on the next limited edition that we'd never do? Yeah, write that down. I will.
Okay. I'll even give you a little bit of commish. Just give it to Alex. Okay, put it out.
I will give it to Alex. Okay, so that's it Boots, Phil, whatever your name is? Phil, Phil McGuffey. For the intro?
What's your relationship like with Sweeney? Because, you know, you seem to have a lot of course. Oh, it's great, man. Do you send dick pics?
No, I'm not engaging in that. No? No, but he's a great guy. You're not engaging in the discussion or not engaging in the dick pics?
Yeah, not admitting it, is that what you're saying? Again, not engaging at all. You know, here's what happened. Let me walk through how Boots and I met.
Yeah, tell me, this is Phil, yeah, sorry, Phil, I don't know who Boots is, Big P and I, right, we are in Austin, Texas, we're at Roma's Weasel Fest, right, I met you before, it was fantastic, it was great, you were super humble, the nicest guy I ever met, until I met Boots, and when I met Boots, there was just something, we were at, what was it, the Cigar, sorry, Phil, we were at the, uh, we were at the cigar vault? The vault, yeah. The vault, we were at the vault, and that's where we just hit it off, you know, like, everyone else was meeting these cool people, and it was Phil and I, and we just kind of-- Oh, that's the little place in Texas. Bingo.
Bing bong. Yeah. Nice. " Say prayers for both of us.
Were you in a suit at the time? I don't think I was. He gravitates to people in suits. I might have been then.
Yeah. It makes him important, if you're important. Yeah. This guy looks like a big deal.
I don't think Sweeney was just starting out, there was no suit. No. This was before. Ha ha ha.
Started at the bottom, now we're here. Yeah, there we go. Started at the bottom, we're just one step above. Lonely at the top.
Mikey, you get it. It's lonely at the top. I don't know what the top is. Yeah, you and me both.
Yeah. We could see it, but they were not allowed in. It's over there somewhere. We were talked about.
Yeah. We were mentioned a couple times. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough.
Okay. And then ever since, it's somehow, he even said, hey, will you come and do the podcast? I go, well, who's going to be on the podcast? Like, well, it'll be me.
I go, okay. Yeah. Great, Phil. Then he said, Mikey will be there.
I go, okay, fair enough. And then it'll be Palmer. I go, that's fine as long as Palmer's hosting the whole thing. Yeah.
And he's got it. And then I said, yes, I will come. Without Palmer, the whole fucking thing is so weird to fall off. It's a rough show.
So bad. Rough. They don't know how to put the equipment together. Yeah.
We have new equipment now, too. We got the Video S board. It's pretty badass. By the way, this, this room is awesome.
Did someone make this? Yeah. Who? Phil did.
Shut the front door. He did. You want me to show you where the flooring's coming up? Oh.
Oh, shots fired. If you want to pick them up, I'll bring them back down. The electric socket that doesn't work? I'm trying, Phil.
Like, oh. See, I feel like you knew that he made this. I did. The first thing he told me.
Yeah. He goes, "Well, I made this. " I just wanted to know that I built this. And what I mean I built this, I mean like I had a subcontracted out by people.
And I oversaw it. Wow. Pete Hernaneda said he's got the softest hands. Amen.
" Because Pete was upstairs. " Supple. Yeah. " You know what?
This is a great episode. It's the roast of Phil. Aren't you so glad that you brought on Sweetie? The roast of Phil.
There we are. All right. Well, hey, let's get into some trending topics. All right.
In today's show, Chuck Norris, rest in peace. I know. When I started that story, he was just sick. Yeah, he just died.
But yeah, like recently, like an hour ago. We'll get into that. Yeah, we'll get into that later. President Trump does it again.
We have a war update, and then in cigars, South Dakota makes it a law, a few new cigars, and then a what's the score? Ooh, not even a leave, you have to leave the industry one, huh? Oh. Mike, are you making that challenge today?
Sure. He likes to when he has people on a loser leaves industry. Yeah. Bet on the thing.
So right now, I own Bentley, Hooten & Young, who else did I just beat? You just beat somebody else. We forgot to bet Oliver yesterday. Who else did we have on last week?
Well, thank God, because Phil would have won. Oh, that's right, Phil won. I forget who we had on last week. Yeah, but somebody else we beat.
Yeah, you put somebody else out of the industry too. I'm going to send you a text message as well. Was it Richie? I have a video for today.
Perfect. No, I wasn't here for Richie's show. All right, but first, Mikey, how do we get some of that CHPod swag, what are the latest comments, and do we have a Preston update, or is he still on vacation? Okay, so I'll go backwards.
So yeah, Preston, we scrubbed this week, so he'll be back next week. So he finally texted you? He finally got back to me. Okay, perfect.
Yeah, so there's no Preston. Yeah, we're sorry. It worked out well, man, because I was running late today anyways, so. Right.
More pumped. Well, if he was going to be here, you would have been early. No, I wouldn't have because I woke up kind of late. And then I took the boys to the gym.
I had to make a decision, either disappoint my boys or disappoint Sweeney. So you guys know how that turned out. My kids take priority. Yep.
So you're not wrong. Kind of is what it is. Sorry, dude. Some of the comments.
You know, I see one here from Stephen Wells. I think there was a team money, too. Was there? Let me update.
Yeah, I was going to say, not even a team money. Oh, man, there was a good one from David Morris, too. Great. " Oh.
Again, another roast Phil. I guess everybody's partaking in the roasting Phil today. " Oh. Oh my gosh.
Wow. Amazing. So glad he's on to somebody else now. Oh, I don't see a T-Money one, buddy.
I thought there was. Maybe it was on a short. Yeah, if it's on a short, I don't... Right.
I generally don't comment about those. But, if you want to hear your comments on the show, comment on the latest episode, and if it's funny, I may comment, I may write, you should, I don't know why you don't do this, Cigar Guys, I will, you know, we'll plug you in. Yeah, when he means funny, he means about Phil and Palmer. If you make fun of him, he doesn't read the, he doesn't read those.
That's not true, we don't pick on Palmer. No, David Morris does. T-Money did. Yeah, T-Money.
com, where you buy one, you get the second one 40% off, spend $100 or more, and you're going to get free shipping. Are you serious? You're basically paying them to wear the swag. It's pretty much.
It's win-win. And it's some of the best swag. Like, there was the thing that Mr. Palmer, he Mr.
Magood me, so I made him Mr. Magoomer. And I did a pre-order, like a limited run, and that was it. When they were done, they were done.
I made five, I'm making five of them. That was it. Six counting yours. Dude, marketing genius.
So you can't... What are we doing wrong? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's why I'm so rich.
Absolutely. Because at $30 a pull, here I am. Right. You know?
I know, you're jealous. It's cool. I get it. Someday.
I'm jealous too. All right, so what do we got from the news, buddy? All right, Chuck... Okay, this was earlier this morning, but Chuck Norris has been hospitalized at age 86 in Hawaii.
Hawaii, no details have been given, but it was said that he was in good spirits, but since that, he has passed. He died. He died. So the reports that he died, and they said that was fake, and now it has been confirmed by his family, he has passed.
No details, but it was because of the, it was sudden and something happened during training. That's all the information we had. I feel like I've been lied to this whole time. The whole swims through land, walks on water.
I thought he couldn't die. Yeah. I mean, 86 is like, that's a great number for your average human being, but for Chuck Norris? He was 86?
Yeah. Yes, he was 86. Man, I hope that doesn't turn into a joke. Poor guy.
86? Why would that turn into a joke? Isn't it like a thing when you delete stuff? You 86 them?
Oh. No, you got 86. Oh, sorry. Had he had a lot of facial surgery?
He looked, he didn't look good in the last photo I saw. I mean, he was 86. Well, I know, but I mean, it looked like he had bad plastic surgery, 86. Oh, he did have bad plastic surgery, probably at 60.
Right. That was the question. What do you think you'll look like Palmer at 86? I am 86.
Pretty much like this. Dude, gorgeous. Right. Beautiful man.
You think he's gonna live to 86? Oh my God. Yeah, I'm not making it. He's not making it 86.
I don't think anybody in this room is making it 86. Maybe. Jared over there, he's very healthy. Alex might actually.
The only one I'm rooting for is Jared. Anyone cheered yours for. Just for the record. I mean, we're all praying for him.
That truck might have life support in it, too, after he finds the bathroom in it. He is the guys in Cigar Guys, you know? Other than that, they'd just be the cigar. Yeah.
I mean, he triples the output of cigars smoked. Yeah, it's crazy. It's great. It's got cool cars.
The coolest cars. Yeah. So does anybody have a favorite Chuck Norris joke that he's famous for? I mean, I just kind of said Chuck Norris swims through land and walks on water.
You know, there was one time a venomous snake bit Chuck Norris and it died or something like that. I mean, there's... I have... Chuck went in for a heart transplant.
They gave part of his heart to some needy patient. Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice. Wow. He didn't go to heaven.
Heaven came to him. Time waits for no man unless that man is Chuck Norris. Apparently not. Apparently not.
Yeah. Time is undefeated. Time is... 86, man.
I don't know. - No, that's not, it doesn't feel like, if you'd have asked me, you know, at what age do you think Chuck Norris is gonna die, I'd be like, I don't know, late 90s, like he touched the 100, you know? - You know, I don't know if anyone else has this, but like, as a joke, a family joke, we have like a death watch, of all the celebrities, right, and if that person dies, you win a point. - Death pool, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah, death pool. I've had Alan Greenspan for at least five years. The guy is 100 years old. You're talking about the fed guy?
Yeah, the fed guy. Have you seen what he looks like? I remember watching him growing up. He was running from helicopters all the time on CNBC.
And he hasn't changed his look at all. Yeah. He's a hundred years old. The guy will not die.
I guess money does do something. So, yeah, it does. Apparently, it's good to have. Allegedly.
Yeah, allegedly. Here we are. Allegedly. Alright, well, hey, RIP Chuck.
Yeah, poor guy. If they release more information, we'll follow the story and see what happens. Follow his story and see what happens. Thank you, Palmer.
He put up a video on Monday of him working out. Yeah, saying that it was fine. He was sparring with someone. Bruce Lee?
No, Bruce Lee's dead. He might be sparring with Bruce Lee now. Yeah. Maybe.
Round two. That was it. " What movie was he in, "End of the Dragon" or something? Yep, that was it exactly, but he was the bad guy.
He was also a ranger of some sort. Yeah. Walker, Texas. He's famous ranger.
He's still famous for it. Did you not know that or just kind of led that in? He was also the total body guy. Was he the total body guy?
Yeah, he was the guy with the little thing. He'd pull down the little things, he'd move up. Like the Bowflex? Oh, the workout thing.
It was the workout equipment. It was like an incline bench that slides. Okay, okay, okay. Obviously Mike is the only one that would even know that.
Well, he just came from the gym. This guy probably knows. Who, Joey? Yeah, oh gosh.
I like Johnny. Yeah, that's Johnny. That's not Joey anymore. So, Johnny Joey.
Johnny Joey. Does he carry you around, like Master Blaster? He does, and he also opens doors, and people, like, I don't let him eat while I'm eating. Yeah.
I just make a couple of more. I mean, you're genetically fucking a foot taller than me. There's nothing I can do about that. I'll take the L and just move on.
Joey, Johnny, how much do you bench? - 315 pounds. - 315 pounds. - That's pretty good.
- Well, we don't want to go there again, right? - Right, it's good. - How about you, Mike? When was the last time you maxed?
- Maxed out? I don't max out. He only does burnout sets. - But I can tell you that I work out with more than 315.
- Oh! Racket. So there's that. - All right, what's the next one?
- But to be fair, like, look at the length of his arms. - Yeah. - Yeah, you're right. You know what I mean?
- You're right. - It's not a fair comparison. - Right, right, we have Goliath and we have the Oompa Loompa, right? - Yeah, exactly.
- It's just not a Oompa Loompa. - I don't mean that like that, I just meant like, I'm just-- - Even shorter. - Exactly, I'm not Oompa Loompa. - No, we can go with Oompa Loompa, I like Oompa Loompa.
- No, I feel terrible. - Oompa Loompa sounds bad, actually. - You should, I'm saying nice things about the guy because he's gotta put up with your shit all the time. - I gotta deal with Greg.
- There you go. - Hold on, just like that. If I gotta deal with a guy named Gregory that says he has two G's, which really has three, then you gotta deal with that. Listen, you're going to his house.
I know. It's going to be romantic. It's amazing. Yeah.
Looking forward to that. What's the next highlight? Whatever, moving on. All right.
S. S. president said it was to maintain the element of surprise. Did you hear this?
I saw this. I saw this. Can I do it? Go ahead, go ahead.
So the Japanese reporter, Colin, comes out and says, you know, with your allies, we're so confused, why did you not tell us why you were, like, when you were going to attack? He's like, well, you know, there is an element of surprise, and now I'll go into the voice. He starts thinking, he's like, well, there is an element of surprise, and that really just proves the point, I mean, why didn't Japan tell us about Pearl Harbor? All right.
And just everyone just goes, oh, Mike, bring the shades down and just like, it was, I was like, you gotta be kidding me. Only Batman. Mm-hmm. As the Prime Minister just sits there, like.
First time he had met her. First time. Right. Yeah.
Who knows better about Surprise than Japan? That's what it was. Yeah. And he just, the hands, beautiful hands.
The hands, yeah. You believe in Surprise much more so than we do. So why is he, listen, I only get my news from Palmer. so why is he meeting with Japan?
I think it has to do with the straight. We're trying to work that out now? We're trying to work that out. Okay.
I do love how he says technically we don't need anybody but somehow he always has people. We need people. We need your help. They don't have a day have a military.
I thought Japan. I thought we wouldn't let him have. I thought we weren't permitted to have that. Surprise bombers.
Sorry. Wow. Maybe that was a bad joke. Like he's extremely racist.
There's nothing we can do about it. You know all friend groups have one. Yeah. But we have to love them anyway.
Yeah, we have. I mean, we try and tell if we abandon it, it would just get worse. Right. Dude, that's racist.
And he's just like, no, it's not. And just keeps going on his life. You know, he runs into the wrong person. Big P.
That's right. It's all right, Phil. It's OK. You're racist.
Oh, wow. All right. Let's move on to the next one. Is this how the podcast usually go?
Pretty much. Pretty much. This is it. Yeah.
This is it. All right. It'd be cool if you watched. I do.
You know, - I was just talking about how we watch the clips. - Yeah. - There's all 64 of them. - Yeah.
- I pop it up and I just go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. - So that's just one day's worth. - Exactly, 100%. - Yeah, every day there's 64 clips.
- And I'm like, oh, this is the whole podcast, I don't even need to download it. - Well, to be fair, there's 12 a day. - There's 12 a day? - Yeah.
- 12 a day, that's 24 clips, and on average of a minute, it's only, you know, less than half the show. - But I save them when I see Phil, like when Phil gets on camera for half a second. - Yeah. - I save them, and then I just go through the reel.
all the way down. That's smart. You pin him. You pin him.
I pin him. Do you screenshot his face? I have it framed on my man phone. Something to rub out to?
No. Attaboy. That is so inappropriate. That's racist.
How is that racist? How is that racist? I don't know. Where are you going?
Two shots. And here we are. And what was that? So surprise bombers.
We got that. What's the next one? He tries to hurry things along. Listen.
We have sent the USS It has Tripoli to the Straight Up Hormoth, which is a mini aircraft carrier. A small one? A small one with stealth bombers. A small one, hold on, hold on, hold on, with stealth bombers?
Stealth bombers and stealth fighters. They're smaller. Why do we need, but we don't need to launch stealth bombers that close. Can that thing take off from an aircraft carrier?
Yeah. Probably. There's all sorts of sizes. Oh, well there's like a medium.
But they have stealth fighters also. They got like a small stealth bomber? They've been upgraded, Sweeney, if you're talking about the old school one. That's what I'm thinking.
Yeah, no, no, no. It's not like B-52s or something. Oh, that's what I'm like. I don't know.
Send it, you know? But those did take off from an aircraft carrier too, boom, when you're fighting Japan. Right. I thought we could send something from North Dakota and be there in like 10 minutes and- Actually, it's Missouri.
Yeah, it's Missouri, but I don't think it's too many, I think it's 18 hours. I feel like we can get there faster. It's kind of far. If we fold the time, right, and then we go through the wormhole- But this ship travels by itself.
That's how effective it is. It travels by itself? Yes. It came up around and came into the straight from the other side all by itself.
It's like an army of one? Yes. It shows up and people, it's like the little gun in Men in Black? Yeah.
Oh God. Right, the little gun. The cricket. It's the cricket of the Navy.
Got it. And it carries a bunch of Marines, like they come off like little ants and just go everywhere. Blood, blood, blood. Yeah, we'll make this grass grow.
So, there you go. Maybe it's why they were warning the Japanese lady. Like, hey, just so you know, we brought the little one out. Well, it did go by Japan to get there.
So maybe she was like, oh. I have to have a meeting. Like, wait a second. Yeah.
Are you guys having a meeting anytime soon? Right. Why didn't you say you were bringing the little boat out? Surprise.
Sorry. We know you guys like those. Oh my God, you're going to hell, dude. I just wanted to know.
Got your back. Got your back. Got you. Our turn.
All right. All right, Michael. You got a video? I do, and I sent it to you.
Oh, all right. Oh, wow. He's ahead of the game here. Sweeney as well.
This is a good video. This is from my friend Terrence Riley. Oh, my lord. This one?
Yeah. You can turn it up. Well, that's fine. We'll auto sync over it.
People always say it. People always say it. Yeah. I'm so tired.
I'm just kidding. You can turn it up. It's fine. We'll auto sync over it.
People always say it. You know, people always say, "We're so tired of just getting the same old things at events. " Well, Aganorsa has come out with the Aganorsa Axe. More of a hatchet, but axe, the alliteration sounds better, Aganorsa Axe.
So, what we're going to be doing is giving these away at events with purchase. Make sure to check out an Aganorsa event in your area and see if they're going to have some of these bad boys there. Great for chopping stuff. This little axe could be yours at one of our events, so follow us, Aganorsa Acolytes, come to our events, and you could win one of these special axes.
Is this for real, or is this for real? I think it's legit, so... There's a little bit of a contradiction there. Riley said you get it with purchase, and then Fabian said you could win one.
I'm sure that either way that could happen, that could unfold. One way or the other? Yeah. Depends upon the event.
Right. Okay, so what's your guys' take on this? I want to know your take on it. How do you feel about hatchets for buy a cigar or you get a hatchet?
Okay, so I'm gonna be serious for a little bit here. Okay, okay. Can you do it, though, in the Trump voice? See, Melania, please, I got this.
The issue that I'm seeing more and more, or something that I do not like, is that I'll go to the PCA trade show, and what do we see? We see robot dogs walking down the aisles. We see, and I don't even know what the brands are, but like the king's on a throne, and you have to take your photo with them. You don't have to, but you just see, it's no longer about this, right?
Forget everything else. It's about who has the loudest music, who has the loudest party, and when my clients come to the booth, as I'm lighting up the Sainte Parade cigar, and I go, so tell me, of all the cigars that you smoked You smoked at the biggest trade show in the entire world for premium cigars. What's the most memorable one that you smoked this weekend? Can they tell me?
I couldn't tell you. I don't know. The blackened. The what?
That's interesting. Was that a racist thing? No, no, no, it wasn't racist. Oh, God.
The one where the black guy was working? No, no. All cultures. Terrible, terrible man.
Terrible man. Terrible man. But you know my point, right? Yeah.
What are we doing here, guys? Are we selling cigars anymore? I mean, are we selling quality? I mean, when I go to your booth, that's not what you guys are doing, but you just see it more and more.
It's just, what's the next flashy, showing thing that has nothing to do with this cigar? We have a sword this year. Yeah, we're giving away swords. Giving away swords.
Really? Samurai swords? No, it's a Polish sword, come on. So the blade comes off when you swing it.
Yeah, you get to carry it out. We're not even asking for a box purchase. Is it a real sword? We're just trying to arm the public.
Yeah, but the blade comes off. You know? An armed public's a safe public. An armed, it's an armed society is a polite society.
That's what it is, yes. So, they're having another conversation over there. Sorry, we're having our own show over here. Cameras are on us anyway.
I'm glad that the microphones are on though, because everybody heard what we said. Not necessarily. No, they over-talked us, I can fix that. You have to talk, you can't talk over somebody.
No, we were talking under. So long story short, when I hear, every company can do their own thing, but what I'm saying is, the people that we sell to are not focused on getting a hatchet, and so maybe it's just a different clientele, and please, I am not knocking, you do whatever it is that you want, and guess what, they are successful, fantastic, go and run with it, but I just, I don't know, I don't like that part of the industry. Well, part of me thinks that this was totally out of left field. Really?
Yeah. And I think that the reason why Terrence went with it is because people would talk about it and say, this is totally out of left field. You know? That's fair.
It's working. We're talking about it. Yeah. Maybe more like a Fabian lightsaber, maybe?
Lightsaber would be cool. Disney would probably have some issues with that. I think so? Yeah.
Like a lightsaber lighter like you had one time. You'd have to call it something else. You know? He's a dark saber.
The Fabian lighter. So like, what do I get with the-- It's dark saber, I gotta change his 20%. Oh, go ahead. What do I get with the Saint-Hurjon purchase?
Do I get like a watch or something? Wine glass. You get a wine glass. Rollie, yeah?
Oh. Buy one box, get a Rolex? Submariner? Submariner?
Nice. Sorry, my wrist is so heavy. Excuse me. No, I mean, Saint-Hurjon, it's, we don't even put the name on the band.
That is, everything about that is just quality. I can go through the whole spiel, but that's the focus. It's not about, okay, what's your buy three, get whatever, it is not, what's the drawing, this is about giving what we see with Hochi Blanco, Tabaculera Palma, and all the tobacco he has available, that's our focus. What's the best that we can bring with the tobacco available?
Which is, you know. Yeah, I think that's appropriate. So, see, that's where we got mixed up with Tabaculera Palma and City of Palms or whatever, you know what I'm saying? So he's not City of Palms Distro.
No, I know that. Yeah. Oh, yeah, we know that. I actually called a totally different Sweeney yesterday.
Yeah, that was a hilarious episode yesterday. I tried to call you. Yeah. " Yeah.
You had your shot. I didn't. I called you. You didn't answer.
And that's on me. Yeah. He called two Sweenys. Yeah.
I called a totally different Sweeney. Who's the other Sweeney? He's the guy who's the basketball coach of my kids. Not Dabo.
His name's David Sweeney. His name's Sweeney. Shut up. That's why he called the wrong Sweeney.
Yeah, okay, fair enough. Woke the man up from his nap. Must be a good guy. Yeah, that Sweeney was super surprised.
He's a great guy. I haven't talked to him in years. Right. Who is he?
He sees you calling. What the? I was like, oh God. I have to answer this.
Somebody died, I guess. I don't know what that is. Chuck Norris. Oh no, it's Chuck Norris.
I kind of want a hatchet. Why do you want a hatchet? Do you really? Why do you want a hatchet?
Why do you want that hatchet? You can have a hatchet. You want a hatchet, you can have a hatchet. because i i think it'd be funny fair enough yeah i'd bring it here it'd be good to keep the employees in order i like that idea okay fair leave it on the desk it says hr on it yeah perfect we've got that giant knife up there yeah we do have that knife but it doesn't say hr well it could oh you want it to be yeah parma's got a sharpie you got a sharp yeah no we got it we got a guy now we can have that etched we have a guy so you would never do anything to incent incentivize So, would you like your cigars?
No, no, no. I have no problem incentivizing these cigars, but it's only to enhance it. I don't see how a hatchet enhances a cigar. All right.
So, what would you do to enhance it? So, I mean, even we talked about, it's, Saint-Pare is more, it's on the luxury side, right? It's exclusive. So, like, we were making, we made our first template of a leather bag.
Okay. Right? Ultra-premium from the Dominican Republic, keeping that. The leather bag is from the Dominican Republic?
The leather is made in the Dominican Republic, and it's assembled and sewn in the Dominican Republic. And that's ultra-premium? It is. Really?
If you knew the company, and I'll tell you, it's Fiori. Yeah. I don't know what that means. I know.
This is the same black t-shirt. You know what I mean? Amazon. Beautiful.
No, I buy it wholesale. You buy it wholesale? It doesn't even have a name. Our swag company buys his t-shirts.
But it's about, okay, what luxury item do we want to correlate with that? I don't see how a cigar, unless you're going to break it open and see if it's short filler or long filler, is what the point of a hatchet is. But it's cool. Just like seeing a robot dog walking down the way, it's very cool.
Who did the robot dog? I don't even remember. You don't remember seeing it? Well, you were probably closing all these deals, you know?
Yeah, it was just so crazy. Pasani is like, I mean... Yeah, number two. And that's why you need to bring Phil to the trade show.
Yeah, it's not going to happen. Why not? Because Phil already fucked that up. No, he did not.
He did not. I heard the story. I heard the story. You wanna have that conversation on this podcast?
I just talked to Hernandez. It's all good. Yeah. " Yeah?
Yeah. Interesting. Is that right, Phil? Gave you what?
All the cigars. Oh. No. Okay.
Hold on. Hold on. There's more to the story that I'm not. Hernandez wasn't part of it.
Yeah. He wasn't part of it? No. Mm-mm.
Okay. All right. I explained to him. Anyways.
Okay. Now we're moving on. I explained to him. All right.
Fair enough. I'm a no bullshit individual. I don't have the time to, you know. So Palmer, how about that baseball game?
And that's why you do burnout. I don't want sports. I'm watching this. Oh, you're watching this?
Yeah. I'm watching this. This is much. So yeah.
Okay. So a bag. What's that? Oh, the bag.
So yes, the bag, that's something that we're looking at as an extension. And then you make it Sampres-esque. You would add pockets for your cigars. You would add certain things that make that part of enhancing this brand.
It is not just, here you go. Because when I think leather bag, I guess for whatever reason, I think like Italy or something. Oh, bless your heart. No?
No. It's Dominican Republic. I mean, where do you think Louis Vuitton gets their leather? It's not even leather, by the way.
It is canvas. So the only leather is the handle. So you just said, but where does Louis Vuitton get their leather? Okay.
But they don't. Apparently. Apparently they don't. Well, for the handle.
The handle. So where do they get their leather handles from? Probably China. How big is the bag?
Probably China. Is it like a duffel or more like a purse? Let's see here. Oh, Johnny Joe.
Thanks, Alex. Poor Alex. One of them. Yeah, one of you get up and get me things.
Oh, I don't like things. There we go. It's true, you do outrank it. Oh, back bag.
Thank you so much, Alex. Oh, okay. Alex, ladies and gentlemen. That's the whole bag?
No, it's only half the bag, actually. That's a big bag. So, here is- Have you seen the size of the cigar, Michael? You know how many hatches I can put in that thing?
Beautiful hatches. Beautiful hatches. So yeah, this is one of the bags. It is a laptop bag and we have our BARS logo on it.
But once again, quiet, nothing crazy in your face. Right. We added our logo and took the cigars off and just put some paré. Nice, nice.
And this is just to start, right? The leather is unbelievable. It is chrome tanned. It's not natural veg tan, it's all chromed.
I was gonna ask that. Yeah, of course you were. Is it chrome tanned? It's chromed.
You could tell it was chrome tanned, obviously. Yeah, exactly. And so yeah, it's something that enhances the brand. Okay.
I mean, if you saw this, would you, great, would this incentivize you? Would this incentivize you to buy a cigar? No. I wouldn't, exactly.
Is there a hatchet on some too? A hatchet, but the hatchet's inside the bag. Oh, well. The problem is, he didn't ask if there was a hatchet inside.
That's true. No, the hatchet doesn't really incentivize me to buy the cigars either. " And he'll get you one. If he doesn't, I know Fabian will.
Terrence is, you know, he's very budget-oriented. Fabian's more friend-oriented. " Or Groover. Uh, Gruber, he'd have to ask Terence, and then Terence wouldn't let that hatchet.
He's the one that had it at Cigar Life at their event. Did he? Gruber had the hatchet. Oh, just one?
Well, they gave it away, yeah. They gave it away as a raffle price. They gave away one hatchet. One hatchet as a raffle price.
Wow. Was that like the big ticket item? Uh, no. There was a giant humidor they gave it away.
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. You know who would like one of those bags though? The South Dakota governor because he just signed a new law.
Oh, yeah? Are you serious? Governor Larry Rhoades has signed into law a bill that would allow for new cigar bar licenses in the state of South Dakota. We've been following this story for months.
Yeah. So, last week was passed by the South Dakota Senate, sending the bill to the Rhoades desk. It allows for new cigar bars, businesses that can sell cigars, and alcohol to consumers to enjoy on the premises. Previously, the state's 2008 Clean Air Act had grandfathered just three cigar bars and prohibited the issuing of any new licenses anywhere in the state.
so to qualify you have to have a humidor you have to be enclosed by walls windows and ceilings no outdoor only cigar bars have ventilation have a liquor license generate at least 10 percent of its revenue from the sale of cigars which is nothing right right nothing maybe south dakota not a lot of people well i mean if you're more liquor oriented you know it could get difficult Okay, so you do a lot of business in South Dakota? I do not. How many retailers you have in South Dakota? We have...
Zero. Zero? How many does Powstanie? Oh, yeah, no, negative one.
Negative one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Palmer. You know that's the market we've been looking at.
South Dakota? What's the one guy, Deadwood? Isn't Deadwood in South Dakota? I don't know if that's South or North.
I don't... Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's South Dakota. I think you're right. I think it is.
That's the only retail store I really know of in South Dakota. Interesting. No, I don't... I don't know either.
Yeah. Should we go? Should we do a little trip? We'll get a van?
Are you gonna bring the leather cases? You better believe it. I'm gonna get you one with your name on them. Yeah?
Is it chromatagged or whatever the fuck? Chromatagged. Perfect. Look at your little Apple Air tag in it, so you don't lose it.
Chromatag, Apple Air tag. A lot of tags. There's many tags. Does it have a Bluetooth speaker?
That's what's really important. It's got all the speakers. Yeah? Okay, perfect.
There is 32 shops in South Dakota. South Dakota. 32. 32.
That's not a lot. No. As far as if they made a law, is it because they want to... Expand.
Expand it, so they'll... Okay. Yeah, it's been over-regulated, and they're finally unwinding a little bit. It sounds like progress.
Amen. You know? States, take note. Yeah, follow the lead of South Dakota.
The new cigar leader in America. Mm-hmm. I wonder, I wonder if there's going to be any South Dakota retailers other than Deadwood at the PCA? Probably a lot now.
Yeah. Send a comment if you're in South Dakota and you're planning to be there. Well, if you're a retailer and you want to take an appointment with us, hit the calendar link below. That's what it is.
Yeah. You're going to send an appointment and we're going to give them a free hat. Are you kidding me? Just for their time, yeah.
This hat right here? Dude, I want a hat. So if I come and I get Ben to buy some cigars, would I get a hat? Yeah, of course.
Good luck with that. But yeah, I'd love to see that. You got to have Ben set an appointment. Only one per appointment.
Hey, watch. I'll text Ben right now. " He will not respond. No.
Only one per appointment, by the way. One per appointment? So Mikayla does not get one. Just the one.
Yeah, just the one. You got to be clear about this. Want to set an appointment with us at the show. Appointment, Limited Availability, everyone who makes it appointment, well, the hat, no extra hats.
While supplies last. Does he have red, red, red seats on it? What's that? Will he leave you on red?
It says red or on red, yeah. Perfect, perfect. You get a hat just for showing up with an appointment. Does he know that you're on the show today?
Nope. Okay. All right, there you go, I sent it. Can't wait to see the left on red.
He hasn't gotten back from me from my last text on January 6th, 2026. He's been real busy. Nicaragua trips, you know, stuff like that. When was the last time you went to Nicaragua?
Nicaragua? Yeah, Nicaragua. I didn't go last year. Greg went.
Greg went instead of you? Yeah, only one of us goes. Palmer, when did you go last? Never been.
He's never been. They say if I go, there's nobody here to sell cigars. Oh yeah, that makes sense. Phil, when's the last time that you went?
Phil went like two weeks ago. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Who'd you visit?
Where'd you go? Where'd you go? The great Skip Martin. You went to see Skip?
Yeah. You had to think about it? No, I just, I saw where this whole conversation was going. Where's the conversation going?
I just saw how he was going around the room. I'm just asking questions here. Can I ask questions? Alright, so what'd you guys do there?
Oh, we just hung out and went to the factory. What did you do? Okay. Yeah, we hung out, went to the factory, I learned all about cigars.
Who was the big spoon? Wow. Who was the big spoon? The LaRose, there we go.
Be honest. Tell us. I have my own bed? Yeah?
Yeah. Doesn't mean he didn't visit. Didn't visit. He kicked you out when he was done?
Is that what you're saying? I had that. I had that 20 hours. He did what he had to do.
That 20 hours was awesome. It was unbelievable. For the record, Michael, his watch just went off. I got it from, uh, I got it from Phil.
Did you? Yeah. Got what? Yannios.
Oh, yeah, I gave you one, man. Phil doesn't give me anything. Why? I don't know.
Is there, like, do we need to talk about those guys? No, he doesn't want to. He doesn't give me anything. Nothing nice.
Yeah. I didn't give you anything? He gives you attitude. Yeah, he gives me attitude.
I gave you cigars. No, you didn't. No, he gave us the fake cigars. Sounds like a Saka situation over here.
He gave me cigars. Oh, thank goodness. Ooh, a Saka situation, so you do know more. Oh, I do.
Mm-hmm. I get why he stays home. Wow. Oh, I completely get why he stays home.
See that? You have your friends on the show, and they all turn on you. I don't know what's happening right now. Brett Fry talks about two airline seats for you.
Right. You know? Yeah, unbelievable, Brett. This is amazing.
You stayed late for that one. Who else? Yeah, who else do you have friends? What other friends do you want to have on the show, Boots?
Did Pete say anything? Yeah, what did Pete say? I don't think Pete said anything. Oh, I wasn't here that day.
No, he was born. Oh yeah, you were not. He had to read and stuff. That was tough for him.
Oh, he did tell me today. He goes, "I don't know how you do it. " Yeah. Okay.
Well, thank you, South Dakota. All right, what else you got? All right, Rojas announces a new cigar specifically for mornings. Oh, we're in cigar news.
Yeah, I said the first one was cigar news. Oh, okay. Yeah, after the video. No, you usually announce it though.
He did not, you're correct. You're correct. Okay. Sorry.
I got all excited because you showed the bag. Oh, you like the bag. I wanted the bag. I got all excited.
We talked about South Dakota. Yeah. Rojas announces quiet morning, a new morning cigar. A new regular production line from Rojas cigars was created to be the first cigar of the day.
So what happens if you don't smoke it in the morning? Is it a terrible experience? Yeah. You have to wait till later.
It's a Connecticut shade. I'm going to guess it's Connecticut. Ecuadorian Connecticut seed wrapper. Boom.
Covering a Nicaraguan binder and filler blend of The tobacco is grown in the Dominican Republic, where the best leather comes from, and chrome-tagged leather from the Dominican Republic. The cigars are being produced at the Rojas Cigar Factory in Nicaragua, where the line launches. It'll be four Vitolas. Blah-di-blah-di-blah.
In every cigar line, there comes a moment when balance is needed. A cigar that doesn't demand the day, but instead begins it, says Noel Rojas, founder of Rojas Cigars. What cigar do you, I was gonna ask you the question, what like, what, what, what's your morning routine? Oh, Postana Connect.
And then what do you drink, coffee with it, espresso? Uh, yeah, I have coffee. Coffee? I usually smoke half of it on the way to the gym, plug it on the windshield, and then smoke the second half on the way out.
I gotcha. And what do you put in your coffee? Black, coffee, water and coffee beans that are grown? No, it's just, yeah, it's the coffee.
I got the little espresso. Yeah. You're not doing the nitro? It just became too much.
Oh. Did you ever get that thing to work? No, I didn't get it to work at home. Oh.
Gotcha. Mine is the blue Petite Corona with a double espresso. Yeah. Creole 1998 wrapper Dominican Puro.
So you don't go Connecticut? Okay. What about midday? Midday.
How many cigars do you smoke a day? Probably four. Four's not bad. That's a good number.
How about you? More than four. Palmer? It depends on the day, anywhere from three to five, three to five, and big P?
Yeah, I'm about where Palmer's at. You know, I almost bought those poemas for you. Which ones? The poemas yesterday.
The Byron that you like? Oh, the Byron, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but my brother walked me back.
Yeah, you know, he was talking about it upstairs. Was he? Yeah. What'd he say?
He was like, yeah, my brother bought all this stuff, and then I came in and I saw, you know, Oliver having a really good day. So I had to walk it all back. He was, and I was like, man, look at all these high-end brands you have in here now, you know, it's great. Oliver should have known he should have got the hell out of Dodge as soon as he got the order.
He's like, I'm out of here. Before Greg got there. He runs the card, he runs the card, he's good. He only scaled back a couple things, he didn't go crazy.
I don't know. But one thing that he did scale back, I said, look, you know, Phil really likes this cigar. Yeah. And he said, well, listen, there's like five or six cigars in that humidor that Phil really likes, and we're now sitting on them.
That is true. Did Triple G say that? I said, yeah. I said, you know what, dude?
You got a point. I guess I'll take this one off. Well, the cigar guys can vouch for the Byron. Yeah?
That's a good cigar. That's okay, but like, you know, you're like, oh, I really love a cigar. And then you'd buy like one of them. And then I got 19 more to sell.
I bring the club in. I have them buy the cigars that I suggest. All right. You're invited to a club?
Well, you're a little backed up because you got those, what else you got in there? You got those Illusions. Coffee Break? No, no, no.
Coffee Breaks. To be clear, I never said an Illusion. Yes, there is. There's these gold label, these gold foil cigars.
What? Yeah. Gold foil? Yeah, maybe it's Tatuaje.
Oh, you're probably talking about the Bundle Cigar for Tatuaje. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I get them here. When was the last time you got them?
Exactly. Last Tuesday. Last Tuesday. We were here.
Check the Clover. Let me check the numbers. Yeah, I think I was here last Tuesday. - Yeah.
It's a lie. - Why are you looking at me? I'm not in your glove. - It's not true.
- No, no. Well, you're here late. - Interesting. - So we need to, I think what we need to do is reset.
We will let Triple G come to the table, let him say what he needs to say, and then we'll figure out, okay, boots, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna allocate this many spots for you. - Right. - But that's it.
You have to pick and choose. You can't add on, it's... - Yeah, you gotta clear out some of this other stuff before I bring on something else. - There we go.
- Especially like a $35 cigar. Because, you know, he's not, I probably like one of those. Well, I mean. And then it'll, like, go on a tab.
Exactly, 30. And they see Noah, you're passing that 30, your marketer, you're writing off that debt. Yeah, it's like, how are you doing? He stops coming around.
Oh, your CPA is like, what's this? Yeah, I'm like, oh, that's Phil. Come around, my office is two doors down. I come around every day.
Just come to collect, just start knocking. Hey, man. Hey, rent's due. Hey, dude, we got, I got this invoice here.
We do this show every day. I'm always here. Just comes in downstairs, leaves. mm-hmm I gotta go well but this lounge studio is unbelievable yeah this is he did a good job he did a great great job I appreciate that yeah floors broken well he really did do a good job when you cut corners budgets all about budgets funny you know well that was the Greg budget he walked it back oh the Greg King G over Right.
I see. I like Triple G. I'm going to start using that. Yeah, that's three G's.
Well, yeah, he's three G's. He thinks it's two. I don't like to acknowledge the third G. Whenever I write his name, I never give him the extra one.
He doesn't deserve it. No. He takes someone off the beginning, though. He's Reg.
He's Egg. Yeah. It just doesn't make sense. He's Reg.
Let's start calling him Reg, though. I tried having this conversation with him, like, where did we add this? Is it on his birth certificate? No, his full name is Gregory.
G-R-E-G-O-R-1. But he shortened it with two G's? And then it's G-R-E-G-G, is what he goes by. Just make it make sense.
Yeah, I didn't know that's how that was, but you're right, I didn't realize that. He could totally defend himself if he just comes on the show. I thought your mother just liked him better, gave him more letters. Well, she does.
She did, obviously. Oh, here we go again, let's not get into this conversation. She does. She told Mikey that on his birthday.
Yeah. Next thing you know, he's entitled, he gets three Chevelles, a Hummer. Life is good for Greg. It's good for Greg.
You know, we all can't be Greg. We all can't be Greg. Life is good for Reg. Reg.
For Reg. Two G's. Good people, though. Good people.
All right, what else you got? All right, Don Emmanuel, Sun & Moon is debuting next week. Sun and Moon. Sun and Moon.
Don Emmanuel Cigars has teamed up with Eladio Diaz. Eladio. Eladio. Our friend Eladio.
For a new project, Sun & Moon, which will debut on March 25th at the Empire Cigar Lounge in Miami. It's going to be a Connecticut and a Maduro. Our buddies, who's there, Alex? Byron and Alex.
Great guys. Continue. The Sun uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut seed wrapper over Dominican binder and filler, while Moon uses an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Mexican binder, and Dominican fillers. I don't know if the Adidas work with this whole outfit.
It doesn't, but I was told my camera goes from here up. So you're fine with that? I'm great with that. Why don't you wear, like, pajama pants then?
Let's go like straight. What generation are we? I don't know. I'm 40.
Let's talk about after us. Oh, I see. Oh, God. Gen Z?
Gen Lazy. Hold on. Do we sound like boomers now because we're saying that about the younger generation? They said it about us?
You know what? I don't say that about the entirety of the younger generation. Okay. Which part?
Just, you know, you can identify the slapdicks. It's not hard. Yeah, I got you. You know?
Hair's out of control. Wearing pajamas. Never had that problem. Hair's out of control.
Yeah, that's, yeah, you know. I never, I mean, 616. He doesn't have the hair brown. It's the alpaca, but the alpaca is just kind of like, you know?
Right. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah.
All right, the age of those cigars in rum barrels. Oh, very nice. Oh, really? Yes.
Okay. I'm trying to find the price. He's got to move along. Is it one cigar?
No, there's two cigars. Okay, what are the cigars? Are they in a separate box or are they in the same box? Same box.
No, they're two boxes. Two boxes. 5 by 50 Toros that sell for $25 each, each box is $4. You didn't even let us guess.
Wait, how much? $25. It's a lot of you. Oh my God.
It's a lot of you. Yeah. Can you believe that price? How much is this one again?
Oh my gosh. Not even a fraction of that. Yeah? Just about $48.
I can get two of those? I can get the sun and the moon for one of these? That is the sun, the moon, and the stars. And the stars.
And you can't put a price on infinity. It's one percent difference. Yeah. Okay.
All right. Uh, let's see, the project's limited to this. The 777 boxes would have an MSRP of $350 a box. 777?
That's a weird 777 box. What's the correlation? I don't know. Just pick the number?
So what is it, 14 cigars in a box? Both are, yeah, 14 cigars, exactly. Containing seven of each blend. Okay, so both cigars come in one box.
Oh, so I was right. Yes. You get seven of one with seven of the other. Alex, would you like to take over over here?
We can just relinquish Palmer. People just don't listen to Mikey. That's so weird. It's crazy.
They're like, no, it's different boxes. Yeah. Same box. Yeah, that would make sense.
And the wrappers look different. I hope so. It would. You wouldn't know which one you're smoking.
They have two different bands. One has the sun on it, one has the moon on it. Oh, is that how you tell? Yes.
Not by the wrappers. There's one. Yes, one is Connecticut and one is Habano. Allegedly.
Habano Oscuro or just standard Habano? Just standard Habano. Just standard. Just the regular kind.
So it's like sun and dusk. Ecuadorian Habano. Right. It's not like sun and moon.
Yeah, you know what I mean? Right. Right. Sun and afternoon.
Mmm. You know? Right. Sun and afternoon.
Now we're cooking with gas. That doesn't sound as good as sun and moon, though. It doesn't. So.
It doesn't sound that original either. So Eladio said, we must call it moon. We must. We must.
Yeah. All right. Time for the industry's favorite game. Are you excited about the sun and the moon?
I am excited. Um, I hope it isn't a retailer near me. Are you guys picking it up? No.
Do you get it? Do you, uh, you Do you smoke a lot of Eladio still? No, not much. Should I?
I don't think so. Okay. I appreciate that. You've always been honest.
You've always been honest. The guy's a big name in the industry, but everything that I've tried to carry, I don't know, it doesn't do well, it doesn't taste great. That's my personal opinion. That's fair.
Somebody likes it. Taste is personal. If you enjoy it, you enjoy it. You like McDonald's, you like McDonald's.
McDonald's is amazing. m. Yeah. Ruth's Chris is pretty good, too, though.
Okay, I can do both. I can do both. Two words. Benihana.
Benihana? That's one word. Wow. We have Kobe up here.
Really? Yeah. It's atrocious. I hate it.
After we go to Greg's house, then we'll go out to-- Then you gotta bring my kids, 'cause my kids love it. Dude, we're up. I wanna start throwing the shrimp. Yeah.
I want the choo-choo train. I want the sodium. You know what I mean? I need the belt to not fit.
I'll take four yum-yum sauces. Yeah. More yum-yum. Is that what you do, Phil, when you go there?
Do you close it down, Phil? Yum-yum sauce to him is something completely different. Do you have to call ahead and tell him, hey, Phil, Phil's coming? Phil's coming.
Yeah, usually, yeah. Get the special yum-yum for me, please. I don't like to go there. I like to go to Golden Corral.
He's a Golden Corral. That chocolate fountain. Actually, truthfully, I've never been there. What?
Should I go? You're doing yourself a service. It's hard to find him now. Have you been?
Yes, I went with Phil. Yeah, we've been with Phil. And it was like, it was like the first, it was like a kid that had the first time gone to Disneyland. That's what it was.
Like, he was... Runs in with his little hands up in the air. Was it his first time or not? No, no, no.
Oh, they know him by name. Yeah, he was just excited to be there. Phil's here. Everyone Phil's here.
Get the extra food. I did not have my baseball jersey at that point. I wish I did. It was incredible.
Could have worn it. Oh, that's right. Oh, you have a golden... Oh, that's right.
I can't find it, by the way. Did you... Is it here? Uh-uh.
It was to you when I cleaned out. Why would we have your shirt? Well, we used to leave it here. You know, yeah, when we had the other place.
He would leave it hanging on the wall as his costume. That was Greg's bachelor party weekend when we found that one. Yeah, oh man, he was just something else. How many years ago was that?
It was a while ago. Bachelor party week, that was probably like four or five, yeah. That's when he had two G's, so three. Yeah, he was just single G.
He was just gruff. Just gruff. Yeah. Yeah.
G. Yeah. All right, now go ahead. All right, it's time for the industry's favorite game.
What's the score? Sweeney didn't do the opening. No. Cocoa noobs.
Cocoa noobs. Cocoa noobs. We do not have Cocoa noobs today. Because the cigar is from June 4, 2014.
Charlie Monado. Okay. All right. It's the Asylum 1399 Problems.
Put up, ain't one. Okay. All right. So, Phil will go first.
I'll position myself in the middle of you guys. Okay. I feel like that's the most difficult spot. And then you can, since you're our guest, you get the honor of going last.
Okay. Phil? Are you looking at that? 69.
He always does something stupid. How do you... You know what I mean? He just disrespects the game.
This is like a Make-A-Wish Foundation. Yeah. Oh, wow. He wants to be on the podcast.
The chromi, with the extra chromi. Exactly. Wow. You know?
I'm going to go... But they are talking about me. I'm actually going to go a little low on this. I'm going to go 84.
84? Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'll go 86.
Have you smoked a cigar? No. 99 problems. I actually did 100 years ago.
Nice. Okay. Well, 10 years ago. Wait, so now do I give my score or do I hold to the end?
You give it every time we stop. Yeah, so we stopped, right? I'll go 86. Well, you already went, you did, right?
Did you say 84? Did he say 84? He said 86. I'm 84, you're a retarded number.
You're 69. 69. And then he's going to read the next clue. He's got three clues, and then he's going to give the final thought.
And then after the final thought, then we give our last number. But we give a number every single time he gives a clue. Perfect, perfect. Welcome to the show.
Thanks for watching. This was great. All right. This is what the cigar is made of and where it's made.
Oh, yeah. There's that too. Oh. So it's from Honduras.
It's from the El Aladino factory. Wrapper is Nicaraguan Habano, binder is Nicaraguan, filler is Nicaraguan, it's a 7x38 Lancero, $7 cigar, it was released on April 15th, 2014, they smoked four cigars for the review. Oh four, they had to, they had to verify. Yep, they had to mix it up a little.
Wow, I thought they only smoked three ever. This one had four, that's why I chose it for today. Something a little different. You think it's because Charlie was being generous, wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, or was skeptical?
I'm going to give you my answer after he picks his number. Okay. Phil? 75.
I think that maybe that one of them was significantly problematic. Yep. So he went to another one. Gotcha.
To give it a fair shake. Maybe two of them went well, and then there was something wrong with one. So he said, you know, hit it one more time. Gotcha.
That's just my theory. And I'm still going to stick 80. I'm going to go 85. Okay.
I'm going 84. Oh, went down. Okay, clue number one, the cigar delivers a unique and intriguing profile right from the cold draw, with notes of sweet hickory, fruit, and leather, setting the stage for a complex smoking experience. Is it Dominican Chromatag leather?
No. The best leather. The best leather? It's the best leather, but it's not Chromatag.
Okay. What is it? That bag. That bag.
That bag from San Parai. With a hatchet. Hatchet pocket. I think it's going to be in the 70s, so I'm going to go 78.
I'm going to hold fast here at 85. I'm going to go 84. Clue number two. As it progresses, the flavor builds nicely into a developed cedar core with creaminess and involving strength, reaching a satisfying medium to full body with added nuance like popcorn and wheat on the finish.
Wheat on the finish. Well, and now we're at the movies. We got the popcorn? It's popcorn and wheat.
Yeah, Charlie's having a movie night. It's one of those like nice ones, you get a beer and popcorn? There we go. I'm going to stay in the 70s, 78.
Oh, that's way off. I think I'm going to stick at 85. It sounds like popcorn and beer. Yeah.
I'm going 86. Going back up. Okay, here comes the bomb. The history construction issues hold it back, with a consistently tight draw, uneven smoke production, and difficulty staying lit, especially in the final third, ultimately impacting the overall experience.
It's tough, man, with a Lancero. If you do it right, it's awesome. You do it wrong. It is more of whatever it is.
Yeah. Yeah, and for Charlie, normally a burn issue, he really hits it for that. As he should. Yeah.
So I'm gonna go down to 75. I'm gonna move to 82. I'll go 83. Alright, final thought.
There's nothing wrong with the 99 problems, but the lack of development and more problematic, the lack of differentiating flavors and the ability of the flavors that were present to combine positively made this a fairly unexciting cigar. They are. There's nothing wrong with it except the taste. It's pedestrian.
Except that it's terrible. And unfortunately, in my mind, it's not enough. My experience with the Asylum 13 Robusto was far better. While the price is great, there are much better Lanceros at a dollar more, or in the case of the Kane F Lancero, a dollar less.
Much better cigars from Asylum as a company. Oof. Phil, you're going back to 69? You can't see Phil.
Phil? I'm going 77. That was my number. I'm going to go 78.
81. It's 81. Oh! Do I get a hat?
Good job. No, I'm out of the industry now. You now own the cigars. Congratulations.
You now own the post on your cigars. Oh my God. The only way you get a hat is if you set an appointment. You got to set an appointment.
That's it. I'm going to text Ben, I set an appointment. Strict rules. Strict rules.
Wow. 80, really? 81. Wow.
81. I don't think I've smoked an asylum that I could probably say in the 80s. What do you mean? I don't know, I just don't like them.
Oh, so you think they're below 80? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, the Eroha stuff is pretty good.
Yeah. A lot of the Asylum stuff is bigger. Yeah, it's a bigger ring gauge. I have a struggle.
I think I remember the 99 problems and I liked it. Really? Yeah, I thought it was pretty good. It just shows, I mean, if you enjoy it, enjoy it.
I think that's one thing that, yes, ratings are great for the industry, but it's also, Also, what do you enjoy? No one can say anything else about it. A lot of times, though, I mean, I'm not always on par with Charlie, but there's a lot of times like, yeah, that makes sense. A hundred percent.
I'm not saying he's wrong. Right. So, I especially love his interviews. Oh my gosh.
He's a great guy. I see him every year at the second year now, at Pro Cigar, and I always check in to see what equipment he's carrying and what's going on. Yeah. Great guy.
Did you hang out with him? I mean, we didn't hang out outside, but whenever we see each other at the events, we catch up a little bit. You know that you're at slightly above acquaintance level with Charlie when he subtly attacks you in conversation? Like, I think that was an insult.
You know what I mean? That's where I'm at with Charlie. Thank you, I don't know. Okay, well this is gonna air on Monday, so is there anywhere you're gonna be that you want to plug before you go?
I don't think so. Joey, Alex, are we going anywhere? You guys got any events you're going to be at? We have the drawing room.
I won't be there for it, but the drawing room will be a great event. That's in Orlando, right? Oh, yeah. What's the other place called?
That's the swanky place. London House at the drawing room. They have a dinner there, so it's going to be great clients. Alex is going to be there to explain the brand.
Great opportunity. Very nice. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming on.
Palmer, where are we going to be? The 27th will be at Humano Refined Cigars in Dothan, Alabama. And then the next day from 1 to 5, we'll be at Bow Weevil Cigars. m.
There'll be a link come out when it gets closer. Are you going to be on Cigar Guys while you're here? I think tomorrow we might be. We will see.
Yeah. And when you guys are in Alabama, you should also stop at Sanctuary. Do you guys sell there? No.
Okay. So you stop at Sanctuary. They also have a place called 2023 Court in downtown Montgomery. Okay.
Great place. Really? Great owners. Great guy.
I suggest you guys stop by there. Okay. We'll check them out. Thanks so much.
Of course. All right. Well, thanks for coming on for the show, and make sure you like and subscribe. We're reviewing or listening to the show.
Appreciate you guys. Appreciate you coming on. Thank you, guys. All right.
Thanks, you guys. Bye. Thank you.
Show Notes
Chuck, Trump & Tobacco: Zero Chill Edition
Then on today’s show Chuck Norris rest in peace President Trump does it again, we have a war update and then in cigars. South Dakota makes It a Law, and a few new cigars and then a what The Score.
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