ACHP Episode 493 Florida Chaos & Global Perks - Then Rosales Rolls In
Episode Summary
Episode 493 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast finds Mike Palmer and Michael Szczebankewicz back in their usual chairs with a drop-in appearance from RoMa Craft Tampa's Michael Rosales, who squeezes in a segment before racing from Central Florida to catch a flight out of Tampa. Rosales and the hosts dig into the realities of PCA trade show prep — how appointment blocks get split between retail orders and media interviews, why the Saturday–Monday calendar makes the final day a dead zone for retailers, and why a Wednesday–Friday show would let shop owners actually build a trip around it. They also make the case that even small retailers get value from the show beyond purchase orders: the reconnection, the new-product preview, and coming home recharged. Rosales closes with a RoMa Craft pipeline update — El Marinero and CRAFT are on deck and Genetic Deformities is shipping, with dates still tentative after a packaging issue with leather strap impressions forced a redo.
The show's usual off-topic front half covers two Florida stories (a caped man arrested for riding an alligator through a Miami-Dade drive-thru and an Orange County woman who tried to pay for gas with a live iguana and a bag of seashells), plus international news out of Nairobi, Kenya, where Governor Johnson Sakaja's county government now grants 18,000 female employees two days of paid menstrual leave per month. Palmer also shares a POV video from Universal's Jurassic Park playground filmed on his Meta glasses, and Espinosa's Jack Toraño stops by with sweatshirts.
Cigar News covers Oz Family Cigars turning to My Father Cigars for two new releases — the regular-production Maracanã (Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper over Honduran and Nicaraguan binder and filler, four box-pressed sizes, made at My Father's Honduras factory) and a Limited Edition World Cup 2026 Toro out of Estelí said to use a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, timed for the June 11 kickoff. Also covered: Hiram & Solomon's two limited editions, the Fraternal Flame (Ecuadorian Claro Amarillo wrapper) and the Mystic Tie barber pole made for the Grand Master of Masons of New Jersey, both rolled at PDR Cigars and heading to the April PCA show; and Wildfire Cigar Company's Dead Drift, a 6x50 Toro with Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and Criollo 98 filler from an unnamed Dominican factory.
The episode wraps with two rounds of "What's the Score," guessing halfwheel review ratings. Brian Burt's 2017 review of the Zampara Red Churchill (Tabacalera Palma, $40) landed at 90 — higher than any of the hosts guessed. Brooks Whittington's review of the 20-inch, 80-ring-gauge La Aurora L'Estravaganza scored a shocking 31, after the cigar proved essentially unsmokable due to a plugged draw and received zero points for the final two thirds. Palmer also announces upcoming appearances at Humidor Fine Cigars in Dothan, Alabama and Bo Weevil Cigars.
In This Episode
- 01CH Pod Swag and Listener CommentsPalmer and Michael plug chpod.com shirts, the new BDP and Mr. Magoomer designs, and read listener comments from the Chris Sweeney episode.
- 02PCA Trade Show Prep and Appointment StrategyRosales and the hosts break down how they split retail and media appointments, why the show is nearing 40 booked meetings, and the free-hat retailer pitch.
- 03Why the PCA Calendar Is BrokenA candid argument that the Saturday-Sunday-Monday schedule kills the final day and a Wednesday-Friday show would serve retailers far better.
- 04Florida Man, Florida Woman and Kenya Menstrual LeaveThe alligator-riding caped crusader, the iguana-and-seashells gas payment, and Nairobi's new two-days-a-month paid menstrual leave policy.
- 05RoMa Craft Pipeline UpdateRosales confirms El Marinero and CRAFT are coming and Genetic Deformities is shipping, with a leather-strap packaging issue causing the delay.
- 06Oz Family Cigars Goes to My FatherDetails on the new Maracana regular production line and the Limited Edition World Cup 2026 Toro made at My Father's Honduras and Esteli factories.
- 07Hiram & Solomon and Wildfire New ReleasesBlend breakdowns and pricing for the Fraternal Flame, the Masonic Mystic Tie barber pole, and Wildfire's Dead Drift Toro.
- 08What's the Score: Zampara Red and La Aurora L'EstravaganzaGuessing halfwheel scores on a $40 Dominican Churchill that earned a 90 and a 20-inch, 80-ring La Aurora showpiece that scored just 31.
Brands & Cigars Discussed
Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.
Transcript
Welcome to a Cigar Hustler Podcast Episode 493. I'm Mike Palmer. I'm not back at being the host, head engineer again. I don't know what I'm doing most days.
See, today on the show, we have Michael Szczebankewicz as being the host. I had a funny thing about Preston and everything. Oh, that's only on Tuesdays, you said. Yeah, but you're excited.
He's coming back after being gone. Oh, okay. And then with us today, look at it, it's Mr. Michael Rosales.
Do the hand trick again, Michael. You're blurry. Why does he continue to be blurry? I don't know.
There he is. Oh, it's like we... Man, the myth, the legend. That's right.
Look at that. Look at our face. I'm sad he took the jacket off, though. I had a jacket joke.
Hey, you don't have to talk. It's cool. You don't say anything. I was just here letting you guys do your intro.
Hello, everybody. Right. In today's show, we got a Florida man makes an appearance. Not to be outdone, Florida woman also makes an appearance.
Then African women all over the country get an extra two days off a month. And then in cigars, we've got some new cigars, we have some PCA news, but before we get started, Michael, how do you get ahold of some of that CH Pod swag? - Do you notice that I'm wearing my new BDP shirt? - Oh, I thought that was the Magoomer.
- No, this is not the Mr. Magoomer yet. Mr. Magoomer should be arriving on Wednesday, and then I'll ship them out.
But this is the BDP. I have another one now for you. - Oh, you made a fresh one. - Yeah.
- Excellent. - I'm tired of you judging. - It looks a little high. I was very busy today.
Oh, you made it today. Oh yeah, I was very rushed. com where you can buy one, get the second one 40% off. Spend $100 or more, you're gonna get free shipping on your order.
Now, I do have some comments from yesterday's show. Just a couple. One of them would be better if Boots was here, but that's okay. Phil, Phil.
If Phil was here. I hate that, like I comment, and then it disappear, and go back in, and I got to view all, and I got to say, most relevant, newest, responded, boom. Okay, DataCache2004 said this whole show was surreal. - Which show?
- The last one. - Oh, the one with Sweeney. - Yes, with Mr. Sweeney.
I wonder why it was so surreal. Well, that's why I was asking. I thought maybe it was Oliver because he was so well dressed. Yeah.
And T-Money says: "To be fair, I roasted Mikey twice last week and he read it. Also, it looks like you have a new theme: Filet-A-Fill Fridays. " He most certainly did. " Which I don't believe that to be accurate.
" I don't know if that's true. I don't know if he's the best, but he was a little overdressed for our show, though. What do you think? I don't know.
Herkloss is up there. Yeah, Herkloss is probably the best dressed. He's up there. Yeah.
Especially when he was in Manhattan all the time. Yeah, Oliver's like, maybe top five. But he's not number one. I mean, and then you go to the European shows, man, those guys are like, gujied out.
Yeah. Ho, ho, ho. Yeah. - They got three pieces with the top hats?
- Dude, it's a, I don't know about the hats, but they are definitely to the nice. - Put on the ribs, yeah. - Yeah. - But no, he's up there.
Oliver's up there, for sure. - Yeah. - Okay. If you want to hear your comment on the show, comment on this show below, and if it's funny, I may read it off, so check it out.
And also, shout out to my boy, let's see, I don't want to screw this up. -We had an order, Michael. -Online? -Yes.
-Steve will get it upstairs. -My boy, Rick. Rick Knight. Mr.
Rick, Mr. BOTL. Thank you very much for your support. And what else am I forgetting?
Oh! -Wait, he had a comment, you're not gonna read it? -No, he didn't, he placed an order for all the, for the CH Pod. -Oh, for CH Pod.
-Oh. -Yes. If you're a retailer and you're going to the show, And you're wondering, what product do I need to bring into the store? We got number two.
We got the second best cigar in the industry. - I mean, you gotta throw that on the shelves. You have to have that on the shelves. - You have to.
I don't know how you don't. - No brainer. - Yeah, so, if you want to help your customers, hit the Calendly link below, book an appointment, we're going to give you a free hat for your time. If you're a retailer that already does business with us and you want to say, hey, what's going on in the pipeline for the rest of the year?
We want to have that meeting with you. So again, click the Calendly link below and we will set an appointment with you And also get you a free hat. Erik Espinosa also wants a hat. So we'll have to, I guess we'll have to bring him a hat, Mr.
Palmer. Yes. Look, if you're a customer, and you go into your retail store all the time, and you're just tired of them not having Powstanie, and you're like, "Hey, listen, I don't want to buy Powstanie online. " Show them this YouTube episode, have them click the Cali link below, set the appointment, and we will meet them at PCA.
And they're going to get a hat. Maybe you can work the hat off. They're like, hey, you got to take this appointment and I want the hat, you know? - That's a nice parlay.
- Right? - Yeah. - Like that's, yeah, that's the way. Now, if you're a media guy and you want to book an appointment with us, do an interview, talk about how we got in the industry, you want to talk to Palmer, you want to see how, you know, all of his struggles throughout the past decade of being in retail and wholesale and just being a major success that he is, hit the Calendly link below for Posanya Media Interview and you can get an interview with one of us.
That's good. Yeah. That's good. That's it.
I mean, they're filling up fast. They are filling up. They're filling up fast. We had two more today.
Yeah. We're moving along here. I think that we have more appointments already this year than we did last year. That is fantastic.
I think we're knocking on 40 at the moment. Yeah. I was trying to not give a number. I said knocking on.
Not exactly the most. How do you guys handle your time allotments for all the media? Do you book? Well, they're 15 to 30-minute intervals.
15-minute intervals. You don't do them at a certain time of day? - No. - Or like where it's blocked out for-- - No, by design, like, Palmer would be handling all, for the majority, the retail orders, and I would handle the majority of the media stuff.
Sometimes we would flip that role, depending upon how it looks at the time, but, no, I mean, like, it's kind of a divide and conquer, per se. Like, Skip should be handling the interviews. - He does, most of the time. - So then, you know, there should be no allotted time, he should be there early in the morning, when the sun comes up.
When the sun comes up, he's still not in bed yet. Now, to be fair, I think he arrived relatively early, the majority of PCA last year, I think it might have been one day he fell off, typically, there's usually one, you know, but I mean, he will tell you, I get there when I get there, you know what I mean, so that's how that works. I get it, you know, there's only, you know, how many, there's so many of these that go on every year where you get to see all the retailers in one place, like, yeah, you want to get there when you get there when you get there. I respect it.
No, you know, I mean, for the most, I mean, I get it from the media perspective, it's a difficult thing to kind of cover, because they know people are conducting business, and, you know, you've got to set up whatever your equipment, but, so I said no, some people like block time, like between this time and this time, this is what we do kind of for each one of the days. It's kind of weird, I mean, it seems like the show keeps getting, like, less days and starts - You're supposed to drink, what is it, two and a half days? - Yeah, well, I mean, look, by design, it's already tremendously flawed. - Yeah.
- So, no matter what, whether it's the half day or it's the last day, the last day is always gonna be dead, especially when it starts on a, when, what is it, a Saturday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Like, there's no opportunity for a retailer to kind of go in and enjoy the weekend with friends or family or whatever, just their spouse. So when it comes to Sunday, they're out, and I'm gonna be back to work on Monday, I already did all my ordering, so the last day is still gonna be terrible. I almost feel like it needs to be done in a different fashion, maybe like a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, right?
Because at that point, now you can stay the weekend and do the sightseeing, do all of those things, so you're gonna be there for the full three days. I mean, that's just my thought, but what do I know? I mean, no, it's, you know, it's interesting, if you think of the smaller shops getting coverage, right, and already having to fly out or drive over, you know, and then there's this, it's difficult to get coverage and then making sure that, you know, are you going to spend enough to make, to offset the, you know, all the, you know, expenses and so, at least, you know, Well, at least for the smaller shops, right, that don't have a big enough staff, so being gone five, seven days is pretty difficult. Well, I'm talking about being gone five, right, if you wanted to make a vacation out of it, you know, I don't know, like we hardly knew this guy, we threw him the keys.
He ran the shop for one year, right, Palmer? It's when you guys went to Nicaragua that first time. Oh, yeah, so you know what I mean? It's almost the same thing.
Almost. That's even longer. Yeah. And out of the country, harder to get ahold of.
Yeah. So, I don't know, man. I just feel like if you want to do it, if you want to grow your business as a retailer, you find a way. No, absolutely.
I think, you know, one of the things that people don't really account for, because, I mean, even if you have a smaller budget and you can't go in and buy a lot of product that you want to buy a little bit from everybody, from everyone that you do business with, you know, I think there's this, the engagement. Like, you always come back kind of invigorated from the experience of seeing, you know, friends and co-workers, or not really co-workers, but people within the industry, right, and to get to, you know... That's fine. That's fine.
My God. Just keep going. Keep going. So anyway, so that's, you know, so when you come back, you know, it's one of these things like where, you know, I mean, the season's long, you know, we just came out of a pretty difficult wintertime as far as, you know, especially up in the Northeast, it was brutal.
So, you know, to get in and spend some time with some people and like I said, get recharged and get to see some of the new products coming out this year, it's, you can't put a dollar amount on that, you know what I mean, and so if you don't, because it's not technically like a, like in other industries, like you have a, you know, a technology show or a car show, it's not really sales oriented, it's just like all the new products that are coming out, where we kind of merge new product and sales, you know, in this short amount of time, right? So, and it's not like a sales conference where you're going to go out and, and, you know, get, you know, they, they're trying to incorporate more and more of that, you know, but I don't know if that's, you know, the turnout necessarily is, is great for all the classes they put on. So, but, you know, I, I, I don't like the anticipation of the show, but when I get there, I really have a good time. Yeah, it's usually the other way around for me.
Okay. You know, like, I usually am like, okay, cool, this is awesome, like, feeling the pressure, like, things are rolling, rolling, then usually get, you know, kicked in the dick come day two. It's like, alright. Yeah.
So, I don't know, maybe this year's gonna be different, so. I think so, I mean, your appointments are stacked, you're ready to go. Things are trending in the right direction. Consumers are wanting the number two cigar of the year on the shows.
But it's a very humbling experience, either way. It is. Okay, Michael, get us the trending news. Okay.
That was your phone. That was, um, ah, okay. Hold on, I'm trying to figure which button to hit. Alright, Florida man has officially unlocked the new level.
Police say a cape crusader with zero superpowers was arrested after allegedly attempting to ride an alligator through a fast-food restaurant while wearing a cape. Witness described as aggressively not helping. Okay so what happened? Florida man.
Yeah. Decided he needed the new arch. Okay. So he puts on his cape.
All right. Loads up his alligator, a real alligator. Okay. And then rides it to the drive-thru and orders his arch and then pulls up to the window riding his alligator.
You can ride an alligator? Sure. I don't know you can ride an alligator. You've never been to Gatorland?
No, they let you ride alligators there? They don't let you ride it, but the guy sits on the back. Oh, okay. I imagine it's a well-trained alligator.
Did he get arrested or anything? Let's see, according to authorities, the man strutted up to the drive-thru, a stride his gator like it was a loyal sidekick, apparently believing the laws of nature, common sense, and customer safety do not apply. Employees reportedly frozen horror as the reptilian ride share rolled up the order window. Let's see, Miami-Dade police swooped in and ended the swamp-powered joyride.
The alligator was removed and handed over to animal control while the would-be superhero was arrested and stripped of his cape. - Would you ever ride an alligator? - Womp womp, I don't think so. - No?
- No. - What's the price? - I don't know if there is. - A million dollars?
- I mean, if the tail was kind of restrained and... - I think it's the other end you need to worry about. - The tape that was... - On the mouth?
- I might get on it. - No tape on the mouth. What's the line? - Oh, dude, that's...
- Come on. - I don't know. - What are we talking about here? - A milli.
- A million bucks? - Yeah. - Will they do that? - Is it supposed to be like Like a five-foot alligator?
I don't know. I mean, was it a big alligator? They don't say the actual size of the alligator. Well, what's funny is like when people get slapped in the face whenever they're trying to wrangle those things, that's awesome because, I mean, dude, that's a lot of force.
Whack. Yeah, a lot of muscle in that tail. Oh, yeah. I'd be more concerned with the front end.
Well, if you're behind it. Well, he's riding it, so he's sitting somewhere between the head and the tail. I guess so. Do you have a picture of this thing?
Not with me, no. Oh. I'll email you one later. He's got a pretty special individual to think, you know what, I'm going to put on my cape.
Yeah, the cape is the selling point for me. And I'm going to ride my gaiter. Did it have the rest of the outfit, or was it just a cape? Just a cape.
Just a cape. Just a cape. I assume he had some sort of pants on, because they don't mention he was naked except for the cape, but he was wearing a homemade cape, which makes me think more like a big towel. Nice.
Or a sheet, maybe? Phil, I know that you just arrived. He has to go in 10 minutes, so I want to get him. So I want to get him get him on.
So we're going to get you back. We're going to get you in this full. We're going to get you back on the show. Don't worry.
I will give up your seat. Don't get mine on. You can tag me in. You can tag me out, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got to work. We're all going to rotate to the left. He's got to catch a flight.
This is going to be entertaining for me because he's got to catch a flight. Right now it's 12:36. He's going to leave here in nine minutes, 12:45. He's going to drive two hours and 20 minutes to Tampa.
Yeah. And your flight is at what time? It leaves at 5, it starts to board around 4:15. All right, so you're going to arrive at 3, and you think that you're going to have no TSA pre-check issues whatsoever.
Do you know who you're talking to? I know exactly who I'm talking to, the Michael Rosales. I'm telling you, like, those things don't apply to me. Japanese denim jacket, that Rosales.
I want to know, I want to know how it plays out. The Orlando pre-check was running pretty quick yesterday when my in-laws left. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to walk straight to the front of the line.
So here's what's going to happen. I'm telling you what's going to happen. Do you know who I am? Here's what's going to happen.
Passing out cigars as he goes. We're going to call you tomorrow. All right. And we're going to get an update on the show as to how it went, TSA PreCheck.
Easy. Okay? Wait, if he's going to be delayed, can't we call him this afternoon? Well, I need it on the show.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Can we just call him? During the show. No, I can't just call him.
I want him on the show. Do you have more than one Rosales in your phone? We need to check that because Sweeney apparently was a problem last week. I would think Sweeney wouldn't be a problem.
Rosales is in my favorites star. Oh, oh. Yeah, he's in my favorites list, so. You know, it goes Preston, Rosales, his wife.
No, Preston's not on there. Preston's not on your, does he know this? No. You better fix that for tomorrow.
I'll tell you, I have my family members, my family members, then you Palmer, then Steve, and then Rosales. That's where he categorizes. Level of importance. What's that?
Yeah. I mean, that's not a bad place to be, considering that I'm not a local guy. Yeah, it's just a question, like, yeah, exactly. I mean, you need them more than...
Right. Well, depends on how you look at the list, you could be first, because you're going to see your name at the bottom with nobody under it. No, he's not at the very bottom. You know how many mics and mics he has to scroll through to get to...
Exactly. They could all be, yeah. They could all be the same way. All right.
Let me see. No. He's family. Yeah.
Yeah. Everybody, the only person on my, actually, oddly enough, there is one person on my favorites list who just is an emoji. And the reason why he's on my favorites list is that I can never find him. It's the mailbox.
It's Mike the Mailman. Oh, Mike the Mailman? Yeah. Does he still come around?
Yeah, he popped in last week. Okay. All right, here's the next story there, Mr. Michael, before you break something else.
Florida woman will not be undone. A Florida woman was arrested after trying to pay for gas with a live iguana and a bag of seashells. Okay. Orange County, that's in Orange County.
When you think Florida has officially run out of surprises, it finds loose change in its pocket and keeps going. Police say a Florida woman was arrested after allegedly attempting to pay for gasoline using a live iguana and a bag of seashells. Maybe she was trying to convince me it was a small alligator. Did she steal anything?
I don't understand. She put gas in her car, went inside to pay for the gas, goes, here's my lizard and a bag of these seashells I collected at the beach. What gas station are you going to where you can just fill up at this point? Have you had that experience?
No. I haven't had an experience like that ever. Just turn on pump number seven. Oh, that's right.
I'm trying to think. Yeah, you have to go inside, don't you? Yeah. So how does that work?
That sounds like complete BS to me. It's been a while, back in the days of the old Sinclair, things like where you flick the thing and go? Yeah. I haven't seen one of those.
Yeah, they don't have those anymore. Or the little arm that goes across. Yeah, yeah. According to authorities, the woman pulled up to a local gas station, exited her vehicle and reportedly offered the, oh, she went to offer the reptile and shells first.
Okay. Employees quickly realized this was not a pirate-themed promotion or a coastal barter experiment. Witnesses say the iguana appeared unimpressed by the situation, while the cashier was left trying to determine whether this was performance art, a dare, or peak Florida behavior. Yeah, or it was like a YouTube short or something.
Right, law enforcement arrived, took the woman into custody, the iguana was safely recovered and did not receive any store credit, loyalty points, or unleaded fuel. Yeah, so how was she taken into custody? Police later confirmed that while gas prices are high, wildlife and beach souvenirs are still not accepted forms of payment even in Florida. Yeah, I get that, I just don't understand how-- Right, I was reading further to find out what law she broke.
I don't know, unless she did somehow get the gas and then went inside. No, it sounds like maybe she was detained briefly. Probably. She was put into custody, but she wasn't-- There's a lot of jokey jokes in the story.
She wasn't charged for anything. Both of these things happened in Florida? Yes, sir. We like to say all the Florida things so people don't come here.
What's going on with the reptilian theme? Well, the iguanas? The iguana and the alligator before, right? But what we like to do is we like to really paint a picture of that it's like Jurassic Park down here and crystal meth, right?
So those two things have merged and that is Florida, America. Both of them are prolifically available everywhere. Yeah, and you don't want to come here, you don't want to come here. If you go down south and it gets cold, they actually rain from the sky.
I've seen this. Which is amazing. " Yeah. Add a couple of seashells, I'm good to go.
S. this year, I mean, I could see it. It was, you know, it was pretty wild the past week as far as traffic. Traffic is always horrendous.
It was extra horrendous last week. I'm surprised you didn't cover the spring break and all the kids out there with their guns. The shooting or whatever? Well, not even that, but there was another video of these kids that were just walking around with their hands on their guns.
Oh, we covered some of that spring break last week, during spring break. Yeah, it's an everyday podcast. This is five days a week. Sometimes it's hard to find stories.
Yeah, we're very trendy. They say the reason there's so many Florida man stories is because of our sunshine laws where that type of information is readily available compared to other states. Yeah, where the media suppresses all that stuff. Right, you can say, you can do anything you want here, and then everybody knows.
Yeah, exactly. Alright, well, let's hit him with one more before we set him on his merry way. Oh, he'll like this one. Turning to our international news desk, Nairobi, Kenya.
It started with a casual lunch conversation between a county governor and his cabinet ministers about a colleague's menstrual pain. The discussion led to, first in Kenya, the right for female employees to take menstrual leave. The new policy took effect in December 2025. That grants county government employees in the capital of Nairobi two days off every month to deal with the pain and discomfort of menstruation.
Wow. While the aim of improving productivity and well-being, with the aim of improving. Somebody just didn't want to deal with somebody's bullshit, is what it was. Or they're like, you know what, you can take your fucking bad attitude out of the office.
That's exactly what I'm saying. Like, oh, you're being very crummy today. Governor Johnson Sakaja told the Associated Press that Kenya's national government has expressed interest in how it goes and other county governments have as well. So if it goes well in Nairobi, it might spread throughout the country.
So it's pay with leave? Yes, two days paid leave with menstruation. Every month? Every month.
I guess they just hope they don't all sink so that the 18,000 female employees are all off on the same day. They're all mimosas! Everybody's off! You know what I mean?
It starts with dignifying your own staff for them to feel they are respected and dignified. Like, why does the government have to do that? Why can't you just, if you want to do it as a corporation, you do it? I don't understand.
Well, this is the government office is the only place that's done it. Oh, it's done in the government office. In the government office, yes. Got it.
Yeah, so the government said all 18,000 female employees get two days off a month because your uterus lining sheds. Because we don't want to deal with it. We don't want to deal with your moodiness. What about flare-ups?
Can we work that one out, too? Yeah, you know. Unusual cramping off-cycle? No, I'm talking about the other, like, other stuff.
Yeah, like some type of STD. Apparently, the self-imposed illnesses are your own problem. I want to, we should protect STDs as well. This is, well, I mean, if you do that from what you hear about Africa, if you do that, that might, you know.
Wow. No, that's common knowledge. It's common knowledge. They have more AIDS and STDs in Africa than in any other country.
Do they? Yes, but it's because of the mosquitoes. Are you sure? Google it.
No, I'm going to grok it. Whichever. It's because of the mosquitoes. They transfer the AIDS between people.
What country has the most AIDS breakouts? Is it really a breakout anymore? I guess not. Yeah.
AIDS cases. Okay. Okay, hold on a minute, let me... It's a bigger country, I don't know about population.
I hope you're wrong, I hope it's like Switzerland or something. Switzerland. That'd be amazing. Terribly exciting when we Google things on there.
As of the most recent available estimates, around 2024, 2025, data from the sources like UNAIDS, WHO, World Bank and others, South Africa has approximately 8 million people living with HIV. Yeah, this is the highest absolute number worldwide, far exceeding other countries for context. 2 million. 4 million by 2025.
I would like a notice that the Cigar Hustler Podcast International News Desk is up on all its current information. Wow. Yeah, like black holes as well. That's right.
Okay. And no gravity. You know, do you remember like whenever that first hit, '90s, was it '90s? Whenever...
Seems about right, somewhere in that age. '80s? Yeah. '80s?
'80s, late '80s? You know, like, you know, we would really get ahead of that, you know? Well, we kind of figured it out for the most part. Yeah, it's not a death sentence anymore.
Yeah. Like Magic Johnson. Yeah. Right.
He's cured, didn't he? I mean, he doesn't have it anymore. No. Yeah.
It was the first one in West Africa, fucking, yeah, just spreading seeds. He got bit by the mosquito, Michael. That's what happened. Well, look, I mean, at this point, like, I see the commercials for it all the time.
Like, HIV? No problem. Like, whoa. Right, just take this pill.
Yeah. And then kiss your boyfriend. That's the way the commercial goes. You know, it's almost funnier without Phil, because Palmer fills it in.
He picks up, he's like, I'll just pick up the slack over here, and all right, well, Mr. Michael Rosales, the Roe of Roma Craft, I don't want to keep you past your time, and I've already done that by about two minutes. That's all good. Thank you guys for having me on.
Is there anything else you'd like to add? Are you going to be anywhere in the upcoming weeks before the show? No, it's, I think we're going to shut it down and just really kind of make sure that logistically everything is ready to go. Okay.
If we do anything, it'll be local in Texas. No, but we have El Marineros coming out, we've got Craft coming out, Genetic Deformities shipping out, so I mean we've got a lot of fun stuff, so yeah. Some fun cigars on the pipeline, dates, kind of TBD, they're tentative, but we're still working on the details as to when they're going to be released. For the Craft or for...
Yes. All of them. All of them, I mean when they're ready, they're ready. When they're ready, just like Skip on day two of PCA.
That's right. When he's ready. Exactly. Show when he shows.
You know, it's, but yeah, no, it's, so, just so people know, there was some packaging things that we had to work through, so on the leather strap, some of the impressions on the, didn't come through, so we had to redo all that, so it delayed a little bit, but, that just means the cigars are gonna be extra, even better. Even better. Yeah, so looking forward to that. There's been a lot, I mean, I get text messages, direct messages, you know, emails on.
And they sent out emails from consumers, so I know they're excited. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for coming on, dude. Do you have a shop lined up for this afternoon when you miss your flight, somewhere you're going to hang out?
No, I have more of a risk of missing my flight because of the traffic here, more so than actually eating at the airport. We'll see, we'll see. He could be in Tampa this evening. That's it.
Alright, see you guys. Thanks for coming on. We're going to switch around and we'll be right back. - So, Michael, do you have a video for us today?
- Are we recording? - Yeah. - I do have a video for us today. - Oh, great.
- I'm gonna have a video for you. - Every day now? - Because you-- - It's so nice to be back in my own chair. I am now the co-host of episode 493 of The Cigars Obligation.
You said that I never do it, this one, this one's a little more personal. Oh, it's a video of me? No. No, not that personal.
Wow. I just sent it to you. Hold on. Sent it to both of you.
My shoulders are bubbled, my wife complains. Your shoulders are bubbled? Lees, if the jacket bunches up. She still complains?
Well, no, because I've been sitting on the jacket. That one time? It was that one time, it was really bad. Okay.
Alright. She watches the show again? No. Oh.
Just Eclipse, like everybody else. Yeah, just Eclipse. Just Eclipse, like everybody else. Oh, I saw this.
Okay. So, I went to Universal on Sunday. Oh, yes, I've seen this. We went into the park.
Oh. We did some, you know, they wanted to climb around all those jungle jams. Wait, why are we going up here? Can you go up there or no?
No. Oh, okay. Hold on, stop. Is there anything over there?
Turn your thing off, it's crap. You can try. No, no, no. Okay, I'll try.
Daddy, no, don't. I'll try. Don't. Yeah, let me try.
It's okay. Relax, relax, relax. Hold this. Hold my water.
It's just black. Just kidding. There's a way down here. There is?
Yeah. Actually? Yeah. Then we get to this part.
They want to go down a slide. Slide was down. And then they got to this part where there's this room. This poor kid.
Then you tortured him. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Is there a way down, or is it just a place to sit? Yeah, no, no, it's like it brings you down next levels and next levels. So it's part of the playground. What part of the park was this little thing in?
The Jurassic Park. " The fear is like, "Don't. Don't do it. " "Don't go.
Don't go. Bleed Daddy. " I don't have a new daddy anymore. Yeah.
And then of course I had to sell it. Mommy, I have to get us a new daddy. If you watch the video again, if you, I put on my Facebook page too, if you, but not on like Instagram and stuff. If you watch the video again, there's a kid that's coming into the room at the same time, scared the crap out of him too.
Now that kid's in therapy. Oh, it was absolutely epic. Well, no, Mikey has a story in that kid's family. There was this big man?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He fell in a hole.
Yeah. He almost died. He almost died, mommy. It's crazy.
Right. Dude, stop lying. No man almost died. Yeah.
It's a playground. Kids getting beaten at home now. Yeah. We told you about this.
Told you about telling stories. But I got to tell you, dude, those metas, they're epic. Oh, those are the glasses. Those are the glasses.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, like everything is so authentic because the kids don't realize that you're recording them.
Right. Right. You know how we can use those at PCA? Yeah, well, there's a white flashing blank thing that's recording.
I don't know what a PCA is going to pay attention. I mean, I'm bringing them to PCA. Right. But what are you going to get at PCA?
So what do you really think of? Oh, that's like so smart. Why is he talking to the sunglasses on on? He thinks he's a movie star.
I don't know what to tell you. We can't get them not to wear them now. Wears them all the time. Wears them all the time.
You know, Palmer, you can get prescription ones. The Ray-Bans. Yeah. Right.
I don't have that kind of money. Me neither. I don't want to tell you. Not like the show can afford two pairs.
The show didn't buy these pairs. I was making a joke, Michael. I know. The show didn't do it.
It's not nice. Okay, the brand can't afford two pairs. I'm going to hit it eventually. It wasn't the brand.
Maybe partially the brand. There's only one left. Greg's safe cannot handle two pairs. Maybe partially the brand.
Greg's safe cannot handle two pairs. Greg will notice if you steal money out of his safe for two pairs. I just removed a couple of gold coins out of this, out of this Scrooge McDuck throne that he has. I'm picturing Greg just sitting there in a mile of money.
That's what he does when he goes home. Yeah, like the dragon. Yeah, he's been very positive on the Slack, the Google Slack. Great day.
Yeah, great day, guys. Yeah! Woo! Yeah, that's him.
Yeah, that's him. All right, and into Cigar News. Cigar News, Phil, over there. You get it?
Cigar News? Cigar News, here we go. Cigar News, Michael. Michael Cigar News.
What's that? Did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it. It's the news. Oh, no, it's got words.
T-Money said, by the way, in the most recent comment, T-Money made the comment of he has attacked me in several comments, and I did read them out loud. And then he said, also, Friday should be called Friday's filled something, what is it? Filet Fill Friday. Play Phil Friday because you got destroyed on Friday by your own friend, the guy that you pushed to have on the show.
Unbelievable. He hung you out to dry, unbelievable. Yeah. Unreal.
Did you get some more cigars out of that, at least? More cigars? Extra ones, opposed to what only we got. No, no, I just got the one $80 one that you guys got.
Just the one. Was that the $80, that purple thing? That was pretty good, actually. Yeah, it wasn't bad.
Yeah, the purple one, I think, is the more expensive. I think the less expensive is the gold or green. I saw... Why didn't he leave us more?
I saw Jimmy Johnny smoking the giant Lancero. Jimmy Johnny? Well, his real name is Jimmy, but he is the Johnny too, I thought. His real name is Joe.
Joe, Joey Johnny. Joey Johnny. Do you have my lighter over there? You gave it to Rosales to light his cigar.
Oh, it's gone. It was over there. Not over here. Unless it was in the chair.
It's on its way to Tampa. It's on its way to Tampa. I'm going to show you guys. What's that in your pocket?
Oh, it's in my pocket. Oh, there you go. All right, Cigar News. Oz Family Cigars turns to My Father for two new cigars.
Ooh. Really? Yes. Wow.
The newest cigars, Oz Family Cigars, is using two different My Father factories, according to a report from Cigar Aficionado. Well, I think they only have two. Well, it's using both of them. Honduras and Esteli.
Yeah. The Oz Family will release two new cigars in the spring, potentially as early as May. One has a new regular production line called Macarena. Marcana?
M-A-R-A-C-A-N-A, that's not Macarena. M-A-R-A-C-A-N-A, a lot of A's. Man, that's close. All the A's missing from your name, they put in there.
Maracana. Maracana, which is inspired by Estado do Macarena, the famed soccer stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Estadio Du. Estadio Du.
Estadio. Do. Do. Do.
Do. Do. Do. In English it would be do.
Do. I understand it's not English. Estadio Du. Where Flamingo and Flumamense play their home games.
Ah. What information. It's a lot of things that us Americans can connect on right there. That's what it's about.
Blend wise the. Where let's go with Macarena. Macarena uses a Brazilian. Adaparaca wrapper over Honduran and Nicaraguan binders.
See, that was a, that was a hard word in my head because there's no D. Adaparaca? It's A-R, not A-D. Arr-burr-burr-burr.
Arr-burr-burr-burr. Um, binders and fillers from Honduras and Nicaragua. It'll be offered in four sizes, oh, four box press sizes. Oh.
There's a Robusto, a Robusto Extra. So there's a Robusto and slightly bigger Robusto. Right. There's a Gordo, which is still bigger, and then a Toro, which is 6 1/2 by 50, so it's a little smaller in a regular one.
That sounds about right. So they threw in the Rebuso Extra. Rebuso, Toro, Gordo. It's made it My Father's Cigars, Honduras.
Tim's very cool, by the way. I like this guy. Tim Oz? Yeah.
He's very chatty when they used to do the trick-or-treating thing. He liked to chit-chat. What trick-or-treating thing? He's talking about Great Smoke.
At the Great Smoke. " Then there's the Oz Family Cigar Limited Edition World Cup 2026, Limited Edition 6x50 Toro. That one's an Estela. S.
Hey, we're podcasting. Hey. Hey. How you doing?
We're podcasting, how are you? Good. Is that the other sweetie? This is Jack Teronio.
Oh, hi Jack. What size is Palmer? Extra large. He's XL.
XL? Yep. I think I only have green in XL. That's fine.
I don't know what he's talking about. I'll take it. The sweatshirt. Oh, green.
How about boots? Oh, he's, dude, he, when you mentioned Palmer, I'm watching his face and he's like, fuck. I'm not getting one. Double AX.
he's a 2xl he's a very snug 2xl wow is black is black okay for him black is very slim he doesn't like black because of people wow wow he loves black he loves black okay black and a green xl hold on Come on, let me make sure I have the green X on. Uh oh, I'm verifying. I'm verifying. I do.
I do. I do. Yay! All right.
Jack's the best. Jack's the best. Jack's the best. Does anybody else, does anybody else want a hat that's there?
A Wing Cizar's hat? All of them. I saw Eric ask you for one. Yeah, so Eric's obviously getting one.
Do you want one too? You're not a hat guy. I'm not a hat guy, man. I appreciate it.
I'm not a hat guy. How about a hat guy? He came back was wonderful, the hat, eh, not so much. That's fair.
Okay. Any questions? Any questions for the podcast? No, that's it.
What's the meaning of life? Oh. Selling Espinosa cigars. Wow.
Okay. That's the meaning. That's the meaning here. It's very deep.
It is the dog days before the trade show right now, buddy. That's it. We're waiting for the show deals. Right.
Yeah. Standard. All right, let him know I opened his shop on Wednesday. Or on Saturday.
All right, later. All right, later, thanks, buddy. Thanks, Jack. Thank you, Jack.
There you go. I may be getting one from Roma Craft too. Oh. Wow.
He's not sure if he has any left. He only made like seven or something. Ugh. Hmm.
Ugh. You're probably not getting one of those. Well, the last extra large, he sure went to Gordon upstairs. Yeah, you're probably- I would have to snug into a large.
You're probably not getting one. Probably not. That was an empty promise. Ugh.
That's all right. " Well, I also made fun of his jacket, so that's probably not happening. Yeah, then, yeah. Wow.
Did he leave that here? Oh, that would have been nice. Throw that in the garbage? Whoa.
By the way, him in a Chinese work outfit is going to be the graphic for the show. As long as it's bigger, because you do the host, the guest, like the featured people, they're so small. Right, no, no, I meant the big one. The big one will be him.
Yeah. Do they have, is ICE at all the airports now, or just the one? I think that is a plan. I don't think they've sent them out.
I have no idea. Here's what I can tell you. Tom Brady dropped a dime on Stefan Diggs, which I saw was incredible. And Gronk.
Gronk caught one too and then pulled a hammy and then was cooked. Flag football was fun. Yeah, that's what I got. And March Madness is going on.
Florida lost, you know, but he's not gonna cover that. And Miami. And, well, Miami, but they weren't number one. The Gators were number one.
They lost to Iowa. Yeah. Like, Iowa, I don't think, when I think Iowa, I don't think basketball. Yeah, I mean, Indiana, Iowa, like those corn states.
I'm just gonna say again, when I think Iowa, I don't think basketball. I don't think so. They're not, that's not a... Hawkeyes?
That's not a team that I'm like, you know what, I want to go join the Iowa. Like I would want to join the U, I would want to join Florida, I would, I'd even consider joining, I mean FSU, you know, and then like maybe some Texas teams, Ohio, right? I don't know, am I wrong here? Yeah, basketball is a little different.
Yeah? Yeah, because you could be from a podunk state that has no sports. Like, let's say Massachusetts, right? They have no pro teams.
Okay. But they have one of the greatest college teams of all time. For basketball? Yeah, UConn.
Did you say Massachusetts has no pro teams? I'm sorry. I meant Connecticut, not Massachusetts. Okay, because Massachusetts has a couple pro teams.
Sorry, I meant Connecticut. Have you heard of the Boston Celtics? New England Patriots? I meant...
Boston, Connecticut, 'cause I said Yukon. Okay. Connecticut? Yeah.
So we're mixing up our Connecticut with our Massachusetts. They're right next to each other. They're practically the same thing? Yeah.
Okay. For whatever reason, Duke is always there. Duke is a big deal. Uh, but Duke is in, um, is below them right now in Connecticut.
Duke? Yeah. You sure about that? Uh, no, I'm not.
Okay. Alright, so go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, are you guys done with the sports stuff now again?
I'm sorry, we got broken up by, aren't you glad that I answered the phone so that you guys could get sweatshirts? Sure, he called me, but I turned my phone off. Yeah, exactly. And I answered for him to help you.
You're the best. I said thank you. My phone did not ring. No, but you're sitting there, mine's face down over here on the side so it doesn't distract you.
So what I'm gathering from this Ozger thing is that Yeah, he used to do this when he was CAO, right? Yeah. Because they used to do a FIFA World Cup cigar. Oh, really?
Oh, did they? I don't know. Yeah, because I remember seeing it in a humidor when I first started smoking cigars with you guys. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Wasn't that Plasencia that made a World Cup cigar last year? Yeah. I think they made one, yeah.
The green one? Supposedly, these cigars will be ready right before June 11th, right before the kickoff. These are the other ones, the Ellie's? Yes.
- But these are made in Esteli? - Correct. - And what's the wrapper? - A rumor is Mexican San Andreas, no confirmation.
They were emailed for confirmation, and they refused to answer. - Really? - Really? - Yeah.
- Somebody had to give the intel. - That's what Half Wheel stated. - Oh. Okay.
- And does, 'cause he's part of Crown Heads, right? - Yeah. - He's the guy, he's actually, yeah. Do any of the other cigars from Crown Heads come from my father or just these?
Okay. Yes. I'm not familiar with what they're says. For a long time, they have worked together.
Okay. Las Calaveras. Okay. There's some other ones, too.
That's one that instantly comes to mind. Probably La Imperioso. A lot of La cigars. Yeah.
Anything it makes starts with a La. La. La. La.
La, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la. La. All right, Hiram and Solomon adding two new limited editions, the Fraternal Flame and the Mystic Tie.
Hiram and Solomon Cigars has announced that it will release a pair of LE cigars, Fraternal Flame, Mystic Tie, in the near future, with the cigars scheduled to be featured at the upcoming PCA convention trade show in April. I like that the cigar announced news things now are very short. There's no extra fluff anymore. Yeah.
Company says the eternal flame in body's fellowship and inner enlightenment inspired by the theme "Ignite the light within". Aha. That's it? Cigar uses an Ecuadorian Claro Amarillo?
A-M-A-R-I-L-L-O? Amirio? Amirio rapper? Amarillo?
Amarillo? Amarillo? Amarillo? Amarillo?
Armadillo? It's Ecuadorian Claro. Armadillo without the D. Armadillo.
Amarillo. Amarillo. S. grown tobacco.
Amarillo. Now I know you get upset when they just say like Nicaraguan tobacco or tobacco. S. grown tobacco or is there less options?
I think I'm upset. Are you? Yeah, you know, same scenario. Like, what is it?
Is it American Broadleaf? Is it American Habano? You know, I think that those things can be, you know, like, that's... Could make a difference.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Like, even if it's Cameroon. Like, let's say, you know...
Is there American Cameroon? No, but how cool would that be? Like, you would acknowledge the fact that the seed came from Cameroon, Africa, but it's grown in America. Oh.
You know what I mean? Instead of saying, well, now it's American. That doesn't help me with anything, you know, like what type of motor is it, V8, like what do you mean, like where did it come from, is it a Dodge, is it a Ford, like what is it, no it's a V8. Well it also contains Dominican Tobacco, Lajero Seco and Dominican Seco HVA.
Okay, what's that mean? I assumed you would know. I feel like some of this stuff, though, is just so nuts. Like, what are we doing?
HVA? Well, the Amarillo Tobacco. Amarillo. Amarillo.
Amarillo. That's probably what I would say. Amarillo. Amarillo.
The company says it celebrates duality and connection with its barber pole design symbolizing balance and meaningful bonds and reflects fellowship, shared wisdom, and unity. It was made for the most worshipful Omar S. Chris Morris, Grandmaster of Masons of the State of New Jersey. Ooh, Grandmaster.
Grandmaster of Mason. Of Mason. The Barber Pole design is made up of two wrappers, Ecuadorian Connecticut Leaf and a Mexican San Andreas Maduro, while the binder comes from the Indonesian and the filler contains Dominican seco piloto along with tobacco from Paraguay. So much tobacco in this cigar.
A lot of taste. And the Dominican Republic. cigars are six by 52 standard toros made at the pdr cigars with production limited to a thousand boxes of 10 cigars each cigars comes priced at gentlemen individually individually who's pdr phil pdr makes them we're still talking about the hiram and solomon grandmaster blend Amarillo. For the Grandmaster guy.
$14. Ecuadorian Claro, Amarillo. Amarillo. $18.
$16. Oh, right in the middle. Right in the middle. Yeah, yeah.
That's where I was at originally. Split the baby. Just stuck with him. Hiram Solomon says that part of the proceeds from each cigar will benefit the respective Grandmaster's charity.
And by charity, they mean his private bank. "Grandmaster of the Masons", huh? Right. Both cigars will be ready to ship.
Hiram and Yada Yada. It's got the whole thing. Hmm. Both cigars will be ready to ship to retailers.
I don't know what kind of symbol he just says. Is it? Yeah. Yeah.
Huh. I don't know. I don't know what it is. What's it called, Mike?
I would listen to you guys. I was talking about the cigars. You guys were talking. What's the symbol on their logo?
Yeah. What's the symbol? It's the eye. It's the Mason.
That's the Luminati, isn't it? Thank you. It's the Mason. No, not the Luminati.
That's the different group that we're not allowed to talk about. Yeah. But I bet both of them have people. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, but the Masons are a little less secret than the other ones. Yeah, a little less secret, but you think they got people to do like, things? Do you know a lot of Masons? To unalive people?
Do I know any Masons? Yeah. My grandfather apparently was. Yeah.
After he died, you know, we went to the funeral, no Mason logo on his headstone? Yeah. When I went back 10 years later, Mason thing on a headstone. Oh, he hedged it.
So he went in and he hedged it. Apparently, I don't know. Why didn't your dad become a Mason? I don't know if he knew.
I don't know. If he knew that he was a Mason? Knew that his father was a Mason. Well, your grandfather sucks, bro.
Why? He was a Mason. You know how you don't tell the secret? You tell my grandfather.
You're supposed to pass that on to your kids, though, no? Maybe my dad turned it down. I don't know. Maybe the CIA interfered with the Masonry.
The CIA? Your dad was the CIA? You don't remember the show he did when my father died? Where I did not miss an episode because we did one about him?
It was a long time ago. Four years. Yeah, there's a lot in this brain to kind of pull out. It's a lot in his brain that kind of pours out after a while.
I remember at Palmer, I care. What was it, Phil? Tell us. It was exactly what he said it was.
What was it? It was Mason on his headstone. Not my dad. No, what about you?
What about his dad? My dad's in a box. He's a great guy. Yeah, what about him?
He's perfect. He worked with the CIA. He wasn't perfect. Yeah.
Nobody's perfect. He wasn't perfect. Nobody's perfect. He's perfect for you.
He did a great job. Yeah, he was a good dad. Apparently he worked with the CIA. Alex, we can't confirm this, not allowed to talk about it, we mentioned it, there's sirens coming out.
No, it's a maybe, before it was done. Handcuff me in the front, please. That was years ago, look man, there were plenty of these guys, fake Navy SEAL guys, that take all this credit and they make these books, you can say a little couple things about CIA, you know what I'm saying? Oh, there's other people that take credit for that kind of stuff too, aren't there, Michael?
Hmm. Yes. Are you saying like me? You told that story.
Oh, when I got my military discount? Yes. I didn't know it was a military discount. The lady told you it was, he thanked you for your service.
At that point it was awkward. What was I supposed to do? I'm not in the military, I'm very sorry. No, no, no, no.
I want this, no. Please don't take me down. I was saving my $5. Not like I get senior discount and I go, no, no, no, I'm not 55.
Or I'm not 60, whatever it is, I am 55. Do you take, oh, stolen senior value? Senior value. Wow.
Depends, I qualify someone because it's 55 and older in some places. Yeah, that was 55 and up. Yeah, it's 55 and up. Some places it's a little higher.
Yeah, you get like the cheap coffee at McDonald's. Oh, you know, I've never tried that. I only get the haircut discount. Oh, yeah, you get like a sausage, egg, McMuffin, and a coffee for like nothing.
Did you really? Yeah, it's like a buck or something. You know, you know what you should do though? When somebody asks, you know, did you serve in the military?
You should say no, but my dad may have worked with the CIA. Yes, see what they do. And then see if you get a discount. And my grandfather was a mason.
He was in the military. He was in the army. What? Oh, there you go.
Your grandfather was in the army. Your grandfather was a stud. He borrowed someone else's shoes so that he could join. You know what, I remember that story.
Right. He was in the, he was in the, not the Calvary, but, what's it called when you shoot the, they're not really cannons, but artillery. But the artillery was moved around by horses. So he needed shoes?
No, he borrowed shoes because they wouldn't let you sign up without shoes. So he took someone else's shoes? Borrowed. He showed up without shoes?
No, because he knew. What are you gonna do without these shoes? You gotta have shoes, you don't move there. Wow, what a requirement.
Well, I mean, they don't want you going barefooted into war, it's a little problem. They don't issue you anything? Not back then. Not back then.
Not back then they couldn't afford shoes. Not back in the 1800s. Come on, we're riding horses, I just said, you know, they had to put shoes on the horse. What part of the military?
He was in the Army. He was in the Army? Artillery, they moved them around with horses. I got artillery, I didn't hear Army.
Oh, sorry. Yeah, there was, back then, maybe when he joined, maybe that was all that was really there. Yeah, there was no masters at arms. Yeah, there was no Navy.
Yeah, there was no Navy. We didn't have boats yet. They had invented boats. Yeah, they weren't in boats as horses.
They didn't invent boats. I remember, I have a real nice framed picture of my home on horseback. Really? Yeah, wearing his dress greens, I guess they call them.
Ooh, really? Yeah. That should be a cigar, bro. Dressed green?
What's the picture? You should totally put him on a cigar. Oh. It's a whole Polish theme, Michael.
It sort of doesn't flow. It doesn't have to go with post-line. It can go with something else. Oh, gotcha.
What was the name? His name? Ray. Ray what?
Ray Palmer. Ray Palmer Sr. Did he have a nickname? Like Gunny or some shit?
No. Dad did Sammy. That's why we used that. Yeah, but Ray had to have a nickname.
He might have, but anybody who knows is probably not alive. Ray DP. I was going to say, that's my dad, but I can't ask him either. Papa.
She didn't know her name. RDP. RDP? -Lineage line.
-What's the D4? -What? -What was the D4? -What was the D4?
-I don't know. Why don't you ask? -The D4 is BDP? -Oh.
-Huh. Glad you don't know. What's the D4? -I thought you were saying it was his middle name.
It was Newton. It was in it. -Great. Another secret with these freaking cigars.
-Tell me anything about Ray Palmer. -All right. Wildfire. Boots his favorite brand.
Ships the dead drift. Definitely not my favorite. To the limited edition release from Wildfire Cigar Company, it's on its way to stores, the Dead Drift is a 6x50 Toro Vitola made with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Sumatra seed binder, and a filler blend of Criojo 98 and Criojo tobaccos. The cigars were produced at an unnamed factory in the Dominican Republic.
I think maybe it's that one that's sitting empty now. S. Army's 113th ammunition train during World War The one? Yep.
Did that come up in Kronk? Returning? Kronk. That's all true.
Returning from France as part of that unit. Wow, that's all true. This guy. Let me hit it.
Uh-huh. So, this is the guy. Some close related matches include. Tell me more.
Go ahead, keep going. Unnamed Factory of the Dominican Republic. Each Dead Drift has... Are we looking at a price?
An MSRP of... Uh... This is Dead Drift from Wildfire. From Wildfire.
Yeah, ten bucks. Your favorite brand. Ten count boxes. Ten bucks.
Sixteen. Fourteen dollars. I won that time. Yeah.
Total production has not been announced because they're not sane. Too much matter. Said this is a one time release in fishing. A dead drift is when a fly attached to a fishing line is left to drift naturally in the current in an attempt to simulate the insects natural behavior.
Hmm. Hmm. He was with Company A Motor Section. The 113th Ammunition Train was a support transport unit responsible for hauling and distributing artillery ammunition to frontline units.
Oh, kind of like the Bear. It fell under the broader structure of field artillery supply chains and the AEF, often attached to divisions in Corp. S. Army shifted from horse-drawn to mechanized logistics.
He was futuristic. Oh. No, no, no. No need for that horse.
We have this. We have this Model T thing. We have this V8. We have these bicycle tires.
The bicycle tires. A lot of traction problems because they're heavy, but still, we did it. S. Army Field Artillery Company, World War I, likely enlisted, drafted around 1917, 1918, served overseas, and then was demobilized in about 1919.
No prominent awards, combat citations, or high-profile actions are tied to him in public records. He seems to have been a typical enlisted support soldier in a logistics role rather than frontline combat. Hmm. There you go.
He has some service ribbons, but yeah, no medals. There you go. My brother has the ribbons. I have his flag.
Hmm. There you go. Hmm. You're welcome.
Thank you. Now it's time for the industry's favorite game. - What's the score? - We have some unusual selections for today.
- Oh good. - Unusual or usual? - Unusual. - Okay.
- First Cigar, October 17th, 2017, Brian Burt reviewed. - Okay. - Dominican Republic review, the San Parry Red Churchill. - Oh, look at you.
This is your boyfriend, Phil. - I didn't want to do it during his show, he might know the answers, so I saved it for today. Who's going first, me? Yeah.
Your guy. We're going to play the middle of the field here, 85. You don't want to try and dupe me? Like a 67.
Yell out 62 or something? 89. It doesn't work with you anymore. The San Parade Red Churchill.
It's a Dominican Republic cigar. Factory is Tablicalera Palma. Rapper, Ecuadorian Corojo. Binder, Dominican Republic.
Filler, Dominican Republic. It's a 7 and 8 by 47 Churchill. $40 a cigar, Release Date 2016, Number of Cigars Smoked, 3. - Wow.
- Yeah, wow. Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. - 85. - You didn't wanna, I'm gonna tell him that you went so low.
We have value listeners and watchers that watch our show, and it grows every day, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I had a discussion with ChatGBT that says we're doing exactly what we should be doing, yeah, we're doing a good job, you and ChatGBT talk to each other, and we value our, well I typed, but I talk to it when I drive sometimes, we value our full episode viewers, maybe we should do a shirt that says, we value our listeners, no I watched the full episode, CH pod, and we should only release the link in a certain area, Full episode watchers. As long as we're stopped here for a moment, do we have shirts already made, or do we have leftover shirts from other things that we used to do? What do you...? Like leftover Halloween shirts, or leftover 4th of July shirts, or leftover or something.
I still have the decals for this. The decals, okay. What if we did like a mystery shirt at a certain price, but they don't know, you know, and you just choose when to make it. Gordos and Goblins!
You had to get rid of the extras. I don't know. You know, a slight discount on a mystery shirt? I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to bring them back. Oh, okay. Well, that works, too. In a different format, in a different shirt color or something like that.
I thought that would be cool. That would be good. So hold it till the next year for Halloween. That works also.
I don't know. There's not many Gordos and Goblins, though. Well, I don't know how many you got left, if anything, to be honest. I got a bunch of these.
I saw another company that was doing mystery shirts. Oh, really? I went hard in the paint on my BDP. It's my favorite shirt though, so you know what, I gotta be honest, it's never going on sale, because I'll just continue to wear these.
Just take them for you, as they wear out. Yeah, you guys can't have them. I wear the tank top all the time at home. Yeah, me too, me too, the 4th of July one.
4th of July, the red tank top? Yeah, I rock it all the time. Yep. Alright, the first third offered a really engaging and layered profile, led by a sweet spice note up front, while supporting flavors of expresso, Boots' Nuts, cocoa, and earth.
The addition of a subtle sweet fruit note helped balance everything nicely and kept the profile interesting and dynamic early on. Sorry, I made fun of your friend Boots, Phil. Yeah, I guess it's just attack Boots Day. I'm not here, I'm not attacking you.
I know you're not, I know you're not. I'm being nice. I missed out on Filet Friday. Yeah.
Because your friend was doing so many things. Filet Phil Friday? Filet Phil Friday. Yeah, he tried to attack me a couple of times.
I'm just I don't know that would make a good shirt. We make him as a fish sandwich. Lay fill Friday. Lay fill Friday.
86. Wow, he's still low on the. Yeah, I'm working on a new shirt. I'll show you the artwork.
It's hilarious. It has nothing to do with Phil. Oh, but you're going to show me to. I'll show you to.
OK. No, I won't. Of course, I like the way you said that, though. He's like, OK, what about me?
Like, it was just like one of those sweatshirts like, oh, what size? And I could see it. I'm watching 'em, 'cause I already knew, like I talked to Taranio a few days ago, I was like, I gotta work on getting some, see if I can get sweatshirts for the boys, I said okay, but I already knew that you were in the pipeline for that, so I'm just watching you, and you're like, like a sad puppy over there like. Well I know, he said that he was gonna give me some once before, and it never came, so.
Oh yeah, what was it? It was the, it was the bomber jacket when we went to, um. Oh dude, I mean. Whatchamacallit, when we went to the, uh, not the Grey Smoke, the, uh, the La La Palooza.
He was in the blue zone, yeah, he's like, oh, I'll get you one of those, I was like, okay, cool, yeah, he's like, I'll just send it to you, because we were getting ready to leave, I was like, all right, cool, that, I mean, that's a big ask, but, when this came up, I was like, oh, yeah, here it comes, another, no, not, not for boots, here it comes, that's a big ask, the bomber one, yeah, I told Rosales, you say your size at the beginning of every show now, yeah, but 2XL, but 2XL, oh, you told Ro, that we're talking upstairs, I mean, I like those jackets, they're cool. I didn't know that they, maybe I did see a thing or, I don't know, I just didn't act on it, I guess. Wow. 90.
Really? Yeah, 86. Despite not being razor sharp, the burn performed well overall, staying mostly even, producing a firm ash and requiring no touch-ups. The cigar also maintained a smooth, enjoyable experience throughout the final inch without the harshness intensifying.
Phil? So I'm going to be honest about this cigar, not the one I'm smoking, the one that we're reviewing right now. Not the one that you just fried with a torch? Well, you think I fried it?
Yeah, dude, I can see the chart mark up the cigar. Holy moly. So yeah, chart mark, go ahead, get me going. You know what I really need, you really gotta cuck it on there.
Wow. I like it really hot. Yeah, I like it burnt. Oh, that shit, now it smells like burnt tobacco.
I think when I first smoked these cigars, I didn't like them. Is this the one we're talking about or whatever you're smoking? I'm so confused on what's going on. Me too.
No, the ones that we're talking about, the one that we're talking about. When I first smoked it, I didn't like it. But the one that we smoked, was it yesterday? Not yesterday.
Friday. Friday? The purple. That's such a blur.
It wasn't bad. Did they not have color or names? They're just called by color? They're just colors.
I don't know, that's a raining $80 endorsement though, not that bad. Yeah, no, I wouldn't pay $80. " Right. I think that's my biggest problem with the cigars, is the price.
Is that it's got a color? No, it's the price. It's French. It takes a lot to ship out here from France.
They're not French, they're from Oroji. Yeah, but they make them there, then they ship them to France. It's San Oroji. And then it's blessed by the French Pope.
Right. Is that, oh, really? They sprinkle him with holy water. Yeah, it's a totally different Pope.
It's not the same. It's not the Vatican. He's less important, nobody talks about him. Yeah.
He's just there to bless cigars. Yeah, he's just a French guy. Chris Sweeney. Chris Sweeney.
Yeah. But these guys that review these cigars on Half Wheel. This is Brian Burt. Don't insult him.
He lives here. Yeah, leave Brian alone. They like Dominican cigars. They like cigars?
Yeah, they like Dominican cigars. That's like one of their favorites. Really? As we all know, Phil does not like Dominican cigars.
You know what Brian likes. Yeah, these guys just rate them higher. I don't know. What's Brian look like, Phil?
I was going to say you probably could have met him in a... Right. If he walked in here, you wouldn't know who he was. Probably not.
89. That's where I was going to go. 89. As the cigar moved into the second half, it lost some of its early charm.
Oh, there it goes. The sweetness, especially the fruit faded, leaving a more earth forward profile with sharp pepper and a slight background harshness. Combined with a more uneven burn, the balance and refinement took a noticeable step back. Hmm.
86. 87. If the Senpura Red Churchill wasn't provided-- Senpura who? I don't know, he said it three different ways on this show.
It's called Senpura. Senpura. Provided to me by the site for the review, I'm not sure if as a consumer I would have taken a chance on relatively unknown brand at this price point. Is he saying the cigars he reviews he has to buy himself?
They always do. They do, yeah. No, but he's, well, what site provide him? I, the way it reads, it makes it sound like Half Wheel gave him this cigar.
If they didn't give it to him, he wouldn't have bought it. Maybe Charlie said, screw you, buy it yourself. Alright, you don't do enough of these. You don't do enough of these.
Especially since the red line doesn't have a size in it cheaper than $40. Having said that though, I'm glad I got to try it. While I don't think the burn or profile achieved the perfection claimed by the company, it certainly was quite good, especially the first third. If the first third had been replicated into the other thirds of the cigar, then I think the claim of perfection would be much closer to reality.
Unfortunately, the reduction in sweetness and some slight harsh undertone did bring the overall enjoyment level down a little. For the most part, though, the delicate and flavorful profile did produce an enjoyable experience, and I think that's what most of us are looking for in a cigar anyway. When we're talking about cigars, at this price point, it's harder to just throw a blanket statement out there to go, go try it for yourself, since many people think spending $20 on a cigar is too much, not to mention twice that amount. Final score, gentlemen, this is it.
This is for all the Zamparais. Zamparais, man, ha ha. 81. Oh, I'll win.
I'll take 82. 90. What? Very unusual score, considering all the bad things he said.
Yeah, he sounded like he hated that. No, well, I mean, he was talking about the price, but that's not going to affect the cigar, the flavor profile. He enjoyed the flavor profile, but there was some inconsistent burns. So, yeah, 90 seems a little high, but not extremely off.
But in, like, the second clue, he said that it lost the character or whatever. I feel if Charlie had reviewed this, it would be closer to what you guys were saying. That was easy. Yeah, when he went 81.
81 ahead. All right. All right, second cigar, April 1st, 2017, our friend Brooks Whittington, the cigar is the La Aurora, limited edition, main review, La Aurora, Stravaganza. La Aurora?
Stravaganza. What was the year? 2017. Brooks.
Brooks. Eighty-eight. La Aurora, so we'll go 89. The cigars, La Aurora, La Estravaganza, sorry, Country of Origin, Dominican Republic, Factory, La Aurora, Wrapper, Ecuadorian, Sumatra, Binder, Brazilian, Marafina, Filler, Brazilian, Dominican Republic, Peru, and Nicaragua.
It is a 20-inch cigar. It's 80 ring gauge, $30, and he only smoked one. 87. 89.
The cigar makes a bold first impression with its massive size and solid construction. The wrapper, though slightly rough, carries a rich espresso brown color and offers an interesting pre-light aroma of peanut. Coffee Beans, Earth & Pepper, Backed by a Nuanced Cold Draw Featuring Cedar, Leather, Cocoa, And Cinnamon. Ninety.
Eighty-nine. Early performance showed some promise with a surprisingly straight burn through the first third and a mild, approachable flavor profile of creamy peanut, leather, earth, and cinnamon. " Ninety. Eighty lemon.
"The overall smoking experience was severely compromised by a major draw issue. Despite burning for hours, the cigar failed to produce usable smoke, essentially turning the experience into an extended cold draw. This completely overshadowed any flavor potential and ultimately made the cigar unsmokable and not worth the time investment. Ah, 90.
89. Final thought, judging by the hook on the display box, it is sold in. The extravaganza is obviously meant to be a show piece, but as my review of the Opus X football and Femur have proven, Cigars like this can often be smoked, and thus the review today. The Stravaganza actually burned quite well for the time I was smoking, and while the flavors I was getting out of it were not overly complex, they were enjoyable enough to continue.
The major problem was the fact that despite the very small amount I cut off the cap, I just could not get enough suction or pressure to draw the smoke the entire length of the cigar. which means i was basically just cold drawing the whole time i was smoking patrick's review of the woody shows that cigars this size can theoretically be smoked i would not be averse to trying again to see if the second time it would be any less frustrating now before you give the score there is one more tidbit of information with this review you will get after the score and you will be given the opportunity to score one more time okay this has some extra information that the other ones don't A PS. So, I can do another one after this? Yes.
With this new information, there's an editor's note. Okay. Ninety. Eighty-nine.
Editor's note. The score below is extremely low. It is not so much an indictment of the flavor, but rather the fact that the cigar could not be smoked. As such, the cigar received zero points for both the second and final thirds.
This is the same practice that we would use to evaluate a plug cigar that could not be complete because of the draw. He smoked this for seven hours. It was a picture of the timer. They set a timer, apparently.
Sixty-seven. Sixty-six. Ooh, he went the right way. Yes.
Thirty-one. Wow. Wow, that's super low. Hey, you guys would never have got that.
Is that the lowest one we've ever done? Yeah, there was a 47, which I think was the baseball, that. Another cigar, which I really don't think was intended to be smoked, like this one. It was a display piece that he smoked.
Wow. It went lower than 67. Yeah, but this one was intended to be smoked, right, or no? He says because of the notch on the box, he feels it was not, but they smoked the other big one, so they're going to smoke this one too.
Wow. I've never seen a super big one from La Aurora. I haven't either. I mean, this looks like a Lancero, there's no, like, hand in the photos, so you can get an idea of the size in any of the photos.
Okay, Palmer, where are you going to be? This Friday and Saturday, in just four days, no, three days since this goes up, we will be at the Humidor Fine Cigars in Dothan, Alabama, and Bo Weevil Cigars, one on Friday, one on Saturday. Cool. Cool.
And then on April 1st, I'm doing an online HEERF with the 9-1-1 Beer, Beer Guys 9-1-1. Okay. They sent me the link today, but it feels like it's a little early to put it on. Okay.
Make sure you like and subscribe. We're reviewing or listening to the show. And you'll be there in Alabama, too. I will be there, holding your stuff.
Holding my stuff. com for all your latest swag, and thanks so much for watching or listening wherever you are. We're doing a Patreon next. Make sure you get into that.
It's the membership is growing over there. yes patreon member all right bye guys bye
Show Notes
Florida Chaos & Global Perks—Then Rosales Rolls In
On todays show Florida Man makes an appearance, not to be out done Florida woman also shows her face then in African all women get an extra two days off a month! Then in Cigars more new PCA Cigars
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