ACHP Episode 534 Frog Duty
Episode Summary
Episode 534 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with Mike Palmer, Mikey and engineer Phil McGuffey working through listener comments (including ongoing chatter about cigar media bias and sponsorship disclosure), a somber news item on the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego being investigated as a hate crime, and two genuinely absurd frog stories — an Australian man who found a live frog named Greg in a sealed bag of supermarket lettuce, and Poland's volunteer "frog patrol" near Otrębusy that carries migrating toads and frogs across a busy road each spring.
The cigar news block leads with an in-house story: a rogue humidification system ran all night at the Poschik Cigars distribution warehouse, flooding a storage rack. Core inventory and retailer orders were unaffected, but production samples, test blends and part of the company's rare cigar collection were destroyed — including a set of aged Apollo cigars in the original Connecticut blend, a bundle of the original 320 Sycamore barber-pole blend, and leftover LFT Oro event samples. The crew talks candidly about not blaming the employee, why it's the third such incident, and the fail-safes (float valves, dedicated stands, drain paths) they should have had in place. Next up is Cuba's energy collapse: the Energy Minister admitting the island has no fuel, rolling blackouts up to 22 hours a day, protests in Havana, shipping companies suspending bookings, and only limited Russian oil deliveries arriving as US sanctions tighten.
In product news, Agonorsa Leaf's Supreme Leaf — previously an international-only offering — is coming to US retailers for PCA 2026 with the Supreme Leaf Exclusivo Inter Robusto (5.5 x 54) and Euro Toro, both all-Nicaraguan under a Criollo 99 wrapper, with 1,000 boxes of each vitola earmarked for America. The hosts price-guess the MSRPs and note their shop has already bought in. The episode also touches on an invite to Alec Bradley's 30th anniversary release event, some good-natured ribbing of Justin Andrews over his Little Debbie taste test and diesel-cigar self-deprecation, and Matt Booth name-drops.
The show closes with "What's the Score?", scoring a Halfwheel redux review of the Fratello Bianco Nero Reserva — a 6 x 58 box-pressed perfecto made at Fábrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan Condega/Jalapa filler. The panel debates chocolate, earth, cream and pepper notes against chalky, soapy stretches, and lands on the redux score of 88 versus an original 85.
In This Episode
- 01Listener Comments and Cigar Media BiasThe crew reads comments on Coop, media coalitions, and whether sponsor-driven cigar news can stay credible.
- 02San Diego Islamic Center ShootingA serious look at the mosque shooting being investigated as a possible hate crime, and a broader talk about hate in society.
- 03Frog Stories: Australia and PolandA live frog named Greg found in a sealed bag of lettuce in Western Australia, plus Poland's volunteer frog patrol saving migrating amphibians near Warsaw.
- 04Poschik Cigars Warehouse FloodA malfunctioning humidification system floods a storage rack, destroying production samples, test blends, and rare aged cigars like the original Apollo Connecticut and 320 Sycamore.
- 05Cuba's Fuel and Blackout CrisisCuba's energy minister admits there's no fuel as 22-hour blackouts, protests, suspended shipping, and tightened US sanctions squeeze the island.
- 06Supreme Leaf Comes to the USAgonorsa Leaf brings the international-only Supreme Leaf Exclusivo Inter Robusto and Euro Toro to American retailers for PCA 2026.
- 07Alec Bradley 30th Anniversary Invite and Industry BanterThe hosts debate who goes to Alec Bradley's 30th anniversary event and roast Justin Andrews over his Little Debbie review and lemon cake habit.
- 08What's the Score? Fratello Bianco Nero ReservaThe panel guesses the Halfwheel redux score for the box-pressed San Andrés-wrapped Fratello, landing on 88 after an original 85.
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
Two, one in, action! Welcome to a Cigar Hustler podcast episode 534. Is Preston's eyes worse than mine? Because this is huge.
I have no idea. I'm Mike Palmer, your host, and in Engineering Today, we have Phil, I Like Frogs McGuffey. Hello. And as my co-host always, Mikey, Polish Frogs are the best Step on Cabbage.
Hi. I look up, I get one Polish story, and now my feed is filled with stories from Polish. With Polish frogs? Well, today we have Polish frogs.
On today's show, hate is not good. Frogs are a salad topping? Hate has never been good. How many Polish people does it take to save a frog?
And then in cigars, there's been a big flood, Cuba's out of gas still, 'cause we didn't talk about it yesterday. Mm-hmm. More Supreme Leafs, and then a what's the score? You don't have the biggest Polish story of the day?
What's the biggest Polish story of the day? The war thing? No. That wasn't very interesting.
What? The, uh, the very famous Polish lady that died today? Or yesterday? No, today, yeah, this morning.
We don't cover a lot of death normally on this show because it's depressing and that's not what we're about. The Leia does a voice for Ursula from Little Mermaid. Oh, she died? Yeah.
She wasn't even one of the deaths that I saw in the news. Poor Unfortunate Souls. Yep. All right, first, how do we get some of that CHPod swag?
com. Oh. Where you can check out all of our latest CHPod swag. Buy one, get the second one, 40% off.
Spend $100 or more, get free shipping. No. Like and subscribe, wherever you're viewing or listening to this podcast. Super important.
Hit it. Hit it. com, us, Cigar Hustlers podcast, where if you pay for the entire year, you're going to get 10% off. 10% off.
Save the money. Where all the real controversy and chatter happens. By the way, Ben was correct. Coop is still on our media feed.
He just unsubscribed from the-- If you would have said so when we originally brought that up, it would have solved the problem. Would have been awesome. And how dare you delete our shop specials and new products that we get. Yeah, yeah.
I work very hard on that thing every day. Yeah. Okay, getting to some of our comments. Unless it's the online version, that's not as good.
The in-store wins it much better. Is it? Yes. But I am stepping up the online.
Please, continue. " Aw, thank you T. You missed a little shot there, 'cause it was only 30 minutes, 'cause you left, because mom fell down some stairs or something. Yeah, mom fell down on the driveway or something.
Yeah. T-Money also sent us something. It's a present for you guys. Another hat?
No, I did not bring it today. I will bring it tomorrow. Why do you never bring things? Because.
I can't wait to get my 13 on. T-Money, send them here to the shop. Eliminate the problem. No.
Why? Did he send you special things? That you don't want anybody to see? That's correct.
Oh. Is it a... Nice. I'm not going to say what it is.
Never mind. Begins with a D. Ends with an O. D ends with an O.
Sounds like Bilbo? At Brett Mercurio says: Coop is no longer relevant. He's stuck on legacy brands, Dubai, and is an ST DuPont superfan. Even his food reviews do not track.
Hmm. Could you just eat old food? Be stroganoff? That's not nice.
You guys like this chicken Tetrazzini? I got this tuna helper here, it's delicious. Uh, well. It's the creamy one.
You guys like these riblets? What are you picking choosing? No, I just don't know what to say back to that. You pile on!
I like Coop. I didn't say I didn't like him. Yeah, we're just talking about the food he talks about. Okay.
David Hoffman 4727 says: So if the Coop thing is a coalition and he doesn't tell anybody what to do, what is everybody else's problem? And what is everybody else's problem? I think all news major cigar news is always bias. I understand the sponsorship stuff, but if you want to have credible news, you have to explain that to your sponsors that I have to report on everything or I look like I'm not credible.
So. There you go. That's just someone's opinion. Yeah.
Not ours. And it might be a short clip. Well, he's a famous Baywatch guy. He's a famous Baywatch guy.
Hasselhoff here. Ass a lot. So much problems when we do two shows in the same studio. I think it's fine.
I think it's fine, buddy. Same studio. " Oh. Do you have an imaginary wife?
The two times Gretchen has invited us over, Adrian was out of town, and so Gretchen's beginning to believe I have an imaginary wife. They don't have one. These guys have met her, Gretchen, I don't know what they'll tell you. " Yeah, right, yeah, I know.
Like, they're surprised. " Yeah, wow, look what you pulled, huh? Hey, swinging above my average, I understand. That was back in his biker days.
Palmer. A couple other ones here. ones here michael z cigar guy 55 from the previous episode says palmer and phil got busted by the teacher for not paying attention keep it up you'll lose those phones do you remember that yeah when i was talking was it a hot teacher or i'm the teacher oh he's the teacher we were doing something we weren't supposed to be doing you were on your phone and i also was i was talking and you guys weren't paying attention well i'll be fair my wife was at the doctor yeah and i was doing things Not involving my wife at the doctor. But her x-rays are as good as the real photos, just so you guys know.
Wow. If you want to hear your comment read aloud on the show, the only potential time for that to happen is if you comment below on the show. So comment below and we may include it in our next show. That's it.
That's all I got, I think. I think he got the Louisiana crud we had just late. Yeah, I don't know what the freak is going on, man. He's been coughing the last couple episodes.
It was probably COVID. That we had? Yeah. Yeah, probably.
Maybe it's the rat virus. The hanta virus? Hanta? Uh-oh.
The huni-hanni? Huna-huna. Now for six years, you can't have sex with anybody. Or you'll give them the huna-huna.
Potentially. I guess there's going to be a lot of infected one person. Wow. Did you see how he had to walk that back?
Yeah, he sure did, didn't he? He's going to be a lot of infected one person. There's going to be a lot of infected dudes. Wow.
Yeah, you could give it to them too, I guess. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah.
Next. Yeah, right. Alright, police investigated Islamic Center shooting as a hate crime. Oh, here we go.
Did you guys hear about this? This is the one depressing story for the day. Another one. Five people are dead following a shooting Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego in the Claremont area.
m. after reports of gunfire at the mosque and discovered three victims dead at the scene, including a security guard assigned to the center. Police later located two teenage suspects, ages 17 and 18, dead inside a nearby vehicle. For what investigators believe were self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Officials also confirmed police had received additional reports of gunfire several blocks away involving a landscaper who was not injured. Investigators have not officially announced a motive, but Chief Walls said that because of the attack targeted Islamic Center, authorities are treating the case as a possible hate crime. Hmm. Hmm.
So, I mean, I only read about this, I looked this up because somebody mentioned to me, but so they shot two people at the thing, three people at the place, they shot no stew, two people at the place, then shot themselves, and somehow a landscaper got shot? Somehow, the landscaper got involved. Did he get shot by these guys, too? Probably by a stray bullet.
Several blocks away? High velocity. Maybe they're using like a Desert Eagle or something? Yeah, I don't think that the landscape is related.
It just sounds like there's a lot of killings in this area. A lot of gunplay in this particular section. Apparently, in this three or four block area, some things were going down, right? Why does a lot of these hate crime things happen in California?
It's a big place, a lot of people. But they're usually like against like, you know, people with hate crimes. I think that there's hate crimes everywhere, dude. I just think sometimes you catch it on the news and, you know, sometimes you don't.
I mean, have you had a conversation with somebody at random? You'd be surprised at some of the things that come out of people's mouths. Yeah, like him. Yeah.
We have one bad day from a hate crime. Yeah, we've rooted a whole show around it at this point. Yeah. You guys really paint me like I'm a horrible person.
You're a sweet person. We love you. You just don't like people that aren't white. Wow.
Or straight. You're just misguided. You're just misguided. And it's our job to try and get you better.
That's what we're looking to do. I guess. Yeah. Whatever for the show.
I don't like the idea that they went and shot these people and shot themselves. Well, of course, they shot themselves. That's how most of these end. I guess you get a point there.
Yeah, they're not usually hanging around afterwards, right? They're making their point and then they're gone. It's ridiculous, man. It's ridiculous.
I don't know, it's just terrible. Maybe one day we'll get better as a society as a whole. Yeah. Does this happen in other countries too?
Do Canadians dislike certain people? The Canadians, yeah. Does it happen in Canada? Extremely violent people.
Allegedly. Allegedly. They're not allowed to have guns, are they? Yeah, they build shivs.
Oh, just hunting rifles. As soon as McTavish gets out of the 400s and into the 500 episode. He is in the 400s now. I know.
Did he text you that message the other day, too? He updates me. He's like 446. Oh, he sent me some comment and I had no idea what he was talking about.
He had to give me the episode. It was like 4-something. You know what sucks is I'm going to have to hear him talk about Coop in about a year. Right, yeah.
He's a hundred and some odd episodes behind him. " And no, I'm not in the coalition. Yeah, and I'm not in the coalition. And I've got the junta junta now because it's again.
I've got the junta junta. All right. Melbourne, Australia. Good time, mate.
When Australian farmer, Rise Smoker, announced he'd found a live frog in a bag of lead. the guy's name is what rise smoker r-h-y-s s-m-o-k-e-r rise smoker yes i'm assuming that's the way it reads r-h-y-s r-h-y-s it's reese rahiz rahiz i saw a picture he doesn't look like a rahiz he looks like a rise oh and i'm the racist he looks like a rise i said he looks like yes Whatever. That's not being racist. Yeah.
How do you look like a name? Mmm. He's got a point. Because Rahiz sounds Middle Eastern and it's not racist.
That's stereotyping. It's the same thing. No, it's not. Whatever.
Tomato, tomato. It's not the same thing. It's not. It's not the same thing.
It's not derogatory. But it's dangerously close. It is very close, but it's on the good side of the line. Okay.
Anyway, he found a frog in his bag of lettuce. Mmm. Found a live frog in a bag of lettuce his housemates didn't believe him. I saw the photo he did.
Smoker had been preparing a steak and salad dinner on Saturday for three people who share his house in Esperance in Western Australia when he spotted the frog among the leaves inside the sealed plastic bag he bought from a supermarket. Mmm. Housemate Laura Jones. Housemate.
" I don't think it was like that. " What? " The mick must be a joke. You're taking the mick.
You're taking the mick. Hey, listen. Go put the shrimp on the bulby. No, you're taking the mick.
You're taking the mick. " Jones told AP, "Taking the mick" is a slang term for attempting to fool someone. Fooled. Smoker brought the bag into the lounge room Oh, they have a lounge room at their house.
To show Jones and her partner, Billy Lapine. Quite the names in this place. Look, he's got three roommates. I don't think that he's high-end.
You know what I'm saying? He's got a lounge. Like, what are we doing? He's got a lounge in his house.
It's probably like they call that and say like the family room or something. Maybe it's a brothel. Oh, and Laura's the one lady that works there. Yeah.
And she has a partner. The fact that my client has been ridden longer than Seattle Slough is irrelevant. " Yeah, we all had a little laugh about it, Jones said. Lapine said they named the frog Greg, with two G's.
I'm serious, two G's. That's why this was pulled. Nice. Before release, well, I was panicking for stories here at the end.
Greg, before releasing it at the pond near the house. I can't believe this made national news. International news, actually. He's from Australia.
Me frog is in the bag. There's a frog. No, that's not. That's not.
Oh. What are they? What's it? Good day.
What's an expressive Australian term? I don't know. Crikey. Crikey.
Crikey. There's a frog in me lettuce. Crikey. Look at this frog.
It's a little green frog. You're micking me. You're micking me. It's Mickey.
I'm Mickey Mouse. It's Mickey. It's in the thing. I'm Mickey Mouse.
Let's go put Greg in the pond. Go let him go. Oh, no, an alligator ate him. Oh, God.
Now he's dead. What's going on here? Throw some salad at him. Throw some salad at the gator.
They had known to hate salad. Mmm. What's going on here? You don't want to jump in with the Australian accent over there?
Nope, because I know I can't do it. Oh, neither can we. Let's hear it, Princess Peach. Come on, Peach.
" Crikey. Hey, that was pretty good. That was pretty good. I thought Paul Hogan was in the room.
Yeah, it's amazing. Paul Hogan. Crocodile Dundee. Crocodile Dundee.
Paul Hogan's his real name. Oh. Yeah. Didn't know that.
Is he still alive? I was about to ask you, is he dead? Crocodile Dundee 7, he looked a little old. If we only had something we carried with us every day with the answer to all life's good.
Paul Hogan alive? Yeah, he's still alive. Oh, good for him. He's looking old.
Yeah. Yeah. He looks a little rough. Well, yeah.
Cause he's probably in his nineties. Yeah. He's got to be quite old by now. Uh, any passing rumors regarding his death are often confused with the passing of Burt, the famous saltwater, Burt Hogan?
Saltwater crocodile from the 1986 film, who lived to a remarkable age of 90. Oh, they're mixing him up with, uh, the alligator. Yeah. Nice.
Well, crocodile. Crocodile. He is looking a little rough though. Hmm.
You know, who really likes fucking frogs tell me polish people love really each spring hundreds of volunteers in poland just 30 miller 30 kilometers west of warsaw in a town called oats frogville otre busy o-t-r-e-b-u-s-y it's very it's very busy very busy place yeah ultra busy poland ultra busy how many miles is 30 kilometers mega busy we don't know obviously we've had this problem last week we gotta get We're not talking about this. So they form a frog patrol. They carry thousands of toads and frogs across a busy road. Frog patrol.
That's what the Polish people like to do. Yeah. The community effort protects migrating amphibians from being run over as a journey from the Miloski forest to local marshes to mate. You really struggle on news today.
While generations of frogs and toads have used these routes. This is terrible. A road built in the last decade right across the marshes made their spring migration incredibly deadly. Without the Citizens Patrol, hundreds of amphibians can be killed in a single night.
Great. Something else to add to your list of things to do when you go to Poland. Go look at the frogs. Well, you go at this time of year, you volunteer.
It's a traditional thing in Poland. I can volunteer. Save the frogs. Tear the frogs across.
Frog Patrol. We're into biologists from Warsaw University. These efforts are crucial to ensure population of amphibians survive and reproduce. Yes, there was no news today at all this morning, plus I was busy doing something else.
No, that's probably more of it. Well, that's why I ran out of time to look and panicked and grabbed the two frog stories. Even the forest is a ski. Yes, the forest is a ski.
Now he's racist against the forest. Oh, the San Diego mosque shooting is right up there. Yeah, we did that story first. I don't like to do death stories.
You don't think that he searched what you're searching? Today's primaries are important. It's an important capital agenda, it's all politic crap. Oh, wow, it's like, I didn't look.
Isn't today the day that, uh, uh, Trump gave Iran the... He pulled it back, he decided not to attack. Right, but he said, you know, you guys better be ready to go. " God.
So, I don't know what that means. Yeah. Yeah. They're not ready?
Isn't that when you're supposed to attack when they're not ready? Right. Hold on. You guys prepare.
We're almost done with the dynamite. I mean the gift. Oh, Jesus. We've had a delay in the delivery of the package.
If you guys could get together all in the same spot and kind of figure out your plan, that'd be great. We're sending you beepers. Oh, good. We like the beepers when they send the beepers.
Dude, this air is cold. The air was almost hot in here. It's cold. Oh, I'm very sorry.
Feels great in here. All right, Michael, you have a video? No. Oh, man, we thought there'd be some pop in this episode.
We're talking about me, there's no video! Oh, I dropped a ball on that. Then we're going into Cigar News. Let me see.
At 20 minutes? So, we're only 10 minutes behind. There's a lot of Cigar News today. Can't wait to hear it.
We have a lead story. It's a very important story. Everybody's talking about it. In this building.
Okay. So, four of us? Rogue Immunification System Floods Poshik Cigars Warehouse. You even got the brand?
Sure, why wouldn't I? What started as a normal morning quickly turned into an unexpected cleanup effort at the Poshik Cigars Distribution Warehouse after an employee-related error caused the immunification system to run continuously overnight. National Sales Manager Mike Palmer arrived at the warehouse shortly before 7am and discovered water flowing down one of the warehouse storage rack systems. After the communication system reportedly malfunctioned and continued operating throughout the evening.
It's everywhere. Fortunately, company officials confirmed that no core production inventory was damaged and retailers' orders remain unaffected. Operations are continuing as normal, with business carrying out uninterrupted. True.
Damage appears to be limited primarily to production samples, test blends, and portion of the company's rare cigar collection. Early estimates placed a loss at approximately $2,000 in production samples, though company officials noted that assigning an exact value to certain rare and aged cigars may be impossible. It's irreplaceable. That's what he said.
It's impossible to put a dollar figure on those cigars. Yeah, I had a set of Apollo Dannys, the original Connecticut blend with the first band set aside that I would smoke on Justice's birthday. Right. And all those were destroyed.
Right, yep. Yeah, I had... Do you need one? I had a handful of 320 Sycamores there.
There was a bundle of those, actually. Yeah, the original blend that we created, they were these tiny little bomb-looking things. Well, they looked like little missiles. And they were barber-pulled, and they had a cool flare.
Those were destroyed. It was just half of the bundle. or the bundle half of them weren't wet okay so so there's that maybe like seven are still good okay um some original show we stuff is cooked yep yeah oh i didn't know i had those they were floating in the box yeah that box is apparently very watertight on the inside well let's put them out in the sun maybe we can still smoke them i don't know i thought about that too he was like It's like some of those chokes you'll never see again. I was thinking, how can these be saved?
Right. Yeah. Put them in the air fryer maybe? We lost some samples.
There's some other stuff that was back there too. Some LFT Oro stuff that was left over from an event. That those got messed up. Yeah.
Because we don't sell those things. We'll intentionally use those things to promote product like what you should do with that. Right. We don't just price tag them out and stick them on the shelf.
No. No, it would have been something with a sampler or something at a later date. Yeah. So, yeah.
It sucks, man. It sucks. Is that person fired? No.
Is that the second or third flood we've had? I know we've had... I remember the big one. Is it always him that does it, too?
No, no, because the first one, it was the guy, the narcoleptic. I can't remember his name. Jake. Jake.
Jake was the first one. Anarchalactic. You think Greg would do these things himself at this point? How are we passing this on to somebody?
I think his was the same way. I think it had been maintenanced, and for some reason it kept running. But this one was like bubbling water out of it. Yeah, we've got to put fail safes in there to make sure that this doesn't happen anymore.
The other one, it just blew constantly, aimed at something. So this has happened before? Yeah, two, maybe three times. But there's big, big spans between them, obviously.
And obviously, we shouldn't put product around this thing at all. Right. Yeah, you know, that's the first thing I'm thinking, like, why do we always put this on top of the rack that has cigars on it? Yeah, like, it's gotta, it should honestly have its own stand.
Something. Yeah, away from everything. And then some sort of panic drain valve, where if it starts to flow over, it drains. Into a bucket.
Something. Yeah. So, like, I don't get mad at the guy. Like, the guy made a mistake, but I was looking at, what could we have done to avoid this?
Right. You know? It's so easy to just, like, I know that he's going to be, he's already stressed. The guy's already mad at himself for screwing.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, what am I going to do? Lay into him? Right.
What's the point of that? Beat him with a steak. Yeah, I don't think. That might make him feel better.
Yeah, I don't, yeah, I don't, you know what I mean? What are we doing? I don't see anything positive coming out of that. He made a mistake, he's gonna be hard on himself, what do we need to put in place so that if it happens again, it's not a catastrophe where something like that gets ruined, and just keep it moving.
How does it like to keep moving? Right, clean it up and just move on. Yeah. The good news is this did not impact our core business or customer shipments.
- Oh, you already said that. - No, this is your quote. - Oh. - Said Mike Szczepankewicz, co-owner of Posig Cigars.
- Okay. - It's business as usual while we work through cleanup and determine exactly what happens. Staff members spend much of the morning cleaning up water, inspecting affected inventory, and accessing the full scope of the incident. Company representatives say the situation appears contained and corrective measures are already being reviewed.
- Mm-hmm. - Can't wait to see this movie poster. I saw the one last night. The epic one.
Oh, yes. Oh, did he send that to you, too? No, he put it on Facebook. Oh, gotcha.
I put it on Instagram this morning. Oh, maybe it was you. Oh, it was me then. Yes, I love the fan art.
Please, keep sending the fan art. It's amazing. It's awesome. It's great.
Yeah. Cuba is out of gas. Oh, of course they are. Cuba is facing one of its What powers our electric grid?
Is it gas? I mean, is there a giant generator somewhere? No, it's a combination of things. Yeah, it's oil and gas.
Yeah, we have nuclear power plants. We have all kinds of things. Well, but they have just the old school stuff. Apparently, it's a big generator that runs on gas.
Is it the one motor where they just pull it? I think so, according to this. Well, that's because there's only one house there that has power. Turbines, buddy.
There's some hotels that have shut down. I mean, they're on 24-hour blackouts. Energy Minister Vincent de lo Levy admitted this week that the nation has absolutely no fuel. He admitted it.
So you're right. We have none. And we have no reserves. Well, we have some, but not for you.
You know what? It's just footy beach. If Cuba was such a problem before, why don't we just pull the plug? He pulled the plug decades ago.
Oh. Pulled the power? Yeah, now you don't have power. You know what I mean?
What are you going to do? I don't know. It sounded like this was quite simple. Just cut off the fuel to the island.
You know what? Just shut it down. C. " This is how we do it?
Oh. No more missile crisis, you can't launch them. Right. You have no oil.
We're going to shoot these missiles at you. How are you going to plug them in? Yeah, how are you going to hit the button? It's a button.
The button don't work. Man, man, man, man, man. " Oh, thanks so much. Thanks so much.
The shortages have triggered rolling blackouts lasting up to 22 hours a day. Damn. You get two hours of power. In parts of the island, including widespread outages across Havana, frustration has spilled into the streets with scattered protesters reported as residents demanded electricity be restored.
People are going, "Turn it on! " Like, they're just, they just turned it off. How to overthrow a government? Right here.
Well, I don't know. You can't see anything at night. Well, people are going to be pissed, and they're going to go take them. How can they find them?
They're in the place with the power. Right. Follow the light. The one building with the lights is where he is!
There they are. Get 'em! Get 'em! S.
sanctions and restrictions aimed at cutting off oil shipments from allies A Strait of Hormones. Joke's on you. There's no oil there. There's no more Venezuela.
We took it. We took that guy. What are you talking about? Don't get up and he will come get you too.
President Trump's administration has expanded sanctions and threatened penalties against companies and countries doing business with Cuba's energy sector. Since those measures took effect, fuel deliveries to the island have nearly stopped, with only limited shipments arriving from Russia. So they're getting some oil. Every once in a while, little dribs and drabs.
Every once in a while, a little Russian boat. Listen, I will help you with this, but you know, I don't have, it has to get there, and Hormuz is a big problem. Big problem, I cannot get through. Even though, Iran, we work together, I don't know.
Russia wouldn't have to go through there. They go the long way. Yeah? The Antarctic, where the polar bears are.
Maybe that's why there's not a lot. How does Russia get oil to Cuba? I was going to say, by boat. The worsening shortages are now impacting transportation, tourism, mining, and public services across the country.
Does it say by boat? If it says by boat and I'm a moron, then no. By boat, idiot. By boat, dumbass.
Several international shipping companies have suspended cargo bookings to Cuba while major foreign investors are reconsidering operations on the island amid fears of additional sanctions. Oh yeah, it was last week, the week before we did a story on they want more investors to come back to the island. I mean, how many companies are in Cuba? Well, there's McDougal's.
Okay, hold on. McDougal's? Yes, but how does it get there? KMC, Barbie's, and I believe there is Jake in the Box.
A bunch of 1980's restaurants. The Sizzler, Ponderosa. They all moved there. They all went there.
Kmart's there. That's their big retailer. Hooters is there now. Hooters right.
Red Lobster. Your favorite buffet place is there. Oh yeah. Golden Corral.
Golden Corral. It doesn't say Straight of Hormuz. It says English Channel. Oh well, Iran hasn't shut that one now.
But there's all those people swimming across it. It's very hard to get through. It disables trackers. They disable trackers at times to avoid detection due to international sanctions.
Of course they do. Just turn off the Lojack. We're getting close. So we gotta be doing something right.
As conditions deteriorate, humanitarian concerns continue to grow, with aid organizations warning that ongoing fuel shortages are threatening access to food and healthcare and basic infrastructures of millions of Cubans. Just, look, just give us the country. It could be the 51st state. S.
territory. Yeah. Oh. But he's going to make Canada a 51st state.
Well, we haven't gotten there, so. I hear now he wants Venezuela to be a 51st state. I think he really wants another state so he can say he changed it. You think so?
I added a star to the flag. It's the best star. It's the biggest star. I want that star to be gold.
It's going to be the golden star. I need to call it the Trump star. Oh, my God. What are we doing?
You know, look. I think that it would be good for Cuba. And to have some sort of regime change, obviously. I don't even know who's in charge at the moment.
We've talked about it before. Yeah, it's the nephew of Castro or something like that. I saw a picture of some little old guy the other day with a trucker hat. Obviously, he's not gelling with somebody.
It's with you in the profile in there, fella. No, no, the picture, he had a trucker hat on. And it was a Cuban military hat, but it was a big trucker hat with the mesh in the back. And it had a patch on there that said Cuban military.
Well, he better fix his power problem or else... Well, he probably has power. Well, look. All the oil and mass.
Look, the real question is what's the breaking point for the people? Right. And when that happens, you know... I can't warm up my dang hot pockets.
Yeah, I don't think it goes to that extent, but like, you know, at that point... Do the people have guns and weapons? I would imagine not in Cuba. Of course they do.
Not in Cuba? Where'd they get them? I don't know. The same place that all the people that can't get guns here.
What do you start doing? You start mowing down people? No, but I mean, if they're gonna fight the military and the government, they have to have weapons to fight with. Rocks.
That didn't go well for the poor people. This isn't the Middle East. Quick, what is uprising in Spanish? That'll be our new cigar.
Uprising-o. Uprising with a Russian accent? Uprising with a Russian accent? Exactly how you say it.
That's correct. I turned off the tracker. I turned off the tracker. That's on the flag.
It's a guy next to a switch going... He's looking it up. What's uprising in Spanish, Wiggo? Please be uprising him.
Please. Levantamiento. Ten words for one? Just Uprising, just the single word.
Levantamiento. Levantamiento? Is it Miento? It's one word.
Levantamiento. L-A-V-A-N-T-A-M-I-E-N-T-O. That's a big cigar box. Levantamiento.
Levantamiento. You can do it for your 50th. Oh, yes, your 50th cigar, Levante, I won't see it, but it'll be the Levante Lamento, whatever you say. It's only in… I'll enjoy smoking it.
Fourteen years? Eight and a half years? Eight and a half years? You'll be 50 in eight and a half years?
Yeah. I still won't see that either. It's about eight years. I'll be 42 in like two months.
Congratulations. Thanks. Happy birthday. I want to be the first.
Thank you. Supreme Leaf International exclusive. It's for US retailers. Oh.
We did buy this. Greg confirmed. Yeah. We have this coming.
Finally, a story about a cigar that we have purchased. The two Supreme Leaf Cigars that have historically only been offered to international stores are now available in America. Mmm. A one time, oh, only a one time release.
You can only get it one time. One time. Yeah, that's what they said of the first one. Earlier this year, Agonorsa Leaf announced that it would release the two cigars to American stores the first time that this has happened.
5x54, is how much? $14. Phil? Cesar Ganosa?
Yes. $16. 99. Wow.
You went the wrong way. I mean, their prices are going the right way. Supreme Leaf Euro Toro, how much? $13.
15. 99. He wins. I win.
I win. No, it's Price is Right rules. You've overbid. No, no.
It's closest. No way. You've all overbid. No way, Drew Carey.
Drew Carey. Both cigars use a standard Supreme Leaf blend. All of the tobacco is from Nicaragua, capped off by a Criojo 99 wrapper. For this release, a thousand boxes of each Vitola were earmarked for the American market, but the rest of them, they're sending overseas.
Hmm. Nice. "Supreme Leaf has become one of the most anticipated releases in the industry," said Terrence Riley, VP of Sales and Marketing for American Earth to Leaf. Wow, interesting voice.
" Levantamiento. Levanta le mito. You know, the voice makes sense. He's so tall, by the time the voice gets to you, it's kind of squeaky.
Right, and he's a giraffe, so it's a little squeaky way up there. Not much oxygen, so, you know, it affects the voice. Right, like helium. Right, exactly, like helium.
Sure. Okay. How much time we had? 37.
37? Yeah. Oh, we're in trouble. Yeah.
So this cigar... You got a video mic? So this cigar, the only difference is that they call it the Exclusivo. " Is that because they cut off the smoking age?
No, Europe, not just Great Britain. Oh. Everybody but us. Any other questions?
You can stretch out another 20 minutes. I can tell you that somebody wrote on our clip, I don't know who this guy is, but I already want to punch him, referencing Justin Andrews. Well, oh, you know, I didn't want to talk about that. Oh, please do.
Yeah, so, um, I was watching the Little Debbie, uh, the Little Debbie clips. And it made you hungry, you want them. No, I just couldn't believe that he said, like, one looked disgusting. Like, you shouldn't judge the Little Debbies before you try them.
Yeah. You know? You know? I just want to say, the camera work on that was amazing.
The camera work on it was amazing. Do you like it when he started to desecrate himself? Oh, yeah. " Yeah.
He got so mad. Well, yeah. Somebody substituted his voice, right? What?
I'm pretty sure. No, that's what he said. " It's kind of like whatever doesn't look good, kind of like a diesel. He's so hard on himself.
You know, yeah, I mean, you know, like, give Justin lighten up a little bit. I mean, you've been in the industry a long time. Yeah. And he always says like, and he says hurtful things to me, you know, this is very aggressive.
Yelling at his staff? Yeah, yelling, where's my coffee? Where's my coffee? Who made me eat the second piece of cake?
I'm not gonna lie. It's great that he has a coffee person. You know, I'm sure, but, you know, when I counter with him, I feel, I always feel like I'm punching down, you know, like, yeah, it's like, yeah, it's hard, it's like beating on a disabled person or something, you know, it's like, it's not okay, wow, he tries to, you know, he says these things and he hurts himself, yeah, does he have diabetes? I think he does now.
He does after that show, yeah. He took such tiny bites, was he all wild about? I love how he's like, I had two lemon cakes for lunch. Right.
And I'm like, who the hell has two lemon cakes for lunch? Like, what were you thinking? Right. Yeah.
That was ridiculous. Well, he's a big child. Yeah, I mean, he's like, oh, you know, I'm here at PCA, and oh, lemon cake. My mom's not around, I get to eat desserts.
Mom didn't tell me I couldn't have this, so I'm gonna have this. You know what, I'm the boss, give me two pieces of that cake. You know what, I'll take another one. Cake lady?
Cake lady. You know who I am? Vanessa? This is for Matt Booth.
Then he eats a second one, too. He drops Matt's name anytime he wants two of anything. I'm Matt Booth. I'm Matt Booth.
I want two lemon cakes. I am with Matt Booth. I gave him the helicopter. Yeah.
Oh, so speaking of events, did you not see we got invited to something? I asked you if you wanted to go. You didn't answer over the weekend. I didn't see it.
- Well, you did mention it vaguely. - Alec and Bradley's 30th anniversary release for their cigar. - In Fort Lauderdale or something? - Yeah, something like that.
We were invited. - Nice. - You don't wanna go? I have to RSVP.
- When is it? - I don't know. I sent you the dates. I don't remember.
- Alright, well, just check the dates and see if they correlate. - Well, it's a weekend, so no. - You can go. - I don't wanna go by myself.
- I'll put my muscle uniform on and act like Mikey. - Take Phil. - I'll go with you. What do you put me on the spotlight?
Wow, bro. Wow. Why do you put me on the spotlight? Maybe you give him an opportunity.
I'll take Keanu. Wow. After what he did? I won't bring him back.
There's all the water rushing down the pipes now. It's like when you take the dog to the farm. Dog didn't make it back from the farm, honey. I'm sorry.
Take Phil and if he screws it up, then one just continues to confirm that he's still not allowed out. No, why do I have to do that? Because you're the national sales manager. So I don't want to ruin my reputation by taking him along.
Hey, you wanted this job. But my job is not your babysitter. Sometimes it is. No, it's not.
No, it's not. Then I want to be paid. You are paid. You are paid.
You're the only one really paid out of all of us. Yeah. Not for this gig. All right.
It's time for the industry's favorite game. What's the score? - Hey, Phil, down there. - Today's Cigar, May 18th, 2026, Patrick Le Greed Cigars.
- Uh-oh. - Oh, I thought you were throwing something at me. - Oh, my God. - No, that's after we turn the cameras off.
Remember that. - I thought he hauled back and you were gonna throw something. It's a Fratello Limited Edition Cigar. This is a Redux.
It's the Bianco Nero Reserva. - Who reviewed it? - Fratello. -They reviewed their own?
-Patrick, it's Patrick Cigar. -I'm gonna say... -Phil's dying. -I'm dying here, Jesus.
-I can't go down there and affect Alec and Bradley. -87. -Yeah, last time that happened, they jumped ship. 85.
-All right, you're right, this is a redux. -I don't know what he's talking about. -So at the end, you get to vote on the current, and you also get to try to get the original. -Okay.
-All right. All right. This is the Fratello Bianco Nero Reserva. It is from Nicaragua.
Factory is Fabrica de Tobacco, Hoya de Nicaragua, Mexican San Andreas wrapper, Indonesian binder, Nicaraguan filler, Cundega & Jalapa. Whoa. It's a 6x58 pressed $15. They smoked one for the Redux.
- 88. - Sounds delicious. So what's your number then, delicious? Oh, like the big delicious.
- 87. - Like a medium delicious. The Fratello Bianco Nero Reserva stands out visually with its pressed perfecto shape, dark toothy wrapper, a unique band presentation that gives it a premium eye-catching look. 86.
Because of the toothiness? If I told you my logic as to how I pick these numbers, then you'd catch on to me. No, it's not about catching on. I'm just trying to figure out your style.
Style? He wears black shirts and jeans every single day. You want the inside baseball? Listen, first of all, Palmer, the black shirt with the jeans is just the outside look.
You have to understand the man on the inside. Thank you. Thank you, Phil. No problem.
Talking about his style. That is his style. It's on the inside. Yeah, I'm here to serve the people.
It's not about my aesthetics on the outside. Right. Here to serve the people? Yeah.
You get mad because I didn't fetch your lighter. Yeah. How's that serving the people? I want the same, I expect the same level of service from the people around me that I would provide for them.
You don't get my lighter from me. I would have if I saw that you needed it. I need it. It's upstairs.
Okay. Is it? Oh, it's in my pocket. Yeah.
No, it's not in my pocket. I don't know where it is at the moment. Oh, God. Oh, yeah.
It's in the other pocket. It's setting in. Oh, by the way, a head red light starts at $500. It goes up.
Oh, no, no. Yeah. The one that fits on, yeah. They make several that looks like a ball cap for if you're losing your hair.
Yeah. That looks silly. Yeah. I told you they have them at Tracker Supply.
You'll be all right. That's the heat lamp for the chickens. It's okay. Just don't leave it on too long.
I sat on her for an hour. I got burned. No laid an egg. My head fell.
No laid an egg. Yeah. So tell me. Go ahead, Jay, with your inside visual.
I try and judge what Palmer picks for his description. So it's based off of Palmer. Yeah. So what Palmer did in this scenario is he gave you the appearance.
And that's like the first paragraph on the Half Wheel Review. So it was like, okay, this is where he, this is where he went, because it was easy to off the jump, right? And it was an easy positive. So, if he went, so I think that it doesn't track as well just by listening to that one comment.
Even though it's a positive about the appearance, that's what he posted. It's like that was my first thing. So I moved down. I think he's tricky.
Now, if he had said appearance comes across as, you know, not pretty and disgusting and that was his first comment, then I would think that he's trying to sway me down, so I'd probably move up. Right. So not only am I playing you on this game, I'm also playing him and I'm also considering who does the review and the redo. Right.
Yeah. Okay. So it's multiple levels of chess here. What do you think about that, Bob?
Well, you see, I've explained this to him several times. I use ChatGPT. " And then they just spit it out. I don't even know what it is until I read it off of here.
Sorry. On with the game. Alright, so let's go with 86. You know, you would think the way that you're acting with your anger issues that you have here, you would think that you just lost $2,000 or $3,000 worth of priceless cigars.
Well, they're all our cigars. Oh, okay. I mean, I'm the one who walked into it. Okay.
Maybe it was a setup. What was the setup? Maybe it was Palmer and then, you know, he just said... Yes, I came in and cranked that thing up and let it run for 20 minutes and then called Greg.
You know, I asked Greg, I said, doesn't, you know, doesn't somebody check this, you know? And he's like, well, yeah, but it didn't have the thing on it. I'm like, it's a float. Correct.
Yeah. And I was like, who took that out? There's only one person I know who would probably take that out. He looks at it, throws it over his shoulder.
I don't remember where this went. What is this thing? Something else I gotta clean out of this, apparently. It has a big yellow word that says "safety" on it.
Yeah. Do not remove. Do not remove. What is this?
What is this? Do not remove. Must be part of the packaging paper here. Let me get this out of here.
He's teaching the new guy? This is something you don't need. Yeah. Let's only just throw this away.
So then he goes to the other three. Well, he said throw this out, so... Alright, 86. I'm gonna go with 85.
The cigar delivers enjoyable layers of chocolate, earth, creaminess, and pepper, while maintaining strong construction, good smoke production, and an overall balanced medium-bodied experience. Hmm. Yeah, I'm gonna stick 86. I haven't smoked many Alec Bradleys, so.
Well, that's good, because this is a Vertello. Oh. Camera, please. See, apparently, the other one doesn't listen either.
You know, we were talking about Alec Bradley. That's why I was thrown off. Yeah, right. Whatever.
Oh, it's a Fratello? It's a Fratello. I'm gonna go with... Your friend Brett loves these.
I know. And that's why I'm so torn right now. Because he makes them and he reviewed it? This is Patrick.
Patrick. We gotta get Brian on the show and he's gonna explain how they're... Process. He said he'd do that as long as Charlie said he could.
83. Some portions of the profile drifted into chalky and slightly soap-like territory, with moments of dryness that interrupted the otherwise solid flavor progression. I chose that one to throw you off. I know how much you hate soap.
89. So many buttons he hit there. 87. It's all the grunting.
Oh, I like the suspense. It's like a suspense cycle. Oh, the grunting causes suspense? It's like a suspense cycle and then you get back to me and I'm like, er.
I thought you said indigestion. Final thought. I'm looking back at my original notes about the Fratello Bianco Nero Reserva, I closed that review wondering if some additional time would help smooth out the rougher parts of what was generally an enjoyable cigar. After a year, I think the answer is yes, but I also think that even a bit more time might be beneficial.
There is good amount going on in the first half of the cigar as the blend adds, subtracts, and adjusts to a handful of components, The final third undoes that balance a bit, returning to a shuffling of flavors and the intensities that I don't think helps the flavor, though it does rearrange the flavor to the flavor. The final third undoes that balance a bit, returning to a shuffling of flavors and the intensities that I don't think helps the flavor, though it does rearrange the flavor. The final third undoes that balance a bit, returning to a shuffling of flavors and the intensities that I don't think helps the flavor, though it does rearrange the flavor. The final third undoes that balance a bit, returning to a shuffling of flavors and the intensities that I don't think helps the flavor, though it does rearrange the flavor.
The Palette, after a period, without much change. After a year, I like where the Fratello Bianco Nero Reserva is at, and I think it might get even a bit better. What is the Redux score, gentlemen? 89.
I'm gonna go with 87. And now we're going to the original score? No. Hold on.
First we give the winner of this. You guys split it, it was 88. Oh, God. Two days in a row.
Now the original score. Somebody? Somebody? Anybody?
You want me to go first, or you go first? I'll go first. Okay. Eighty-six.
Eighty-five. Eighty-five. Eighty-five! Oh!
No way. Oh, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Now he just picks a number close to me. I hope that it works out.
Right. You shouldn't skip a number in between. That doesn't do anybody any good. Well.
That's how you tie. I was really trying to hit that one on the head. Oh. Alright, anybody got anything else fill out the last 20 minutes of the show?
No, we're at 52 minutes, buddy. No, yeah, other than I'm the champion for the day, but you go ahead, Palmer, end the show if you like. Go ahead, Michael. Take us out, as they say.
A ping-bong. Like and Subscribe wherever you're viewing or listening to the show. com, a Cigar Hustlers podcast. com.
I'm gonna drop that new 4th of July Palmer here relatively soon as well. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah.
And then we gotta work on those mugs. Labor Day. We gotta work on those mugs. Oh.
The cups. They are being worked on. We're making mu- Oh, you mean the- They are being worked on? Yes.
We're making coffee mugs? Have they been ordered? We'll talk after the show. All right, guys.
Thank you very much. We got to go. Bye. All right.
Thanks. Bye.
Show Notes
Hate Isn’t Good, Frog are a salad topping? How Many Polish People does it take to save a frog? Then in cigars big flood! Cuba is out of gas, more Supreme Leafs! Then a what’s the score!