ACHP Episode 555 Everglades Are Getting Weirder
Episode Summary
Episode 555 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast finds Mike Palmer, Mike Szczepaniewicz and Phil McGuffey working through a Juneteenth-week news rundown before getting to the cigar business. Listener comments kick things off, including requests for a Powstanie sampler on the retail site and a Powstanie challenge coin — prompting Palmer to float a "share the bear" concept where you earn a coin by introducing someone new to the brand. The crew also explains (again) why Phil wears the masks, thanks a listener for the mailed-in "Mikey socks," and teases the Patreon show's review of the Echo Halali and its confusing Halloween-themed release.
The news half covers the invasive speckled caiman spreading through the Florida Everglades and complicating restoration work, the fatal Central Park horse-drawn carriage accident and the surprisingly complex carriage drivers'/owners' union, Ebola in the Congo and foreign aid politics, and a long detour into AI coding tools — Cursor, Claude Code, Codex and terminal-based site work — that turns into a debate about tech versus "analog" experiences like electric Model Ts replacing Central Park horses. The two missing giraffe calves finally being recovered gives them an excuse for their running Terence Riley of Aganorsa Leaf giraffe joke.
On the cigar side: Tatuaje is shipping The Creature early this year, a 6 7/8 x 52 all-Nicaraguan perfecto made at My Father Cigars in Estelí, limited to 7,000 boxes of 10 at $19.54 — Palmer texts Steve Saka's camp and Pete Hernandez's name comes up as they decide on an order quantity live on air. Bocock Brothers, now licensed with 20 universities, has a Michigan 2026 NCAA basketball championship Toro (Honduran maduro wrapper, Honduran binder, Honduran and Paraguayan filler) at $29 in three-packs. Viaje is shipping the Honey Bale in 30-count bamboo-lidded honey jars plus the Birthday Blend with its gold-foil mystery cigar, and Palmer explains why he's passing on the Honey Bale as a retailer even though Viaje's Skull & Bones and Honey & Hand Grenades lines have been hits.
What's the Score revisits Brooks Whittington's April 2011 half-wheel review of the Viaje Zombie pre-release — a 4 3/4 x 52 Honduran-made robusto at $10.50 — praised for dark chocolate, espresso, leather and serious strength but dinged for one-dimensionality. The actual score was 89, and Mikey takes the round. The show closes with a Camacho event at the shop featuring a Father's Day power tool giveaway.
In This Episode
- 01Listener Comments, Powstanie Samplers & CoinsRequests for a Powstanie sampler pack and challenge coin lead to a "share the bear" giveaway idea for introducing new smokers to the brand.
- 02Patreon Recap & the Echo HalaliThe crew gripes about a confusing Halloween-themed release whose press materials never explained the theme.
- 03Speckled Caiman Invades the EvergladesUniversity of Florida researchers document an aggressive invasive crocodilian complicating the largest wetland restoration project in the region.
- 04Central Park Carriage FatalityAn 18-year-old visitor is killed when a startled horse bolts, sparking talk of bomb-proof horses, the drivers' union, and proposed electric replacements.
- 05AI Coding Tools & the Tech vs. Analog DebateA walkthrough of Cursor, Codex, terminal-based site edits and AI memory limits turns into an argument about over-teching real-world experiences.
- 06Missing Giraffe Calves FoundThe year-long search for two unreported giraffe births ends, fueling the running Terence Riley of Aganorsa Leaf giraffe gag.
- 07Tatuaje Creature Ships EarlyAn all-Nicaraguan 6 7/8 x 52 perfecto from My Father Cigars in a coffin box, 7,000 boxes of 10 at $19.54, ordered live on air.
- 08Bocock Brothers Michigan Championship & Viaje Honey BaleA $29 licensed Michigan NCAA title Toro plus Viaje's Honey Bale jars and Birthday Blend, and why Palmer is skipping one of them.
- 09What's the Score: 2011 Viaje Zombie Pre-ReleaseBrooks Whittington's half-wheel review of the original Zombie robusto — strong, chocolatey, one-dimensional — lands an 89.
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
Action! Welcome to a Cigar Hustler Podcast, where cigars are just the starting point. Join me, Mike Palmer, along with Mike Szczepaniewicz, can you cut the, when I say that, can you cut the camera to him, there we go, and Phil McGuffey, now to you, as we drive into the latest cigar industry news, oh dive, not drive, news, sports, current events, business, and whatever crazy stories are making headlines. Whether you're a seasoned cigar smoker or just looking for entertaining conversation, expect honest opinions, plenty of laughs, and a few unexpected detours along the way.
On today's show there's a new bully in South Florida. Carriage rides in Central Park weren't meant to be dangerous. Don't visit the Congo. Is Greg headed to the Congo anytime soon?
Probably. Oh, you might want to change that. I think he left, I think he went to the Congo yesterday. Oh, should have stopped him.
Two missing zoo animals have been found, and then in cigars, Tatuaje is starting early. Bocock is back in the news. Phil's favorite brand? He says...
He got a little giggle. Viaje is sweeter than honey, and in always, we wrap it up with the What's the Score. But first, Mikey, how do we get some of that CHPod swag, and tell us all about the Patreon show. Oh, I would love to, Mr.
Palmer. Thank you so much. Certainly. But before I do that, like and subscribe wherever you're...
There you go. Like and subscribe wherever you're viewing or listening to this show. com for all our CHPod swag. I think if you're listening to this episode, today is probably going to be the last day for any BDP 4th of Julys, and they're going away.
And when does the chafing begin? The chafing? Yeah, Palmer's supposed to wear his Stephen Tyler. Not every day, just one show.
We'll figure it out. It'll be for 4th of July. It'll be our 4th of July show. Oh.
com, us, Cigar Hustlers podcast, where we just reviewed the Echo Halle. I'll call it whatever I want to call it. The Echo Halali. I mean, who takes a sound?
The Echo Hail. And spaces it out and then mixes half a word. Right. And then judges you for not understanding what it was.
And apparently it is a Halloween cigar, so. The Echo Hail was a Halloween cigar? Yes, bats are synonymous with Halloween. It was a Halloween cigar.
That's what he said. Didn't even say that in the description. description. Nope.
Nowhere. How are we supposed to know all this shit? Right. We look, we Google it.
You can't even get the press release out the right way. Jack Taranio. Star of the Phil McGuffey's new movie. Jack Mihoff.
A buddy movie. Best movie since Tanko and Cash. Not the other one that no one's heard of. Hardcastle McCormick.
All my peers have You've probably heard of Hardcastle. That's a TV show, though. Hardcastle and McCormick? Yes.
Wait, hold on a sec. How many of your peers are alive? Well, there's CCW. He knows.
You think CCW knows? Matt Brueger. He probably knows. T-Money.
Certainly he knows. That's why you got the job you got. You're popping. Yeah, you're popping.
So it's my microphone. Yeah. You didn't bother trying to change the transmitter? I guess you're right.
I'm very busy yesterday. Very defensive today. You come at me every show. Every show?
Last two. We'll just start with that. Last two shows? I'll start keeping track.
I believe I gave you some praise on the last show. You Iken-teen on me all the time. I believe I gave you some praise. Iken-teen.
Iken-teen is management style. Build 'em up, slap 'em down. There you go, exactly. Let's go.
Are they being robbed upstairs? There's a lot of people going up and down those stairs right now. Maybe. com, OssegoHousers podcast, where if you pay for the entire year, you get 10% off.
And we talk about the Echo Holley. Echo Holley. This week we talk about the Echo Holley. Or the Echo Hail.
And some possibilities of some hypotheticals that are going on in the cigar industry, which may or may not be true, but possibly are. Or not. Some comments. Yes.
It's his favorite part. Is it really? Apparently. Yes, come on, Mikey's mom.
Oh, I think she does say something. Yes. Let's see. It's like they know when we do the show now, so, like, some of them flood like right before.
We've got to get them. We've got to get them. We've got to get them. If I miss it, I won't be back tomorrow.
What is the thumbnail? I can't see it. Thank God. For today's show.
Bring back something or other? Bring back my jet ski. Bring back my jet ski? Is that?
What is that? Oh, it's Shrek McGuffin. Shrek McGuffey. Shrek McGuffey.
You don't realize how hard it was to get them to give me a Shrek character. You had to get someone that looks like. No, not even that. I had to go with ogre.
I tried look-alike, which normally works. Nope. No, not anymore. Violates...
Shut it down. Yep. Took four or five different tries. " Yeah, just use AI to AI.
Right, I used a different AI to get the ogre in. I use AI to fix AI all the time. " Perfect. Plug it in.
" So I did what it said, how it told me to say it, and then it still kicked it back. " And then it did it. You got me. " There it is.
He's on a jet ski. He's on a jet ski. " That's Phil! It's not Boots, it's Phil.
"Just recently heard your podcast interview with Fred Rouet, which was awesome, and you also explained why you don't sell your postanias at CH until after you stock your retail customers. I found that business practice very interesting. I can see it shows your loyalty and character as a person. I wound up grabbing a few Sumatra from OGT to try because I missed out on the catastrophic failure after I did make several attempts to purchase them from your CH site.
Haven't tried them yet because I always let my online purchases rest for a week or two before firing them up. Definitely will be grabbing a SBC 26 and a Warbear Independence Day when they drop. If you ever consider putting together a Polsteinia sampler on CH, I'm in. We probably will build a sampler, like a test thing, because you're not the first person to ask about that, to be honest, and, you know, I don't see the harm in that.
I think that it's a good way to get people to check in and try it. Yeah, smoke around the brand, right? Yeah. I mean, we do have little bags that we just sitting up there.
- Yeah, we'll figure that out, but that might be something that we will launch on the new site, you know, I have a couple of cool sampler things that I'm thinking about doing, and I'm just holding back, because there's gonna be a whole process with the emails, and you're gonna have to forget password and log back in and create, you know, it's like your account exists, but it's not on there, per se, so. - Gotcha, oh, for the customers. - Yeah. - Oh, I didn't even think about that.
- Ugh. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna, it's gonna be miserable when it's done, it should be badass. Gotcha. Phil wears the mask, you know, Phil wears the mask because...
It makes us laugh. Because we're mean. There it is. Because we're mean people.
What happens is, Phil's like, I'm gonna be famous on this podcast, this is why I'm doing this podcast, and this is my claim to fame. We said, okay, perfect, so... That's not why I do this. Here's your mask.
Mike said I don't want to be a household name. What I do is because you guys are my friends, and I like doing it with you. He wants to be a famous, a household famous name. So what does being a household name mean?
Does that make you famous? Everybody's like, oh man, you ever hear any good cigar podcasts? Yeah, there's this great one. This guy named Boots.
Phil. Right there. Or Phil, whatever you want to say it. Yeah, we like to do, I don't know, man, we just keep it interesting.
You know what I mean? Like, you gotta, there's the sparklers for a reason, you know? - You can log back in every month to see what we're making them wear. - There's so many different podcasts at this point, and they cover so many different things.
However, a lot of the ones that are in our space, they feel the same. - A little dull. - They feel the same. - Yeah, all got fake backgrounds.
- Right, that somebody paid for. - Yeah. - You know, so we just wanted to be different. And now you got a butterfly mask, you know?
- That was sent in by a fan of the show. - David Hasselhoffman. - It was, yeah. - Speaking of things that fans of the show sent in.
- Yeah. - Oh, you better cover that, yeah. - Can you raise your leg that high? - How am I gonna do that?
- You're supposed to jump up on the chair, remember? - Then I gotta pull my pants up, too. - Let's go, let's see. - Just don't pull them down.
- Oh my God, it's Tom Cruise. - Fall, I'm gonna fall. - I love Oprah Winfrey. - You still can't see him, it's not high enough.
- Yeah, you gotta get up and put it on the armrest, I guess. I'm not standing on the arm right now, I'm just taking my shoe off. No, just put the foot on the arm. Come on, Captain Morgan.
Captain Morgan. Where's the camera? Oh, God. You got to hold it still, now bring it back a little bit.
Bring it back. There it is. Oh, somebody sent Mikey Socks to me. Nice.
Thank you, whoever you are, for the Mikey Socks. It didn't say who it was from. Yeah, sorry. If you'd like to stake claim, I won't say your name on the show.
Maybe it was Ruckus. Everybody's name who says that they sent them. I'll just say them all. Yeah.
" - Oh, that's good, too. - A jet ski story. - That is. - Mm-hmm.
- Oh, a jet ski story, no, no, no. " - Hey, Mom! - Hey, Mom! - Sharon's here!
- Hi, Sharon. - We want a Postanya coin, no one cares about a Hooten & Young coin. You know, we've entertained that. We can work on that.
Yeah, we've attempted it several times. I mean, Charlie's even got one. Yeah. We just need to pull the trigger.
I mean, last time I was over, I saw it. It's like sitting on his workbench. I was thinking about a concept of like a share the bear thing. Yeah.
You know what I mean? Where the coin was, had the bear on one side and had the pea on the other side. And, you know, if you post that you're sharing the bear, You're sharing the bear with somebody else. - Does that mean like you give your coin to somebody?
- Oh, like if you're the person that shares the bear with somebody who's never had Polsani before, something like that. - Ah, I gotcha. - And then you send us your info, maybe we would send you the coin. - Oh, okay.
- I think something like that would be cool. - Yeah. - You know, I like that. You know, back in the day, I did this thing called the Cigar Mentor.
This was like right at the beginning of Instagram being cool before it went to like . - Right. And you had to share a cigar with somebody who's never smoked a cigar before, and then you were entered to win, and I gave away like this travel humidor, and that worked pretty well. Hmm.
- Yeah. " He is a huge conch fan. - Huge conch. - That's why he's in his tank.
- Loves going out for the conch. - Let him see that tank, go ahead. Look at that. - Oh, look at that.
That is a man that is prepared to do a podcast, right there. That makes my sport coat look a little overdressed. And your black t-shirt, to be honest. With ash on it.
We should just take our shirts off. It's hard out in these streets. I like how sometimes he tries to get the ash off with the cigar in his hand. Right, it just gets more ash.
It just gets more on, yeah. He's doing this with the cigar and the ash is going everywhere. Oh, Greg's back from Africa. At CW6383.
From the Congo. At CW6383 says, I'm ecstatic for the 250th Warbear. Yes. So are we.
So are we. I think it's really badass, dude. It really is. I wish it was still here.
I could show it again. Oh, it's back upstairs. Okay. And he also says he's in for a badass Powstanie cigar pack.
Nice. See what I mean? There it is again. There it is again.
Dadacash2004 says, I would never put in a dig against you, Mikey. I love you. Thank you, Dadacash. See, I'm just reading 'em here, I'm just reading 'em here.
I'm just reading 'em. Well, let's see, T-Money said that Dana said he made enough money in merch to pay for the show, as far as the fight, so. Nice. Yeah, like Carney said, I don't think he's heard of it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't, like, oh, well, I spent all this money, I don't know. I spent money on that thing, I don't know, there's a lot of money in people. Scared money don't make no money. Sheryl Crowe's very upset.
Sheryl Crowe? Yeah. Back to your thing yesterday, celebrities should just basically keep their mouth shut. She made a statement how, can't believe that we had something where people were beating each other up for money or something on the White House lawn.
I mean, listen, you're entitled to your opinion. I just think that, and like if she's tweeting or whatever, or however she wrote that, like whatever. That's not, it's not, you're not on a big platform. Oh, yeah, she wasn't like winning a Grammy.
Yeah, it's more discouraging for me when it's like, hey, yeah, here's this award, thank you so much for this wonderful thing that you put together, and then you're just gonna cheapen it by throwing some political point of view out there, or some jab towards a person, I'm just like, you know what, man, like, why? That's, I don't, you know, you just-- Right. Unfortunately, there's people, they go, oh, Sheryl Crow doesn't like it, I shouldn't like it either. - I guess, I mean, you know.
- But that's stupid, I mean, what difference does it make if she likes it or not? - Yeah, okay, you know, if you're, if you always want, if you go through life and you just, your opinion's actually the opinions of others, and that's how you formulate your thought, okay, like you have every right to do that, that's perfectly acceptable. For me, though, I don't, like, I don't even care what side it's on. - Right, it makes no difference which way they're going.
Yeah, I'm just like, like really, like, come on, man. You know, you had a great moment. You know, this guy, he fought Derek Lewis. I heard Derek Lewis doesn't bench press.
I don't know what that's about. But. How dare he? Yeah, man.
That's like the, it's like the manliest, one of the manliest things you can do. Wow. Yeah. We should have an episode where we all just bench press.
You don't want to, you don't want to do that. No, I'm not saying to see who can bench press the most. We should just have 45 minutes of a bench pressing bench pressing you wouldn't make it 45 minutes with bench pressing not all three of us so we split it up you wouldn't make it five minutes with rotations sure it could if you I mean just don't put anything on the bar I could do all day just do the bar yeah I mean I'm not saying I got a max out on whatever it is you guys call it I'm not it's everybody does 15 minutes what type of audio show would that be a lot of grunting but you gone yeah you remember the one time that we did the fitness show for Did you remember the Chuck and Palmer shit show? Yes, I remember that.
You did? Yeah, we did. Yes. But we wore wigs.
Right. And disguises. I miss that show sometimes. It could have been a great show.
It was a good show. It's just hard. Consistently doing something. Well, yeah, I mean, I was doing three of them at one time, because I did that morning show for a while.
If you want to hear a comment read aloud on the show, or at least potentially read aloud on the show, comment below this episode and maybe we will read aloud on the next show. Bing bang. And with that being said, let's get on with the show. All right, but before we get started, Michael.
Uh-oh. Here it is. Happy Juneteenth. Today we honor freedom, resilience, and the ongoing pursuit of equality, wishing everyone a safe and meaningful celebration, because this will go off on the 19th of June.
Correct. Happy Juneteenth, everybody. Happy Juneteenth. What are you grunting for?
What's the "uh" for? I'm not going to do the comment. He looks like he's fired up. Look at him.
Like he's ready to explode. Me? Yeah. Yeah, because you walked in wearing a goddamn tank top.
See? You know what I mean? Like, have some self-respect. I was going to go, "Oh, I'm not happy.
" And then why'd you get fired? He was gonna be a little racist. Yeah, he's like, don't be super racist, just be a little racist. I had to warn him I didn't know what he was gonna say, so I had to tell him I was gonna do it.
I like to look and see what holidays are going on and sort of time stamp the episode. Yeah, the stock market's closed today. Yeah. Really?
C. is closed. It's a major holiday. They're still cleaning up from the UFC.
Oh, I would have loved to have seen what that looked like the next morning. It wasn't the Knicks game, we didn't riot and-- Oh, that's today. The Knicks game? The parade.
The parade's today? Yeah. Somebody from Florida helped trash a taxi and they've identified him. He's apologizing.
I'm very sorry. I'm very sorry. They show him on the hood, his foot going through a windshield or something. Like, what were you thinking?
Yeah. Right. Oh, we won! Let's crash this, uh-- You're not even a New Yorker, bro.
Right, he's not even from there. Right. All right, let's get on with the news. Not that that justifies it, just for the record.
Right, right, yeah, no, no, we're not saying that by any means, no. Florida is well-known for the record-holding alligators, but there's another scary predator that is quietly expanded into the Florida Everglades. Uh-oh. What do you think it is, guys?
Didn't we talk about this? Nope. It's not the snakes. I'll just say right now, it's not the snakes.
Uh, rednecks. No, they've infiltrated the show though. That was clever, good. It's gotta be some kind of like bug or something, or a lizard, like iguanas.
According to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, there's a new bully on the playground. Experts with the University of Florida identify the creature as the speckled caiman. Is that a lizard? Crocodile?
It looks like an alligator. Oh. Crocodilio? A small, invasive, crocodile-like reptile that was likely introduced to the state via the exotic pet trade.
Like, "Oh, this guy's really big. " And then they just dumped it? Yes. With established population being documented since the 1980s, this reptile gets to be 8 to 10 feet in length.
Wow. 40 to 90 pounds for average adults. Large males can be 130 pounds. Wow.
Will it eat the gators? Yes, it will eat some gators. Oh, that's cool. No, no.
These are more aggressive than alligators. You think that's why he released it? The one guy? Yeah.
Well, I think more than one, you'd actually have to have two, if you know what I mean. Minimum. You'd have to minimum have two. And then they'd have to find each other.
Right. And then they would have to make the whoopee. Whoopee. They're very aggressive with substantial bite force.
Researchers in Fort Lauderdale said that this is a major problem, as East Caymans may complicate the largest wetland project in the history of the county. So they're trying to redo the Everglades, and they've accounted for the alligators, and the crocodiles, and the pythons. Now they never thought to put the speckled caiman in the mix. Almost like the regular world.
Now we got the speckled caiman. Now we got speckled caiman. Speckled caiman. More aggressive alligator.
Screw flies. Right, screw flies. Screw flies. We're trying to breed out mosquitoes.
Yeah, death by mosquito. No, we're trying to make them... A lot going on. Yeah.
So the swamp is getting... We're giving $300 billion to Iran. Iran. Are we really?
Oh, yeah. I skipped that story. I saw there was a substantial... Part of the trade, part of the deal.
We've got to repair the water. We've got to fix all the shit we broke. Well, yeah, because we're about to... Why do we always do that?
I mean, I don't have that story pulled, but we always do that. After we go to war and we beat somebody up, we're like, let's pay to fix things. Fuel the economy? Yeah, because now they're...
- Why do we care? We just beat them. - It fuels the economy. - Ours or theirs?
- I don't know. I don't know. Like, I'm some kind of world economist or something. " - I'm sure there is.
- $30 billion. - I read that, like, the nuclear deal is part of it. - Right, yeah, they're not allowed to do that. - But we're not gonna go in and get the uranium or whatever, Just yet, because we pummeled their nuclear sites so bad, and it's going to be a pain in the ass to go get.
So we're just kind of like... Let them dig it out and then go... It's in there somewhere. Like, what?
They can't find it. What? Write them a check. It's fine.
What island? I don't know. Like, what are we doing? You know how much they can buy with $30 billion?
$300 billion. $300 billion. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't forget the zero.
$300 billion. What's that? Don't dig it up. We just buy more.
That's a weak pay for Elon Musk, huh? No, he's a trillionaire on paper. He's a trillionaire now. He could buy Iran.
Don't you attack Elon. I'm not attacking. I'm just saying. Did you see the company he just bought?
What are you buying? That's not part of the news, right? No. He bought that Microsoft company called Cursor?
Yeah. He bought them for 60 billion. 60 billion. It's a steal.
Yeah. Have you tried to use Cursor? No, I've never. I didn't even know what it was.
I've never heard of it. I think it's another OpenAI. AI, yeah. That makes sense.
Everybody's got one now. Everybody's got one. Let's see. What is Cursor?
It's a little flashy thing on the screen where you type. It's a dot. I just don't want to screw up the... It's a dot.
There could have been so many jokes. You're going to make Claude get upset. You go, "Why? Why?
What are you doing? " Do you want the Shrek? I can make the Shrek. No problem.
Just call it Shrek. Mercer is an AI-powered code editor and coding agent designed to automate and accelerate software development. Uh, yeah, so is Claude Code, so is, uh, uh, Chet, GPT Codex. Yeah, they have one too.
Oh, man. It's scary that I know all this. So, there's the regular, just so I'm understanding with this, 'cause I don't do any code. I will explain some of this to you, to the best of my ability.
So, there's all sorts of regular Chet, GPT, AI things, where you just ask the stupid questions, Make boots and Mike on the cover of Dumb and Dumber, that kind of stuff. And that's where it ends for a lot of people. Right, yeah, that's where it ends for me. Hey, check out this graphic.
Right. And if you notice, a lot of people's graphics now look the same. Yeah, yeah, it's the same style. Yeah, yeah, you can tell.
So I'm trying to, I've tried to... Yeah, you gotta deviate a little bit. Yeah, make mine go, "Nope, this is the way to give everybody. " Right.
So anyway, so now each one has a coding function where if you want to do a website or something. Yeah, or anything related to it. Okay, where do you feed the code into? Oh!
It's nice of you to ask that question. It depends. The answer is, it depends. Now we're a tech show.
So if you want, you can learn the code, it can create the code, and you can take the code, and then you can implement it onto the back end of a website on a server, if you wanted to. So how do you know where that thing is? What thing? Okay, let's say, it's gotta be some type of password-driven access to it.
For what? Your website? - Your website? - Let's say like the website you're building for the shop upstairs.
- Okay. - It's not like I can all of a sudden over here going, make it so it says Palmer every time somebody hits a button. - Okay, let me dumb this down for you. - Okay, yes, please.
- Okay, let's say hypothetically you own a website, and it's on a server, right? So it's gonna be on like GoDaddy, or HostGator, Bluehost, something like that. You can then have access to the back end of that C panel, that control panel, and you can go into specific folders If you wanted to, and you could implement code that is created by AI. And it'll tell me which one to go into.
It will. Now, but here's the problem with that. The problem with that is that's a process. " Oh, it doesn't always work.
No, so the other thing that you can do is you can link up a local network folder from your computer that ties right into it, and then you can take AI and put it into a thing called Terminal. Terminal is like a little black square that says all the scripts that you get to implement, and now you can park AI in here and you can say, hey, AI, do XYZ on my site, and then it'll do it, and when it has a glitch or something wrong, It might be able to identify it by itself, right? Gotcha. And once it kind of sorts through it, now that's expediting things.
But like when you go back to the site, it could still be messed up. And you say, no, wait, no, this is not right, right? I need you to do it like this. And then you can go back.
So there are several different ways to kind of operate with ChatGPT Codex. Also, you know, like there are things that you can put on top of AI. Like AI has, one that I keep hearing about is called Hermes. Hermes is like a personal assistant that, correct me if I'm wrong, world, that like you can implement specific things for it.
Like, hey check my emails, I wanna know what's going on here, I wanna, like it's vast. And what makes Hermes better than its predecessors that other competitors have made is its memory base learns you extremely well. - And it scrubs stuff that it feels like isn't as important. So there's no, 'cause there's only, the biggest problem with AI is memory.
- Right. - Like it cannot continuously access memory, it just overloads. So like even when you're chatting, your chat will max out and it says, hey man. - Yeah, I've had that happen, and we go, hey, we're maxing out, I need to erase stuff from this date to that date.
- Yeah, or I need you to start a new chat. - Right. - And then you go in and you say, hey, listen, I can condense my previous conversation and understand what's going on here, but it'll glitch, it'll still miss stuff, I mean, there's still a lot of things that aren't there with AI, but it's fascinating. If you start going down the rabbit hole and actually pushing yourself to try it, for one, you can use AI to help you understand AI, which I think is really cool, and then you start to really kind of develop things.
So, there are several ways to use codecs, is my point, to kind of briefly summarize. - Gotcha. Hmm. - Mm-hmm.
It's wild. And now I'm a coder. - That's broken. - Now you-- - All right, everybody, you can turn it back on.
- Okay. - Now your 10 years of schooling and understanding code means nothing. - Right. - Because I can say, hey, I do this.
And when it screws it up, I can say-- - Right, you don't know, you don't have to know how to do it, - You just have to know how to tell somebody. - Yeah, I don't need a semi-colon, oh, I need a semi-colon here. - Right, right. - Oh, no, that doesn't happen.
- Right. - Forward-slash, forward-slash. Run. - Back-slash, back-slash.
- Commit and push. - All right, all right, that's enough, that's enough. - That's it? - Calm down, easy.
- You asked a question. - I know, you answered the question very well, thank you. I still don't really understand, but I got tired of listening. Ah, he's smoking the Vacation Bear, the next cigar, The vacation bear?
The vacation bear. We need a whole series of the bears. It comes with a little margarita glass. Five of them in a little margarita glass.
The Christmas bear. It comes with a little tree. The Father's Day bear. Well, it's red and white, so it could be Christmas, because everybody associates red and white with Christmas.
Does it? Do we? Sure. Santa Claus is red?
Santa Claus is red and white. We put a tree on there? That's what I'm saying. A little tree?
Oh, spray paint a tree? We need 250 trees. We need 250 trees. Charlie, if you could start working on that, please.
The limited edition. Limited edition Christmas bear. Alright, an 18-year-old man was killed Wednesday after a horse-drawn carriage became startled and bolted through New York City's Central Park before colliding with another carriage and overturning, according to Central Park Conservancy. Echo Holley.
Echo Holley. What are the odds of that shit? Happening there? Yeah.
It's rare, but it does happen. Horse and buggy crashes? Yeah, well they had the, you know, the horse and buggy rides that you, you know, they're very expensive, they could be a hundred to two hundred dollars for like a fifteen minute ride. Yeah.
Very expensive, but yeah, but this one, the guy who drives the carriage, the driver as they call him, stepped back away from the horse to take a picture. Yeah. So he let go of the horse, which is a no-no, it's in the rules, never let go of the horse. Something startled the horse, because he was not cleared, they're trying to make some type of rule where horses have to be a certain demeanor, so they don't get startled.
We have to regulate how they're feeling? We have to regulate how they behave. There are horses that are referred to as bomb-proof, where they don't get excited, where they don't get upset. That's like the dog where you bang the pots and pans around and it's unfazed?
Yeah, same idea. Yeah, like the dogs that have been in military service don't get skittish every time they hear a bomb go off. Yeah, because they were tested as their puppies. Right.
They bang the pots and pans. They make them used to loud noises and stuff. They see how they respond. If they freak out, they're like, no, you're out.
There's horses that have a certain demeanor, and they don't get as excited as easily. Oh, okay. So anyway, so then the horse ran off with this guy, and then when it flipped over, the carriage squished him. He got smooshied.
He got smooshied. And he was a guest, and he paid good money for that. He was from India. 18-year-old man from India.
18-year-old man. Like, he's an 18-year-old kid. That's one of the things where I pulled the story. They refer to him in the story always as an 18-year-old man.
Yeah. But the young man in Texas is a 19-year-old boy. It all depends on the gauge of the story. The verbiage and the media source.
Right, right, exactly. But I did think it was also interesting, there is a union for horse drivers and horse owners. Of course, it's in New York. Yeah, but the union includes the drivers and the owners in the same union.
Oh, that doesn't make any sense. Right, so I went down the rabbit hole. So why they do it is they, the union defends the owners and the drivers against New York City. Yeah, that makes sense.
I understand that. So when they change rules and regulations and things, they fight for standardization of rules. Yeah, but then like the horse riders can't get mad that there's no pay raise. Right, that's not what they're for, they're not for that.
Just the fees and things that the city charges. The fee fee? The fee fee? There's a horse fee, there's a carriage fee, there's a wheel fee, there's a chair fee.
Right, you have to register all those fee fees. those fee fees. There's a hold the reins fee. Yes.
Which, you know, obviously is going to go into effect here. Right. So the people that are in charge of Central Park don't like the horse-drawn carriages. It's a completely, it's a big problem because they think it's unsafe.
Traffic is getting a lot worse and it causes traffic delays. Who are the people? It's the park conservancy, the Central Park Conservancy. We hate the horses.
We don't like the horse thing. It's too dangerous. People People are getting hurt, they block traffic, traffic's getting really bad like it is, they need to switch to some type of electric vehicle. Oh, they want an electric horse.
No, no horse. That looks like a horse? No horse, no, like an old-timey car. That's a completely different service.
An old-timey electric car? Well, an old-timey car that is electric, so, you know, it doesn't hurt the environment. This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Why is it dumb?
They want to switch from the horse to something else, they want to upgrade the system into something safer. Here's what's gonna happen, you're gonna, within like the next decade, you're gonna have this whole thing of this sector of people, and they're gonna be called like analogues, or whatever, where they want specific things that aren't over-teched, and aren't, you know, so obnoxious. I guarantee you, because like… Is that what Claude's telling you? No, but like, here's my case in point.
Yes. Here's my case in point. Relax, calm down. No, no, that's it.
I'm choosing violence today. It is what it is. I hate that saying. Tesla, Tesla Plaid Model S, fastest production car in the world.
1 seconds or something. That's ridiculous. That'll be all over the comments. Right, like, oh, thank you, man.
No, they'll be very polite, though. Like, you're incorrect. You need to check your stuff. Okay, right?
Fastest car. Production car. " So, after a couple years, Dodge goes back and makes motor vehicles: the new Hellcat's coming out, they got this badass truck, the Rumblebee, all this other stuff. I don't understand why you don't make it a whole, like two crew cabs.
Like, I got kids. If I want that truck, I need, I don't need the little seat. I want, I want the whole thing. I'll get 800 horses and space.
That's what I need, right? Smaller back end, that's fine. Yeah, no, I'm not for that. I don't want it to be tight for them.
They gotta have... No, no, I meant the bed of the truck. Yeah, that's fine. Give me a short bed.
Yeah, I need space. He's not gonna haul anything. Yeah, the occasional two by four. I mean, what are we doing?
You run that through the window. Yeah, exactly. I do that now. Like, if I'm on a Christmas tree, I just shove it in the back of my charger.
You have a giant SUV. What are you doing that for? Because, you know, it's gotta be a surprise. Oh, you can't borrow the SUV?
Nah. So, look, there's already people that are pushing back. It's not against tech, because they still want these experiences, right? " I think that that's obnoxious.
- Well, it's dangerous. - Dude, everything is dangerous. - Okay. - Eating McDonald's is dangerous.
- Driving here is dangerous. - Don't touch McDonald's. - Driving here is dangerous. Walking outside of your house.
If you want safe, stay in the corner, and we'll bring you three meals. - Really? - That's a thing? That's it.
Well, you could just stay right there. I'm kinda hungry right now. Yeah, and then, you know, you get up, use the bathroom, and you go back in the corner. Oh, I have to leave the corner to go to the bathroom?
You gotta live, no, you can shit there if you want, that's fine. You gotta be careful when you go to the bathroom though, snakes can come up, throw up. You gotta live life, man. You gotta understand what the casualties are, and if it statistically makes sense for you to do it.
What if it's unsafe for the horses? The horses don't wanna do it anymore. Are they unionizing? Like, what are we doing?
They could be. It's got PETA. It's not unsafe for the horse. PETA's against it anyway.
PETA's against everything. Everything with animals. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't even like Bambi.
It's not like they choose to be there pulling those. We can't have animals in movies anymore. Well, we just say, yeah, I am, it doesn't matter, no. You have anything you want.
See, there you go. Now you're teching versus analog, right? I'm not analog, but anyways. Well, you just said, but I'm just using the comparable.
Oh, I like tech. Me too. I want flying shoes, a flying car, whatever they can give me. Me too.
" What was that? That was a pig noise. Did you get that? Was that on screen?
Yeah, I even got his mouth moving. Oh. " I tried to sort of flash up the last episode with some of the pauses and stuff, and then we got a copyright violation. I had to take it down and take them out, change it to something else and put them back out.
What was the copyright violation? " So there's sort of like a "dun-dun-dun", that type of thing. Why would you do that? " So why do they give you the pre-programmed ones if they know you're going to get a copyright violation?
- I don't expect you to use it necessarily on YouTube. You can use it on Instagram or some of these other short, these reels or these short film platforms. - They even have a button now at the bottom of the sound section you can hit and it'll tell you if you copyright violated. - That's cool.
- No, it's just something extra you have to do. - Well, you're at 37 minutes, so what other news articles do you have? - Um, we'll see, there's the Union, we talked about the Union. - Yeah, I like the horses there.
Like, let's keep some things, let's keep some spice. I need different... Yeah, if you didn't have the horse-driven buggies in Central Park, why else are you going there? Yeah, well, for the electric Model Ts that they're about to implement.
Yeah, that's why I was thinking Model Ts. That's so dumb. Yeah. There's the Congo thing.
Ebola is rampant in the Congo. Of course it is. Tens of thousands of people. They want billions of dollars to fix it.
And now the biggest problem is you catch Ebola, you die, Boots and I pick you up out of the chair, You're out of the chair. You're oozing something. Now we have Ebola because we touched your dead body. And then that's it.
We need to just start flamethrowing things? Well, that's what I'm thinking. I mean, they want billions of dollars to clean this up. That's what I'm thinking.
Well, we just cut them in on the Iran deal. There you go. Oh, yeah. You know, $300 billion.
Oh, this guy's not getting his money. We'll just shove a couple bill there. You know? Good to go.
There were some fun names. However, The Rock has to wait 24 hours for an ultrasound on his balls. Right. I mean, what are we doing?
What is the world coming to at this point? Ridiculous. The Congo is like holding America ransom for money. Hey, you know, we have this really bad Ebola thing here.
It could come to you. Well, apparently one time we sent military in to help clean up the mess last time this happened. Well, I mean, for one, to be fair, you don't know that per se, but like the reality is if you're a really impoverished country, you're going to look to countries that are more affluent to help. Yeah, France, I mean, we have contributed, obviously, but now France has contributed, Germany's contributed, I mean, all the, all the major countries, because that shit, they don't want it, you know, we don't want that shit coming over here.
And it circles back to, okay, where is the line of us or people being, like, being humane and trying to help society as a whole, and when, where is it being taken advantage of? And that line is constantly moving. So, determining that and having a blanketing statement of some type of regulation is just not possible. " Right, here's where we're at, right?
Like, you know-- If we don't care now, it's going to crisis much later. And it doesn't sound like, you know, I mean, from a bird's eye view, that sounds logical, right? " Right? And if you don't help us now, here's what the problem is going to look like in six months, and if you still don't help us, here's what it looks like in 12 months, right?
And it's like, you know, a lot of bodies piling up, some stuff like that. Okay, maybe someone needs to step in. Maybe we need to provide some aid, right? I don't know, that makes sense to me.
All right, we have to do this story. Okay, go ahead. Two giraffe calves were found safe after they disappeared. Terence, Terence.
More than a year ago, the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia shared the information. Monday evening, the office did not share specifics on how the pair was found. So I'll just summarize here until we get to the good stuff. But apparently, this zoo got in trouble for the way they're behaving when treating the animals, so they shut down the zoo.
There were two pregnant giraffes. They were supposed to be shuttled off somewhere. " So for a year now, these two giraffes have been missing. they've been rogue they've been rogue they had been found uh officials said the zoo never reported the births despite a court order blah blah blah they found them hold on there's a quote here the cab's disappearance sparked nationwide search peter ran a psa and local radio stations uh alicia silverstone offered fifty thousand dollars for information apparently she's a big oh bat girl alicia yeah bat girl or she was in clueless oh alicia silverstone yeah yeah right so in a statement Is that what you said?
I'm reading it fast since it's Sipping Pad. She's Jewish. In a statement Terrence Riley from Aganorsa said, "If they can't take care of my family, I will. " So apparently he had something allegedly to do with his appearance.
Gotcha. But now they've all given them back. So for you new listeners, Terrence Riley is the national sales manager for a brand called Aganorsa Leaf. And he's very tall.
And we always joke that he's a giraffe. He's a baby giraffe. so anytime there's a giraffe story we like we like to cover it i like to cover it for tariff yeah very involved in the giraffe world well that's where he comes from yeah right yeah i mean it's people how do you how do you hide two giraffes well i guess that's how like i mean it's been a year now that they've been missing so i guess they get to be a certain size it's a lot harder to hide them at that point to see them whether they're to see their heads above the tree line and stuff or something hey i think that's a giraffe over there right yeah no no it's in like north carolina or You think that's the missing giraffe? Or is it just a regular giraffe?
That could be anybody's giraffe. You don't know whose giraffe that is, don't judge. Don't look at the giraffe, it's not for you. Yeah, it could be stolen, could not.
Check his spots, they're all different. Yeah, this is not the giraffe you're looking for. He has a sore throat, we're trying to take care of him, leave him alone. Alright, on to Cigar News.
Creature from Tatuaje shipping later this month. All right. It's not shipping right now. A new cigar that would seem like it should be arriving in three months is just a week or two away from showing up at stores in a very familiar looking coffin box.
Is that like their monster series this time around? It's one of. The Creature from Tatuaje, not The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Well, that's probably because you're not allowed to.
No, they call the other one The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Oh, they do? Yeah, just like they call it Frankenstein, Dracula. It's two totally different creatures.
Yes. That's what they call it, Frank. Because this is, yeah, because this is kind of early. Right, that's what it is, yeah.
Cigar that's part of the larger Monster Series family, though it's not officially one of the 13 main Monster Series releases. It's set to arrive in the coming weeks. It's a 6 and 7/8 by 52 Perfecto that is made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco, made at my father's SA in Esteli, Nicaragua. Eat Cigars and MSRP of how much is this little Perfecto?
- Perfecto? - I don't know, he's good with his prices, man. - It's a six and seven eights by 52 perfecto, so it's not a little perfecto. - Oh, it's not a little.
- Not a little, but it is a perfecto. - I'm gonna say... 16 bucks. - Philip?
- 15 bucks. - 1954! - Wow. - Bing!
- That's actually pretty expensive for one of his. - Production is limited to 7,000 boxes of 10 cigars. In 2021, the company released the Monster Mash sampler, which contained a smaller version of the third... Popping.
You're popping. Yeah, you're popping, yeah. Talk about something. Talk amongst difference.
Now, what I think they should have did was they should have created a creature of Tatuaje, 250th Anniversary Edition. Yeah. And made him a red, white, and blue creature. Like Yeti.
Oh, that's a great idea. To honor America. That would be fantastic. The regular Monster Mash creature is Five and three-eighths by 48, which was based on the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and three years later, second Creature Cigar, four, measuring five and a quarter by 52, so apparently he likes this one, these are all over the place.
" - Yeah, I was just gonna ask him. - You know what, what are we doing? Let's just get past Pete, and let's go right to Steve. - There you go.
This is the first time the creature is getting a standalone release package box that's shaped like a coffin, similar to many other Monster Series and someone else we used to know. Or we still know him, something somebody else used to make. I text Steve. Oh, I thought we were going to call him.
You want me to call him? No, no, no. Text Steve's fine. We'll have an answer in a moment or two.
Yeah. Unless he's on vacation, which we found out that was the problem with the box that was not delivered. Oh, is that what happened? Yeah, he went on vacation.
There's nobody at his house. I just want you to know, with two series of poppings and us not resolving this problem... New microphones. We're going to pull the trigger.
Let me look at it today. I'm going to pull the trigger on one of them, and it's six hunch. We'll just do one. Just one microphone?
I'll get you one. We'll plug it into the XLR, because one of these works without a problem. Oh, oh, oh. Dude, you should have seen Palmer's face on camera.
One of us is getting a new microphone? You can have it. You can do the majority of the talking. Bocock Brothers releases a Michigan 2026 National Championship cigar.
Not only that, but you echo more because of where you're at. Yeah, I've noticed that too when I'm editing. Yeah, it does. It bounces back over in the corner.
I think a $600 mic may fix that problem. Bokkake. Bokkake. Bokkake.
Ooh, how many boxes do we want on a creature? 750 boxes. Ooh. Oh, you get it?
You know, they're 19. How many was in the pack? 10? I don't know, and I gotta go back.
He does like weird numbers too, I think. 7,000 boxes of 10 cigars. Oh, there's a lot. There's 7,000 boxes.
Yeah, no wonder you can still get some. Tell me you want $6,999. I'm going to write $7,001. No, what if he sent you $7,000 and puts a one on backorder?
Yeah. I just wrote $7,001. " Steve's about to have a heart attack. What's the box count?
10. It's a 10 count box? So it's $190? $190 and change away?
I don't know, maybe like, what do you think, $10, $15, something like that? - Probably 10 is probably good. - 10 is probably a good number. - Leave one for me.
- 11? He wants 11. Or 10 and one is sold. - They're 10 count boxes, guys.
That's not a lot. - Yeah, it's not a lot of money. - Well, I mean... - I'm gonna move it up to 15.
- And those will move. I mean... - I mean, either way. I mean, realistically, like...
I could always put them in a month club or something, too. You know? - Hmm. - Yeah.
- I mean, it's a premium. - That eats seven... It's a $19 cigar. Right.
Alright, Bocock, fans of Wolverines, there's a cigar for you. Bocock Brothers, a Houston-based company with a fun name, has largely pivoted to making officially licensed collegiate cigars. They have started shipping its latest release made to honor the University of Michigan's 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Did they win?
Is that over? Who did? Michigan? Wait, what year?
Yeah, March. March Madness, yeah. Oh, did they win? I guess they won?
In the case they won? I think so. Oh, it seems a little late then to be shipping this. I guess they had to wait and see who won.
You gotta make, yeah, you gotta see who wins. You gotta make this a guy. It's such, dude. It's not like a t-shirt where you want it out right then.
Yeah, nothing, dude, I mean even our, like even when we make t-shirts, they don't come out right away sometimes. Well, I meant the ones the guys are selling outside, you know, they have both shirts and they like, throw that one away. Cuck, Michigan, or whatever. Well, no, they send the, they send the loser ones to Africa.
Right, yeah. For the people in Nicaragua to wear. In Africa? In Africa.
Well, they sent them down for the Ebola people to wear in the Congo. Yeah. Right? You're a double loser.
Just wanted to tell you. Who was in the Super Bowl this year? Who was it, Patriots? You got Super Bowl, Patriots, Super Bowl champions.
Yeah. 2026 shirts being torched on bodies in the Congo. Oh, I don't know. You're burning the people.
You're torching the people. No, take the shirts off. Flamethrowers are very expensive. No, they're not.
You could get... They need the military ones with the big backpacks. No, but Elon made some. Yeah.
Well, I mean, you can buy them where you screw that little can. Yeah, with the little propane. Right. Oh, that's what I should have told Greg to get for the weeds outside.
Get the little blowtorch. Get the blowtorch. Just really kind of dice things up. It's a 6x52 Toro that uses a Honduran Maduro wrapper over a Honduran binder and fillers from Honduras and Paraguay.
Hmm. Did somebody else use Paraguay tobacco? Who? Paraguay.
I don't know. Probably. Is that from Paris? No, it's from Paraguay.
Is it from Paris? Now, that's something you can comment about. Right there. Right there.
It's made at an undisclosed factory in Honduras. We no say where it is. So, how much is a University of Michigan three-month-old winter cigar? Uh, 16 bucks.
That's too high. That's gonna be like $12. $29! Holy moly.
We gotta make money on these. We made them three months ago. American dollars? They're in boxes of three.
So, hey, did you hear that Coop covered... I saw that this morning. He covered our store. It was very nice of it.
Isn't that nice? Yes. I like him. Thank you, Coop.
Are we making nice? Are we all friends again? I mean, I haven't stopped making nice. I love Coop.
Yeah, right? I know. You know? It's Phil that doesn't like him.
It's Phil. Wow. It's really Phil. Take a look at that face right there.
I was trying to recreate that there. Thanks a lot, Palmer. Well, you asked him to be in your movie, and he said no, and you got all upset. Yeah.
Michigan basketball is a legacy that speaks for itself, and the championship is one for the ages, says Brian Bocock, co-founder of Bocock Brothers Premium Cigars, and a press release. We could not be more fired up to celebrate this moment with the Wolverine fans everywhere. Bocock Brothers has licensed agreements with 20 universities now. Wow, that's a lot of universities.
That's smart. All right, Viaje Birthday Blend. They've got a new cigar. We can just jump to what's the score if you want to for 50 minutes.
Uh, you're in good shape. I mean, like, okay, so Viaje is releasing the Birthday Blend and there's honey. And the Honey Bale shipping next week. Yeah.
There's a new shipment from Viaje shipping next week included. I wanted to see what the honey part was. Viaje Honey Bale. They're, it's very vague.
A new Nicaraguan-made brand, while a company spokesman declined to answer any questions about the blend of which the factory is making a cigar. Oh, all right. Well, I guess they're not saying. Yeah, so, like, the challenge here is, as a retailer, do you think that that would track and it would sell?
And, you know, this is one of their, for me, I think that it's one of their tougher ones. So, it's one that we skip. Like, I'm skipping this one. Yeah, it comes in like a honey jar.
Yeah. And the label on the jar is very big. You can't even see the cigars. Yeah, zombie antidotes are badass.
Anything with skulls, however, there have been some that struggled. But Skull & Bones, that series has done awesome, Honey & Hand Grenades has done awesome, I mean they got a lot of hits, VI's got a lot of hits, but a couple things that, I don't know, the way that they're kind of marketed, they just don't track for whatever reason, so unfortunately we skip them. Wow, the jars hold 30 cigars, that's a big jar, with a bamboo lid and each cigar has a gold cap. It looks lovely.
Hmm. Also, shipping is the Birthday Blend that started in 2016. And I'm not, and just so you know, I'm not right all the time. I'm just...
Right, it could be a big success. Yeah. Who knows? I just try and do my best to make what I think is the right decision so that we're not cash negative.
Let's see, so the Birthday Cigar is a standard blend. One cigar in a box is wrapped in gold foil, which is for good luck. He's for good luck for you. " Uh-oh.
Uh-oh. Mine furer has arrived. Alright, it's time for the industry's favorite game: What's the Score? Players hear clues from a Half Wheel Cigar review and try to predict the score before it's revealed.
As more details are shared, the challenge gets easier, or does it? The closest guess to the actual score wins the round. Can you read between the lines to predict the score? Time to play What's the Score?
First Cigar, April 22, 2011. Brooks Whittington is the reviewer. It's a Honduran Cigar. It is the Viaje, Viaje Zombie, the pre-release.
This is where it all started. 2011, Zombie, pre-release, Brooks. 85, 86, Cigar Reviews of Yahe Zombie, it is from Honduras, Factory is Fabrica de Tobacco, Reis, Cubanas, oh it's so long, it's from that Factory, Wrapper is Nicaraguan, Binder is Nicaraguan, Filler is Nicaraguan, Size is 4 3/4 by 52, Robusto, they only Only smoked, two. 88.
86. Clue number one. The Viaje Zombie delivers a rich and engaging profile with layers of dark chocolate, espresso, leather, earth that remain enjoyable from start to finish. The unique capsule-like shape and oily dark wrapper make for a memorable presentation, while the cigar's construction allows it to burn cool despite its compact size.
88. 88. 86. Glue #2.
Don't let the small size fool you. This cigar packs a serious punch. The strength builds steadily throughout the smoking experience without overwhelming the flavor profile, creating a full-bodied smoke that rewards experienced smokers with deep, satisfying notes of dark chocolate, coffee, and leather. 89.
86. Glue #3. Number three, while the flavor profile is solid, the cigar shows very little evolution throughout the smoking experience with the same core notes carrying from the first third to the finish. Combined with the premium price point and somewhat cartoonish branding, some smokers may find it difficult to justify the cost when compared to other full-bodied cigars offering greater complexity and value.
Now this is 2011, so this was probably like a $14 cigar at that time. Price is there, I just don't read it. Hold on, hold on, hold on, here it comes, here it comes. 50.
50. Box of 20 is $210. 88. 86.
All right, now I got to get back through and get back to the final thought. Sorry. Final thought. Final thought.
I like the cigar, however, it's one dimensional. The construction is good, the flavorful is good, the cocoa nib is non-existent. Make no mistake, this is a strong cigar. In fact, it is the strongest Viaje I have smoked, and easily one of the strongest cigars I have smoked this year.
It's the strongest cigar, it's the greatest cigar. It started strong right out of the gate, like I said, it was strong, and stayed a constant, almost overwhelming level until the end. The flavors that were present were great, albeit not overly complex, but I really wish there was a little more spice and pepper in the blend to set the profile apart. It's the better than the original Skull & Bones or the Tower 45th Exclusivo.
No, I certainly don't think it's at this point, it's not nearly as complex as the Exclusivo blend, and the profile is not as rich as the Skull & Bones, but the Zombie should age very well. And I predict that with a bit of time, it will transform into even a better smoke. Final score, gentlemen? 87.
Mmm, 86. You went the wrong way, 89. That was an 89. I win!
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Yes. Man, I was at it. Yeah, you said it at one point.
I thought, oh, there you go. I eked up there. You're lucky he went the wrong way. There was room.
He could have maneuvered in. He could have got it. Wasn't the Exclusivo like his favorite cigar? I don't know, Roses?
Yeah. I have no idea. I don't know. I thought he said that one time.
We read seven reviews a week. I have no idea. Mikey didn't beat Phil. Phil beat Phil today.
Yeah, he just went the wrong way. Should have went 88. Yep. You went the wrong way.
I was thinking 90 for some reason, but I was just like, I'll just stick with my 86. It's too bad. It's too bad. So sad.
Loser. Loser. So, tonight at the shop, we have a Camacho event. Yep.
Anybody want to come? We're going to have the world famous law here. We're going to have a big Father's Day promotion and a giveaway of a set of power tools. com a cigar hustlers podcast and that's it alright guys thank you very much appreciate each every one of you.
Thank you. Bye.
Show Notes
On todays show, there is a new bully in south florida, carriage rides in Central Park weren’t ment to be dangerous, Don’t visit the Congo , Two Missing Zoo animals Have been found then in cigars Tatajue is starting early, Bocock is back in the news Viaje is sweeter then honey and as always we wrap up with a what’s the score!