Azarais Mustafa Cordoba and Emile from Cordoba and Morales Cigars Episode 1

Episode Summary

The debut episode of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast, hosted by Mike Szczefankewicz of Cigar Hustler and Mike Palmer of the Florida Cigar Club, sits down with Azarais "Z" Mustafa and Emile of Cordoba & Morales Cigars. True to the show's stated format, this is less a cigar review than a long, unfiltered conversation about the people behind the brand — it opens with a Halloween rant about a neighbor who refused to hand out candy and rolls straight into Z's life story.

Over a Platino Sumatra (a low-production release of roughly 500 boxes of 20), Z explains how Cordoba & Morales began almost as a joke: two-count boxes with a ball marker — a Front 9 Connecticut and a 19th Hole Maduro torpedo/Churchill — sold at golf courses where he worked as an instructor. Retailers kept asking for 20-count boxes, and seven years later the brand is in shops as far as Tennessee. He talks about the original Ecuadorian Habano maduro blend that didn't work, production at American Caribbean Cigars, work done in Tampa on the Platino figurado, and newer projects including the value-priced Cubanaso in a 6x64 box-pressed round.

The heart of the episode is Z's personal history: born in Cuba into a half–Jehovah's Witness family that didn't celebrate Christmas, arriving in the U.S. at 13 and unknowingly wearing a clearance Santa Claus Christmas tie to Kingdom Hall assemblies for months; his brother's raft escape and year in Guantanamo Bay; jobs cleaning pools, roofing in post-Hurricane Andrew Miami, mowing grass, DJing and teaching karate; and playing percussion, including work connected to Arturo Sandoval, who famously smokes Arturo Fuente Don Carlos and carries Opus X branding on his trumpets. The brand name honors Z's grandmother, a Cuban tobacco grower whose two last names — Cordoba and Morales — and photo appear on the band.

The episode closes with rapid-fire questions: the one person he'd smoke with (Bruce Lee), the best advice he ever received (from an old Miami friend named Bebo: "whatever you do, do it right and sell it right"), and his desert-island box — a Cohiba Siglo VI for aroma, with an extended tribute to Padrón's consistency, draw and burn, plus nods to AJ Fernandez, Pepín and Fuente.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Podcast format and Halloween cold open
   The hosts explain that the show is about the people of the cigar industry, not ratings or tasting notes, then vent about a neighbor who refused to participate in Halloween.
2. 02
   Smoking the Platino Sumatra
   Z describes the low-production Platino Sumatra, made at roughly 500 boxes of 20 cigars a year.
3. 03
   How Cordoba & Morales started on the golf course
   From a two-count box with a ball marker sold at golf courses — the Front 9 Connecticut and 19th Hole Maduro — to a full brand seven years in.
4. 04
   Blends, factories and new projects
   Trial and error with the original Ecuadorian Habano maduro, production at American Caribbean Cigars and in Tampa, and the new value-priced Cubanaso 6x64.
5. 05
   The Christmas tie story
   Growing up in Cuba in a partly Jehovah's Witness family, Z arrived in the U.S. at 13 and proudly wore a Santa Claus tie to Kingdom Hall for months before anyone explained why.
6. 06
   Leaving Cuba and 750 jobs
   His brother's raft escape and year in Guantanamo Bay, the family's move to Orlando, and Z's run of jobs from roofing after Hurricane Andrew to DJing and karate instruction.
7. 07
   Music, Arturo Sandoval and Arturo Fuente
   Z's percussion background, the Clave Cubana music project, and stories about Arturo Sandoval's Opus X trumpets and lifetime Don Carlos supply from Carlos Fuente.
8. 08
   Rapid-fire: Bruce Lee, Bebo's advice, and one box of cigars
   Z picks Bruce Lee as his dream smoking companion, shares the 'do it right and sell it right' advice from a Miami mentor, and names a Cohiba Siglo VI while praising Padrón's unmatched consistency.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Cigar industry information with a twist. With your host, Mike Szczefankewicz from Cigar Hustler, and me, I'm Mike Palmer from the Flora Cigar Club. Everybody grab a cigar, pour yourself a drink, have a seat.

This week, episode one, we talk to Zee and Emil from Cordoba & Morales Cigars. Every day I'm hustling, hustling real hard, hustling, hustling real hard, hustling real hard, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, every day I'm, every day I'm, every day I'm, every day I'm, whole love. Okay, so the podcast is a little bit different than other podcasts as as much as we're not so concerned about a particular cigar or promoting anything in, in, in any fashion. It's more along the lines of the people of the cigar industry.

Right? So that's kind of what I wanted to gear it towards. I don't have anything to provoke anyway. Right?

Well, you do. You've got a couple of cigars, right? But first I'll tell you about Halloween since you're asking me. So as we're recording this, Halloween was a couple of days ago.

I don't know exactly when it's going to air. So, my neighbor, I got these neighbors down the street, and they walk this dog that's 110 years old, blind as a bat, you know, and they've always been kind of personal, but they've been a little strange, right? A little standoffish? A little standoffish, yeah.

" But no, they'll pick up the dog or they'll pick up the crap or whatever. So that's all good. Wave neighbors. We call them wave neighbors.

Yeah. You know who they are, but you wave at them. Yeah. Totally.

That's them. Okay. All right. So I dress up.

We do like a whole family thing. So my son, I don't know where this came from, but he said he wanted to be Power Rangers. Wow. We don't watch Power Rangers.

The big one? Yeah. He's like, oh, I want to be a Red Ranger. I'm like, okay.

Well, we don't watch Power Rangers in the house, but sure, no problem. So I'm the Green Ranger. He's a red ranger, my wife's a pink ranger, and my little guy just is the blue ranger, yellow is a girl, come on, come on, we're above that, come on, you can be the pink one if you wanted to, or whatever, I digress. So, everybody meets over at our house, you know, as far as my brother and sister-in-law, their family, their kids, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, and we all kind of go out, right?

So, I don't know, we got, I got two kids, they have three, so there's five of us at least running around, and then, you know, we kind of pick up kids as we're walking around with other families. So we go and we knock on this door. And I'm holding my little guy by his hand and walking him up because he's only two, right? And he's dressed like a Power Ranger, too.

Yeah, so we're a whole squad. I've got an image in my head right now. We approach this house and you can see that the lights are on inside of the house, right? So Madison, which is my niece, my niece knocks on the door, she's five, no answer, so she knocked again.

" Oh! I don't know what he was, you know? People don't do it like they used to. People just don't get into it.

So, I mean, yeah, I mean, there was a lot of dark houses, so we didn't obviously knock on those houses, But his lights were on, you know, but not his front, not his porch light, right, so, um, I don't know if it was because I'm with my kids or whatever, but like, I started to get a little pissed off, I'm like, oh, really, you know, like, boof, yeah, so I was ready to whoop this old man's ass, you know, um, yeah, I'm like, hey, I'm the Green Ranger, I will fuck you up, you know, um, I'm so glad we can curse, by the way, yeah, right, I'm like, should I? So yeah, I didn't know what, that wouldn't have been my approach. " That's cool. But now I'm thinking...

I just turned off the inside light. Why on the couch, honey? Where I come from, Halloween is a simple trick or treat, right? Uh-oh.

Trick or treat. If you don't have the treats, I'm pretty much, I'm okay to do whatever the hell I want to your house, right? So, you know, I mean, I was pretty gassed up and walked away and just let it go, but now I'm thinking when I see him on the street, and if he tries to cross the road in front of me, I'll just step on the gas real quick, because I'm not participating in him crossing the street. We're no longer participating in any of that.

I mean, I would never- Oh, when he does come to you. Yeah, he walks his dog all the way around. Get your fucking dog out of my head. His lung doesn't participate with old blind dogs.

So, I mean, I would never do that, but the fact of the matter is, have a little bit of respect for your neighbor. Yeah, and I'm surrounded by little two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-olds. That sounds like a Jehovah in a nice way. They probably wouldn't have opened the door at all, actually.

No, they could open the door. The kid keeps opening the door. Madison was pretty adamant about knocking on the door. "We see the lights.

We see you. " That's funny. That night, I was with my best friend. And motherfuckers, David, hit the bat like a hundred pounds of ice cream, nobody came in.

You're kidding me. There's so many people that do that. There's so many people that do that. He said there were so many people walking dogs and shit, but nobody came to knock on the door.

Quit out. You're kidding me. Yeah, that sucks. He's in a new development, though.

No, I mean... Is there a lot of more to go? There's no parking. Every time I go there, there's no parking.

There's a lot of people moving there. Same. We bulked up on candy, too. My wife bought a huge pumpkin, and she filled it with candy.

I'm like, oh, for one, we're walking around. You shouldn't buy candy if you're not going to be at your house, unless somebody's staying behind it. Yeah, and nobody stayed behind. So then, you know, we probably got like, when we got home, probably...

She bought it for the kids. Yeah, exactly. So you just leave it on the porch where the first kid comes, and he comes it all in his bag. I'll take it to QA next week.

He can use his barter, and he's act for goods. Like, oh, candy? Sure. You want this cotton?

They're good candy. Here's some Reese's. American candy. Oh, I can use cart.

Why are they, like, uh, what is it, uh... I only do Asian accents, I'm sorry, I only do Asian accents. You sound like a Tarzan. They're all Chinese.

Everybody's Chinese if they don't own American. That's true. If it's Russian, it sounds Chinese. You see what my boy, uh, Gurriel did in the World Series?

Was that the guy that lit up the Oscar at the end? No, the one that did that. He hit a home run of a Japanese pitcher from the LA Dodgers, and in Cuba people do that shit, but it's different. And there is a camera everywhere, so the guy's like, yeah, I had bad luck against Chinitos or something like that in Japan, because he played in Japan when he left Cuba, but I hit a home run, oh my God.

Suspend him next year for five games, no pay, whatever. They made his life major. They wanted to suspend him for the war series. That's crazy.

That is no good. Alright, so, first of all, what are we smoking? Let's start there. The Platino Sumatra.

So this is the Platino Sumatra. How many of these do you produce a year? Not many. 500 boxes of 20 cigars.

So it's a low production stick. Like I was saying before, the podcast is more based on, you know, the people of the industry. So, what I really want to know is, you know, how did you get started with Cordova Morales, and how did you first get into the cigar industry? So, take it away.

Oh, you're recording already? He's been recording the whole time. The whole time. The whole time.

The original story's just loosened everybody up. Are you kidding me? No. Where have you been?

I didn't know. I thought we were talking about... Well, that's how it's supposed to be. Yeah, natural conversation.

It's just a conversation. you know it's not supposed to kind of be like i don't know a and b hey how are you you know and i have this consists of like i taste like you know here's my ratings of you know i'm getting i'm getting hints of chocolate and no that's that's definitely not this this is this is more cut and dry and more real more raw i like it but i i didn't think we were that's why you said that We could curse. Yes. Well, you could still curse.

Yeah. It's a grown-up adult case. If I gotta go back and edit the first part, I will for you. Well, because you have to do an intro, you have to introduce who they are.

No, I'll edit. I'll put that on later. Oh. You can do this in stages.

That's okay. Right. The content, the raw part of it is right now. Oh.

So this is like the Bill Maher after the after hours, you know? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. After the show, you know.

Exactly. Except it's not so political. Yeah. No.

But it's gonna be funny. We're already established that we already insulted the Chinese and the Japanese. Yeah, at this point. Yeah, we're good.

Let's have some more. Let's have some more people. So, how did we get started? Yeah.

I wanna hear your beautiful voice. It might be. No, your accent. Your accent is what?

Do it. Oh yeah, do the accent. I'll do it, but just on Chinese. So.

In the beginning. Your company's gonna be what, seven years already? Yeah, we started. We're going to our seven years.

We're going to our seven years. So what made you start your company? How about that? Started as a, kind of like, a joke, you know?

Right. When I was in golf, doing two cigars. Those two cigars are probably seven years old. That actually came up on my timeline today in the memory of six years of our two count.

Doing the 19-hole Maduro in a torpedo and the-- Churchill. The Churchill Frontline, put 'em in a two-count box, put a ball marker, sell it at the golf courses, and then I think I started going to places and people were like, oh, I like this cigar, you should make it in a 20-count box, you know? That's kind of where I started right there. So you started off as a golfer, right?

A professional, you were like an instructor, right? - Which we've never done yet. - I know, well, Topgolf opened, I haven't been here. - I know.

- You see my new profile picture? - Topgolf, so nice. - I did it in Texas and I was pretty badass. - It was nice.

- And they're opening one in Lake Nona too, but this one's already open, the one on International. - So we should go, but, I mean, you should have to play on like one leg or something like that. - Blindfolding? - Yeah.

- One eye cover? - Well, you can play with the clubs they provide there instead of your own, which you can bring your own too. - I got rid of my, I had really nice clubs. - What?

I bought clubs when I was younger because, you know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, what the hell was it? Well, y'all did that, I did that too, you think you're going to be a, I'm going to go business, I'm going to play golf, no, no. We had a, we went there because we had the clients from Denmark and they're like, oh, we never, we played golf 15 years ago, or something like that, right? Yeah, and she wanted to actually play on a course, I'm like, ee, ah, hmm.

Do you remember when, maybe they play in an eye hole or something in Europe, you know? Right. But I say, if we, I take these two people to play golf and we spend $300, you know, and then, then I'm going to enjoy it. The pace is...

So, we went to talk golf and they couldn't hit a ball. The people almost fly off the third floor. Well, there's a net there, right? But, no, golf is...

It's fine. You gotta put a lot of time into it. It looks easy. Every sport is hard to play good.

But golf, even to play decently, you need to practice a lot and invest time and money and, you know, it's not easy. It's a lot, it's a lot of fun. They have nine different types of games over there that you can do. He played.

It's cool. Oh, that's right, you know. Have you been? No, I haven't.

It's pretty cool. So the balls have like a GPS thing and it tracks everything, the speed. Oh, really? So you can't lose the ball?

Nope. And you're trying to aim for different rings and stuff like that? Yes, you get the price. You can buy the ball, it's like $30-something.

They have a GPS. That's not bad, $30. Well, no, no, no, that's if you want to buy it. Oh, just for the day.

Yeah. I mean, if you go to Topgolf, you know, and you're going to go have a good time, you should bring a few hundred, a couple of dollars. Yeah. And the food was pretty decent.

Yeah, because you're gonna eat, there's beer, you know, there's all types of things. I was impressed with the food. Yeah. It's a really good experience.

Nice service. Yeah. I don't know. So we started there.

Yeah, so, all right, so you start off as a golfing instructor. What makes you want to make your own cigar? Let me ask you that. In the beginning.

No, because... In the dawn of time. You gotta say it in that. I think the truth is that I think it's in my blood, you know, and now because I am Cuban, every Cuban has some family that makes cigars and half of them is like, you know, but it is true that I come from a little town that has tobacco, they had two factories, they had Despalillo, you know, my grandmother used to grow tobacco, so it is kind of, In the blood, and it's probably my biggest love, honestly, is cigars, because I love music, I love sports, I love golf and all that, but cigars is something really close to my heart, like that, like I look at a bundle of cigars with no bands or anything, and for me it's pretty, you know, naked.

You walk into any factory in Nicaragua, and I don't, I've never been to, the first time I went to Skip was the last time when I went with, but you walk in there and you walk into a bodega and you see the half wheels and for me that's sexiest, you know, and I have like, You can say it, sexy as fuck, say it, I have like five beautiful doors, and sometimes I call myself, like, catch myself looking, I'm like, are you stupid, you know, you have so many cigars. But you still go to your humidor every week and open it and look out, everything is okay, and you know, this cigar, I had it for this long, or somebody gave me a cigar, I don't care if tomorrow I don't make any more cigars, or I'm not in the business, I love the business a lot, I mean, it's not just money, bro, and I mean, I could make money doing other stuff too, you know, and you know how tough this is to make any money. Oh yeah, for sure. But I really do enjoy, you know.

We're all naughty. Nobody can see it's not. Well, that's what I said about you, for sure. That's what I said about you, for sure.

That's what I said about you, for sure. I concur. I love the industry. You guys are big about getting out and meeting the people.

That's what I've always liked about you. I love, yeah, that's my... I love cigars, too. I mean, you love everybody.

I'm a little funny. I'm not that special. But I mean it. I understand.

I know you do. That's just it. You mean it. You're kind of like my wife.

You love everybody. And when you say I love you, you mean it to that person. Whether it's some guy you just met, or you know, your husband. But I do.

I know you do. I know you're very sweet. There's different levels of hugs. Oh.

Okay. Mine was a little longer today. See? There you go.

A little extra tap. A little swag. Thank you. A little shimmy for you.

Anywho. I think one of the coolest things for me is... Wait, we're having our own show up here, right? So, like, I've learned that...

You can't talk about yourself. As a manufacturer or brand owner, normally the state that you are in tends to really flourish with your brand just because it's local. People want to support local and it's easier for you to get around and kind of track, you know, those retailers, but like, so I was just in Tennessee though, and I saw you were with Mike, I did, Mike, at the Ucidore, and he loves you guys, and I'm like, that was a big deal for me, I'm like, this is awesome to see that your product is here, and you know, that you've established a relationship with a retailer that's not, you know, not close, but he's one of my favorite guys I've ever seen. Oh my goodness.

The beautiful family. And you, there was also, Pat, no, who else? One of the guys that patrons my place. Wasn't Dravid?

No, no Dravid. Um, anything. But yeah, I saw, I was like, "Oh, I like Dravid! " Yeah, it's awesome.

So you started off with the Broadway, right? No, uh, the first one was the Connecticut Front 9. Okay. And the Maduro, the first, the first one had a, like a Habano Maduro.

Oh no kidding. Yeah, it was Ecuadorian Habana Maduro. Remember? Yeah.

And then we switched it because it wasn't... Cutting it. No. This wasn't the same.

Trial and error. It's fine. A little bit more. Yeah, totally.

And the factory that you were rolling out of is still the same factory that you roll out of today? The first, the main cigars, you know, the ones that I started with still are down there, but I'm doing some other stuff. I've done a couple of things here and there, but now I have, like, with somebody out, a small house, and I'm doing, I started doing only, like, inexpensive bundles there, but I'm working on better stuff. Okay.

What are you working on? Cigar for the, my boy in Tallahassee and the girl that comes here. Valakari, Valakari. - What's another?

- Scotty. - Scotty, this is a girl. - She's such a sweet. - And we're doing the Cubanaso, the big ring gauge one, also like in a 6x64 box present round, and also one with two, like a double wrap, Fort Thompson.

- Okay, that's cool. - Yeah. - So but nothing under the Cordova Morales line is yet? - Only that Cubanaso, it is under the Cordova Morales line.

But it's like a $6 cigar. That's cool. That's very cool. Look, she's proud of you.

She's smiling at you. But everything else, remember I did a couple of cigars in Tampa. Right. When the Platino started, I did the Double Figure Round in Tampa.

But everything else is done in American Caribbean cigar. Now owned by Gurga. Really? Really?

Well, in quotation. I'm just kidding. I don't know. Shh.

Shh. Shh. So. What happened was.

So what happened was. All right. So, you know what I think would be really cool is if you told people the Thai story. Because that is one of my favorite-- Oh, the Thai?

The Christmas Thai? Yes. I was thinking the same thing yesterday. No way.

It's a good story. Yeah. Like, so, like, that is something that, you know, people could kind of get to know you. You can kind of get to know you and experience, you know, a little bit more of your origin than where you came from, right?

Oh my, that origin? That origin that I'm not too proud of. Well, it doesn't matter, it is what it is. It's a good story.

We're all not proud of certain parts of our lives, but the fact of the matter is that, you know, those things made you who you are today, right? Yes, yes. So, do it. I was born into like a...

A cult? Yeah, I mean, half of the family was Jehovah's Witnesses. That's funny. I didn't know we were recording.

I said the Halloween guy was probably Jehovah's Witnesses. I know very well. Half of the family was Jehovah's Witnesses. They don't believe in cigars.

Jehovah's Witnesses can't smoke. They do drink. Most of them are alcoholics. Stop it.

They can drink, they're not drunk. They're not allowed to get drunk. They're not allowed to. But we didn't celebrate Christmas Eve.

Okay. Or anything. They don't celebrate birthday, they don't celebrate Christmas, they don't celebrate Mother's Day. But on top of that, being born and raised in Cuba.

I didn't know anything about Christmas Eve. I didn't know who Santa Claus was or anything. And when we came here, our sponsor that helped get the family here took us to one of the malls when we landed and to get close to go to church soon. I was 13 and they let me run around the store so I wanted to be a nice guy so I went to, it was March, I went to the clearance section and I found, you know, a tie for a couple of bucks and I'm like, yeah, I like this tie.

You know, this guy's not spending a lot of money on me, just a tie, but I don't know what the tie is, I just saw there was a fat guy there with a, with a car going to the nail, what's that one? No, he was on a sleigh, sleigh, with all the gifts and the reindeer, you know, Giles, Santa Claus, yeah, yeah, I didn't know anything about it. The man looks very happy, he's married, yeah, he looks friendly, and he had a lot of colors, you know, for Cure, you know, we have like, loud colors, the louder the better, looks cool. I went to church for, to the Kingdom Hall, Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, for a couple of months with my, my time, the first week, it was the assembly, it was like a big convention, two days, and it was two days, and I only had, and we had the pictures to prove that, I only had, have you seen the pictures yet?

No. Oh, I got it, I will bring it next time. I had the black shirt, black pants, black pants, and a Christmas tie. Christmas is red.

Pop it like a mofo. The whole women, people understand that they hate Christmas. It's pagan. But it's really bad for them.

They don't even talk about it. So I went to my assembly, you know, with my tie. And everybody looking at me. And you're really proud of the tie.

Oh, shit. No, but I even went to my mom one day and I'm like, Man, man, I'm either the hottest guy here or everybody, all these girls are looking at me like crazy, you know? He wasn't tired, I didn't know. Yeah, I did it twice.

Same clothes, everybody else had it in the second day, everybody's got different clothes and he's got the same photos too. I'm the only one that has the same shirt, same tie, same pants. And he continued to wear it. Yeah.

I didn't have any other time. Somebody, like, three weeks into it, gave me a couple of times, but they wear, like, one color, and I'm not wearing this shit. You have this nice red one with a mane on it. Yeah, I got the one with all the animals and gifts and shit, and snowflakes, and this is the one I wear.

So I kept wearing until two months or something go by, crap, maybe even more. It's your favorite time. You wear it all the time. You're proud of your time.

I had two other clothes, but I didn't want to wear it. No, they weren't as colorful. " He had talked to you about your time. Yes, exactly like that.

" I didn't want to hear shit, you know. Right, you're 13 years old. Yeah, you know everything. You look at the motherfucker, and his tie was one color, and this guy is jealous.

He wants my tie. He's telling me his shirt because his tie is one color, and I got all these crazy colors in my tie. Playa hate it. I didn't, it's like another two weeks, I think, before you took it off.

My mom and dad, they didn't know what to say, they didn't know what a shirt either about, you know. If they'd known, they obviously would have talked to me. I think more people talk to me, and with, you know, a couple of months, I threw away the time. You threw away the time?

You threw away the time? Yeah. Oh, honey, that was like, that's a, that's a... They probably, they wanted to make a little, uh...

Burning ceremony? Burning ceremony, you know. Yeah, oh, yeah, that's demonic, it's demonic, yeah. This is how we grew up.

The poor Santa Claus time. Wah, wah, wah. That's okay, for Christmas, was it last year, or the year before that, Jonathan Adansky? Couple of, they got me a Christmas time.

And Cheryl, they got me a Christmas time. They got me a Christmas time, yeah. I thought you were taking a Santa Tire. He's got a Santa Tire.

He's got a Santa Tire now. All is right. Does it play music and have lights? No.

We need to make that happen. Order must be restored to the universe. Yup, yup, yup. Oh my.

We've got a lot of crazy stories. Yeah, coming from there, I mean, a couple of people in my family are pretty mad at me because I make cigars kill people for a living. Yeah. That's what I do.

It should be your job title. I know my grandmother would be proud of it. A hit man who makes cigars. And that's why the company is her last name, you know?

Right. So the company's names are both? Both her. Because you know, I tell everybody in Cuba, you carry both last names, mom and dad.

Right. So, her last names were Cordoba and Morales. And that's what started the brand. Yep, yep.

And so on every band you'll find in the back, the picture of Grandma and, yeah, I think her let's say in our story. She put the Santa tie on it too. Shoot. Yes.

Can we make a- The Santa tie? Yes. Can we make a- The Santa tie? That would be awesome.

I could do it for Christmas next year and make a cigar band with the Santa tie on. Oh, that's the whole band is just a band. Yes, yes. I think I'm gonna trademark that shit.

Don't put that in the podcast. Yeah, edit that out. That would be like 250 boxes, you know, with a nice Santa tie on the outside. That'd be perfect.

I mean, that'd be badass. I'd put the website exposing Jehovah's Witnesses. XJW. com.

Read about it. I'll give 10% of the... Proceeds? To...

Oh, yeah, for the people that are like, yeah, they're volunteering. Living the... The cult. The cult.

Yeah, which apparently Leah Remini is going to be doing the season three on JW's since she finished with the Scientologist. Oh, she gave up on the Scientologist? Well, she did two seasons already, so I guess she said she wants to do other ones than that Jehovah's Witnesses is one of her. Yeah, so that'd be cool.

so so all right so you're 13 you do you do your tie thing yes and then right after that and then you get into somewhere along the lines you get into golf right oh that was oh yeah i've done all kinds of things yeah lots of jobs okay hold on you know let me call the jamaicans that had like you only have three jobs you lazy man yeah that's like it I had a lot of fun. What did you do? Why would you sound in Chinese again? Yes.

What a good job you did. So, what did you do? Oh, man. All the things I've done in this country.

Yeah. Woo, first job. Clean pools. I was a roofer in Miami after the Andrew Hurricane.

I mean, I came in a couple years after Andrew, but still, I mean, I was working in Miami for years. Right. You know? Homestead was destroyed.

I did that. I did construction. I moved to Orlando. I mowed grass.

I was a DJ. A DJ? Yes. Did a DJ-Z.

You DJed in Miami. I DJed in Miami. Like, yeah. Wiki, wiki, wiki, wiki.

Yes. Oh. Wiki, wiki. Been a frustrated musician all my life.

Right. No, he's really good. He is. But I have the...

What do you play? Percussion. More than anything. I can play a little thing, but...

Conga, bongo. Right. But I can say that I play with Arturo Sandoval. He's an 11-time Grammy Award winner.

He's got a couple good songs. He's got a couple good songs. Yeah. Just a few, huh?

I think I've heard of him. Ayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay. I know. I know.

I know. I know. You know what's up. He didn't do a song about Cordoba & Morales though.

No, he can't because he's an Arturo Fuente guy. He's tied into that. He would love to. He told me at the very end.

" No, I have his taste. When I say I want to do that, I mean that that's never happened. Because when we did the Clave Cubana, the original. Before Arturo Fuente, no, Arturo Fuente did like a DVD, and he did the music for that, right?

A. " You know? " I'm so sorry. It's not gonna happen now.

I mean, he's got Opus X on his trumpet, like the big-- Really? Oh yeah, you'll see-- He plays everywhere, every trumpet that he has has Opus X. That's kind of a big deal. Yeah, a nice little promotion.

He gets a couple of boxes every month, you know, something he has, you know. I'm sure. He told me a really cool story the last time we were hanging out today. He was just in Castleberry not too long ago, I don't know if he-- Yeah, he came to play for free.

He said that. Did you take cologne with you? Yeah, David was there. Hilda, you know it's funny, Hilda's brother is a trumpet player and he replaced him when he left the DC Gillespie United Nation Orchestra.

When he went to do his own band, Hilda's brother is the one that took over and played. So when I told him who she was and all that, he sent a little message to Hilda's brother, you know. They played together all over the world. They probably played a good year, year and a half together, all over the world, with the United Nations Orchestra, which was a big deal.

It's funny, Arturo told me that when I get to the festival the other day, I'm rolling cigars, you know, people coming in, and this guy come in with a big Arturo Fuente shirt, you know, but I'm thinking this is just a group here, he likes Fuente, you know, and he came to the table. So he's like, "Oh, nice cigar, get one," you know? " I'm like, "I'm just messing around. " I'm like, "Don't worry, man.

" So you're going to be like, "That motherfucker look at me, he's like, he didn't like that," you know? So he walked away. He kind of laughed, but he walked away. And then when Arturo comes out, they hug and talk and everything.

" That's the general manager of Arturo Fuentes Warehouse, you know, main warehouse. " Another lying Cuban, shit Cuban. But Arturo told me that before Carlos died, he went to the, that's why this guy loves him. Because he said he was in the warehouse in Tampa, walking around with the old man, and he called this guy that was there.

He's like, come here. He's in charge of the whole thing. He's like, you see this guy right here? Oh yeah, I know.

I love his music. Listen to me. You see him? Make sure that first of the month, you always send his favorite cigar to his house until the end of time.

There is no, no matter what, you, that's the first thing you do every month. And Atura say that's like a clock in his house every couple days after the first day. Arturo said he's smoking a, Arturo told me, I don't know how he's 67 and still play like that, you know, because he say, he told me, brother, every day I was thinking I have a problem now, I said, what happened? He said, the only time I'm not smoking is when I'm sleeping.

He said, I go everywhere, I mean, hotel, I was in Turkey playing in Blue Note, Turkey for two weeks, I smoke 10 cigars a day. He said, I can't stop, he said, you never, it's true, I never seen a motherfucker without a cigar. He just went to the doctor, and he's perfectly fine. Fiddle as a fiddle.

Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, he's got Opus Ek coursing through his veins on a hourly basis. Pretty much. Well, he's a what, Don Carlos?

He only smokes Don Carlos. Oh, no kidding. I don't give him anything out. Yeah, that wouldn't look as good on the trumpet though.

No. No, not as recognizable. No. For sure.

Anywho. So, what made you come up to Orlando? It wasn't me, it was my family. I came to Orlando when I was 15.

Okay. We only lived in Miami for like a year and a half and my brother left Cuba three months after we left in a raft with 19 family members. No kidding. And didn't make it, it was like 11 miles from Key West, got intercepted by the Coast Guard or whatever, they put him in an aircraft carrier and took it to Guantanamo Bay.

Oh my god. And he was there for a year, with a three year old, 45, you know my nephew - Right, Desmoney, Stephen Rosenak. , he worked in Miami, he's a mechanic, in a couple of shops, he didn't like it, he's like, I want to, you know, do my own thing, it's really hard to do a shop here, you know. So he came to Orlando, worked with somebody for like a year, and then saved money, opened a little place, and he's had that business now for over 20 years.

No kidding. He had 18 employees. 18? Yeah.

He had two shops at one point, and then my other brother came from Cuba, and he gave him one shop to rob, you know? Give it to him, to pay little by little, but almost like as a gift. So, after he came here, my dad came in, my other brother moved in, my sister won the Visa Lottery, in Cuba she came in with our family, and then my, the last brother that came in was in 2008. Everybody, all my family is in our life.

Okay, so there's nobody left in Cuba. I have, you know, a lot of families, because my grandmother, my close families are here, but my mother, all her family is in Cuba, and she was one out of 16 kids. My grandmother, that lady behind the band, had eight boys and eight girls. That's what happens when you live in Cuba, I guess?

You just make babies? Yes, no TV, in the countryside, 16 boys. It's like, how many kids do you think were born when the power went out for Irma here? Oh my God.

We're gonna see that in a few moments. Oh, you're gonna see that? Yeah, we're talking about that. We're gonna have a nice big baby boom.

Oof. Yeah, more babies. Alright, well, we have a couple of questions that we want to ask you that are kind of like, uh, just quick, off the top of your head and stuff. Um, yeah.

Getting smoky up on this bitch. Yeah, sure. I like it. It's great for the lungs.

Don't have to smoke some. Great for the lungs. All right, you ready? Go ahead, Mike.

All right. First question. What one person, living or dead, would you like to have a cigar with? Damn.

Could be anybody. Could be anybody. Famous or otherwise? See, we put you on the spot.

That's the design. Yeah, that's a serious thing. And I could talk to him and... Right, he says, see, learn?

Yeah, or her. Bruce Lee. Oh, really? That's a good one.

That was my idea. No idea why. Because I did a little martial arts when I was, but he's just always been like... One of the jobs you had was a karate instructor?

That one I would do for a mechanic, karate instructor, cigar maker. But he looked like a, like a really interesting person to me, if you, the things he did, how ahead of his time he was, I'd like to sit down with that guy and talk, you know? Bruce Lee. Yeah, I didn't know that.

I mean, I know, like a lot of the questions that we asked you, obviously, I knew, but I wanted to make sure that, you know, you kind of got your story out to everybody. Like, I obviously know the name, brand, the origin of it and stuff, right? But I didn't know Bruce Lee. That's, uh...

Just because I think he's so interesting. He was so interesting. That's good stuff. All right.

Hit him again. Hit him again. Hit him again. Best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?

Wow. Can we hear something Bruce Lee said? I mean, you've learned a lot. Girl, you know, I mean, you've had various struggles coming from Cuba, over here, doing 750 jobs in the course of two years, And then eventually becoming a cigar maker and your own successful business owner.

So what's the one piece of advice that somebody gave you that kind of stuck with you the entire time? - I think it's easier than the first question because I had this... - It's usually something you remember. - Yeah, and I always had older friends.

I mean, rarely did I, I only hang out with one or two guys my age, my entire life. But I had this old friend in Miami that, when I came from Cuba, and I always told him that I wanted to do a business or whatever, and I'm talking about, I was 14, 15, and he told me one day, it's a really good advice, I'm gonna try to translate it, it makes sense, right, but, because he was Cuban, he said. So say it in Cuban first, or say it in Spanish first, you know what I mean, God damn it. Say it in Puerto Rican, say it in Puerto Rican, throw that out there.

" And if it's a, whatever it is, a cigar. And that, that thing always stuck with me, because he had a couple of business and he made a lot of money. He passed already, but he was a millionaire, he told me. "Whatever you do, we have, So we have enough people and consumers in this country to, whatever it is, if you do it right and you sell it right, you make it.

So how do you say it in Spanish? How do you say it in Spanish? Me dijo, cualquier cosa que haga, hazla bien, y se bueno vendiéndolo. Aprende a venderla, lo que sea, si es una lata de basura, si es un carro, si es un instrumento, lo que sea.

So who taught you that? What was his name? His name was Bebo. Bebo?

Bebo. That was the whole name? Yeah, I think everybody knew by his nickname. Got you.

How old was he when he said that to you? He was 70 and I was 16. He was 70? Wow.

So that stuck with you this whole time? Yeah, he died not too long after I came from Miami. Do you know that guy? One of the luckiest person I ever met in my life.

No kidding. He won the lottery twice. Wow, really? On top of having business and having money, he one time played like a, it wasn't a big lottery, you know, in Miami, but he made like, he won like $3 million in the lottery.

No kidding. Not like $100,000. And then like a few years later, he said that Flor de la Loto was hot again and he went and bought a ticket and he won again with like three other people, got a couple more millions. Wow.

Yeah, he could be out there in the record books, twice. I'm sure he wouldn't be under Babel, though. No, no Babel. Hernandez was his last name, Hernandez.

Yeah. Everybody knew him by Babel. He's the guy who helped my brother put his business. " And he came here and saved a little bit of money.

He knew how hard working the family was, whatever. So he gave me like $50,000 in 1996. Whoa, yeah, that's a lot of money, by the way. He said, you pay me back, but whenever, he never called him to, when you start making money, you pay me with no interest at $50,000.

Wow. No kidding. My brother, I didn't pay him in like six, seven years. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, getting the business started, that's about, that sounds about right, you know.

It's not the third question, but I'm just curious. How old were you even started smoking? Smoking cigars? Can I picture a 13, 14-year-old Z on a roof doing roofing with a big cigar hanging out of his mouth with all these 40, 50-year-old guys hanging out?

I always was in trouble because of smoking, because remember, some of the family is not your witness. That was wrong. I'm going to tell you something probably I've never told anybody here. Oh, Lord.

Oh, juicy, juicy. Because it's nasty. Cigar Hustlers podcast is exclusive. Oh, God, man!

No, but it's nasty about cigars. Does your wife need to leave? I know, right? No.

Okay. In Cuba, this thing is called el cabo. El cabo? Do you hear about el cabo?

Cabo? Cabo. Cabo. Cabo is where you hold the gun too, right?

Como se? How do you say that? I don't know. I'm trying to fully translate.

I mean, if anybody, let's say somebody listen to me in Cuba, you know. Cabo is, this piece, when the cigar doesn't, you know, you want to throw it away. And when I was like eight or nine years old, I used to go around the neighborhood, couple of homens I knew, threw the cow away, got it, light it up and smoke it. After these people chew on it for two hours.

But I couldn't have cigars in the house when I was growing up because I had to go to uncles and they used to grow. Because my grandmother died when I was nine, and she was a cigar, you know, the tobacco grower and all that, but some of her kids stayed doing it, they stayed in the business, and I had an uncle far away, this one was really far away from me, but my dad used to take me there like twice a year, but he still had a farm until the day, I came here, he stayed there with the farm. All right, the third question, what's your favorite cigar? What is your favorite?

Your absolute favorite cigar? Yeah, I know. Can it be, uh... Any, anything.

Any, anything. But you just want one. Just one. It's not illegal here and one from Cuba.

It's not fair. I don't care what it is. We don't care what it is. What is your favorite cigar?

I don't care what it is. What is your favorite cigar? I don't care what it is. I don't care what it is.

I don't care what it is. What is your favorite cigar? I don't care what it is. I don't care what it is.

I don't care what it is. What is your favorite cigar? I don't care what it is. That's a hard decision.

It is a hard decision. Okay, so here, so, you're on an island, and I'm about to kick you out of the helicopter, and you're gonna compete there by yourself, okay? I'm gonna give you one box of cigars to take with you. Damn, just one box.

One box, so you're gonna be rationing that shit out like crazy. Cabos everywhere. Cabos everywhere. Mucho cabos.

Mucho cabos. So, what is the one box of cigars? It doesn't matter if it's Cuban, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. What did you say?

" I'll probably take a good ass Siglo 6 box. Yeah? Siglo 6. Oh, you know, is that what you're gonna say?

No, I knew it was gonna be Cuban. Which one? I don't know. No, I knew it wasn't gonna be Cuban, because that's why I say it's unfair, because I think, and I really, I'm not a, The guy who, like everybody, he's the biggest company now, but I think it's really hard to be Padrón for the quality of what they do, how they do it.

It's impossible though. I mean, I don't think Cuba-based, I don't think anybody-based, honestly. That I like when it's a really good Cuban and it's not rushed, that I like that aroma a little better than every other aroma. It's true.

But it's the aroma. I think Padrón has made better cigars, and like them, a lot of people, you know? But there have been 50 years making cigars, but the other day, this guy from Corona, Javier, the other mailman over there, we become friends, you know, and we hang out, whatever, he gave me a Padrón. And I smoked that cigar, it was a natural, I don't remember what, it was a 1926 natural, and I'm like, man, it's hard to beat these people, you know?

They burn like a dream. They always draw. The burn is incredible for a box press. You know how it is.

It's always nothing rush. I mean these people make cigars that are incredible. They're good at what they do. Same thing with like other companies.

I think other companies, AJ, Pepin, there is a lot of people that are trying and they make good stuff. But it's hard to be with guys. We've been doing it for a long time. They don't rush anything.

It's just the truth, bro. Well, the one good thing about having a Cuban on as your first podcast is, you know, you can definitely fill enough content and get enough. And then some. I wanted to say thank you very much to both of you guys for coming on.

We really do appreciate you coming out. We love you guys and, you know, we're excited about what you're doing in the industry and it's good to finally, you know, But this is just a workbook, we're going to give Dougie Shire a lot. This is just a workbook. We can talk shit about anybody you want.

We can have you come on multiple times, but we want to space out. Content will not be an issue with me. We don't want to ruin it, you know? Save something for next one.

Yeah, so thank you very much for coming on to the podcast and being our first guest. Mike, you got anything to add? No, thank you. And like I say, I know I only mentioned one, but I respect all the cigars making.

Of course. Because I'm going to tell you something to close it, that my grandma used to say. Okay. She says, it's easier, and this is a person that died in 89, already 80 some years old.

So when she was growing up, the biggest technology there was, was a TV. Right. You know? And she always used to say, it's harder to make a good cigar and a consistent cigar than to make a TV.

Okay. That maybe doesn't carry as much weight now. No, it makes complete sense. But she used to say, to make a cigar, and make it good all the time, that draws, that burns, that tastes good, it's harder than making the TVs.

And for her, my TV was, you know, I mean, how is there people that I can see there, you know? And it's true, man. Every cigar maker anywhere in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, I respect them all the way, because there is a lot of people making good cigars all day. I know I was putting your feet to the fire asking for your favorite cigar, you know?

That's why I love the question, because it's tough, you know? It is really tough. Fuente made some good cigars, too. And they've been doing it for a long time, too, you know?

Right. The truth. Well, you make some good cigars, too. Thank you.

Thank you. We try. We try our best. All right, well, that's pretty much it.

This has been a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, Episode 1. It's over. That's it. Turn this shit off.

Get your ass out of the seat. The dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately. So get back to work.

Show Notes

Origin Series...Excuse the sound quality.  We have made major improvements to the studio and our equipment on following episodes.