Cigar Awards Are Earned Ft/BuffaloBourbonBabe

Episode Summary

Hosts Jerry, Gio and Caleb are joined by returning guest Rachel — president of Buffalo's Lockhouse Distillery and better known on social as the Buffalo Bourbon Babe — for an Easter Sunday episode built around one big question: what actually earns a cigar a "Cigar of the Year" award? The smoke of the night is the Alfonso Añejo #3 from United Cigars, Halfwheel's #1 Cigar of the Year for 2022. The crew covers the blend's background (named for United founder Nelson Alfonso, tobacco aged five years in cedar and French oak, Ecuadorian wrapper and binder over Nicaraguan and Peruvian filler, Costa Rican production, six vitolas, only 200 boxes per size) and its eye-watering $30–$50 per-stick pricing. The pairing is Breckenridge PX Cask Finish bourbon, a 90-proof high-rye chosen deliberately so it wouldn't bulldoze the cigar.

The main segment is a genuine explainer on awards methodology. Gio walks through Halfwheel's process — cigars must be released the prior year, need a 91+ review to qualify, are smoked in multiples by a four-person panel (Charlie Minato, Brooks Whittington, Brian Burt, Patrick Lagreid), roughly 700 cigars smoked down to 28 eligible and 25 listed, with no tiebreakers and no advertiser caps — versus Cigar Aficionado's blind, banded-over tasting panel and March Madness-style bracket. The guys debate why the same legacy names (Fuente, Padrón, My Father, E.P. Carrillo, Rocky Patel) recur on the Aficionado list, whether ad spend plays a role, and note Tatuaje's TAA releases have placed six times on Halfwheel, including #1 in 2015.

Rachel brings the spirits-industry parallel, and it's the episode's most useful takeaway: most whiskey "awards" are pay-to-play, with entry fees running $500–$5,000 and near-guaranteed participation medals. She explains why she refuses to enter Lockhouse in them, and why she trusts independent voices like Fred Minnick — who buys his own bottles — over shelf-talker medal counts. That rolls into a broader conversation on finished whiskeys: sherry, PX, port, rosé and cognac casks, Penelope, Sagamore rum finish, Jefferson's cognac-finished rye, brewery-barrel collaborations, and local Buffalo distilleries.

After the Patrol Gone Wild segment (a can-of-corn assault and a brawling Florida Easter Bunny with outstanding warrants), the crew scores the Alfonso: Caleb 90, Jerry 91, Gio 88, Rachel 96.5. Consensus — gorgeous construction and a flawless burn, milder than the advertised medium-to-full, a tight draw early on (both V-cutters got dinged), and a cigar worth a single or a five-pack rather than a $1,000 box.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Alfonso Añejo #3 background
   Gio details United Cigars' Alfonso line — named for Nelson Alfonso, five years of aging in cedar and French oak, Ecuadorian wrapper/binder, Nicaraguan and Peruvian filler, six vitolas and just 200 boxes per size.
2. 02
   Pairing: Breckenridge PX Cask Finish
   Caleb breaks down the 90-proof high-rye bourbon finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks and why a lower-proof pour was chosen to avoid overpowering an expensive cigar.
3. 03
   How Halfwheel picks its Top 25
   Eligibility rules, the 91-or-better cutoff, a four-person panel smoking roughly 700 cigars, multiple samples per stick, and a straight points ranking with no tiebreakers.
4. 04
   How Cigar Aficionado does it
   Blind tastings with bands removed, a coordinator-fed rotation, and a bracket-style runoff — plus the crew's debate over why legacy brands dominate the list.
5. 05
   Are whiskey awards pay-to-play?
   Rachel explains $500–$5,000 entry fees, participation medals, and why Lockhouse skips competitions in favor of trusted reviewers like Fred Minnick.
6. 06
   Cask finishes on the rise
   Sherry, port, rosé, cognac and beer-barrel finishes — from Penelope and Sagamore to Jefferson's cognac rye and brewery collaborations.
7. 07
   Patrol Gone Wild
   A can-of-corn assault case and a Florida Easter Bunny street fight involving a suspect with outstanding warrants.
8. 08
   The review and scores
   Appearance, burn, construction, draw and enjoyment scores from all four — 90, 91, 88 and 96.5 — plus the verdict on whether a $40+ cigar is single, five-pack or box worthy.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

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Transcript

Welcome to Down to Herf, the podcast for cigar smokers, whiskey drinkers, and for the people just looking to kick back, light up, and have a good time. I'm your host, Jerry, and I'm joined by, as always, my co-host, Gio and Caleb. Fellas, fellas, fellas, how are we doing on this fine Easter rabbit candy sickness sundae? I kind of just threw a whole bunch of shit in there.

Caleb, what's up? Well, you know what? It's one of those days you ate too much and now it's like the tiredness is settling in. We are going to smoke something really great and we're going to drink something just as well, too.

So I'm excited to be here. Awesome. Gio, what's up, my dude? It's hanging in there, you know, got the Easter meal going on here, you know, came straight from dinner.

Yeah. A little fancier dressed than usual. Gio, special guest in the studio today. Obviously, this is going to be someone new to our new audience, but why don't you go ahead and introduce her?

We got the one, the only, Rachel from Lockhouse Distillery. She is the president, and she is also known by her alter ego, the Buffalo Bourbon Babe. Yeah, hey guys. What's up?

Oh, just doing great, a little nasally, because we're all quarantined in here. I was going to say, we are definitely the nasal gang today. We're the nasal gang. We are all fucked up, there is sickness everywhere.

Aside from Caleb, Caleb does not really, I mean... I think if you have AIDS, you don't get like the normal common cold, because you already have AIDS, so like nothing can like live in you. It can't like penetrate the AIDS. Caleb just, you know, messed with too many dirty broads in his youth, that's why he's immune now.

I thought you were going to say dirty bros, and I'm like, oh, okay. Dirty Bros. I mean, that would make more sense. I mean, you can't quarantine AIDS, so, you know, that's what I always say.

You might as well just live life. That's what you do. That's my motto. You can't quarantine AIDS.

Well, listen, before we get into this show, obviously, we have a great cigar that we got to introduce. Without further ado, Gio, introduce this bad boy, man, because this is one that we have been eyeing up for months. - Well, we've got the Alfonso Anejo #3 by United Cigars. This cigar won Half Wheels #1 Cigar of the Year 2022.

I'm going to go into some brief background on the cigar and know why they actually created this line. Excuse me. So it was actually named after the founder, Nelson Alfonso. And, the inspiration was the use of French oak in winemaking, and in fact, for the Alfonso line, they actually selected tobacco that was used both in cedar and French oak to age these cigars for five years.

Cool. So, that's why that these are going to be a much higher price point than your average cigar, if you can find them. they're made yearly uh only 200 boxes per size there's six of them uh there's six vitolas yes yeah i know i did notice that they had some pretty cool different sizes but this was obviously the one that we wanted to get into so as you all know different vitolas can change a cigar experience you know these go as small as like a four by 50 all the way up to a 9x50. That's a big-ass cigar.

Yeah, those are $50 a stick. I mean, what are these? These? 40.

40? Yeah, not much of a difference. The smallest one's $30. A box of the number threes would set you back a grand.

The number sixes would be the biggest one. They just go up and increase there. As far as the details on this bad boy, we got a nice 6x54 ring gauge. not a uh small cigar by any means it's going to be that you know robusto-esque i'm sorry yeah toro i don't know why i said toro for sure this is definitely a toro yeah and then strength they said this was going to be considered medium to full uh ecuadorian wrapper and binder and then the filler is going to be nicaraguan and peruvian and this is a costa rican origin And obviously United makes some crazy, you know, blends as far as Atabe, Byron, so this is gonna be right up there with your highest boutique premium tobacco.

So what I was really excited about when we first heard about this cigar was obviously, you all know the hype around it, if you know what it is, it's the Half Wheels number one cigar of the year of 2022. This thing, just off the rip, I mean, the wrapper on this thing, I mean, it's just oily, it's smooth, it's got a nice light color to it. Man, I'm really excited to smoke this thing. This is going to be a fun one.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's one of the more limited sticks, like, you know, we've got some very, very significant following when it comes to this, you know. A lot of guys have been trying to get us to smoke some of the higher-end United products. I think the Red Anchor is the one higher-end one we did, and we've done a couple of firecrackers, just between one on the show and then in personal, but those aren't their blends.

So I'm excited to get into this, because this is kind of their baby. Well, you know, obviously, if you've listened to our episodes in the last few months, United's kind of climbing its way into and definitely finding a home into the down-to-hurf world. Would you agree to that? Yeah, I would definitely agree.

I mean, this thing is going to be a fantastic smoke. I can just tell by the way I was smelling, I was getting some good aromas. I just wish that I could afford the Byron, Atabe, Alfonso lines, you know what I mean? Obviously, they come with that price point.

You know, I hate to give a recall to the last episode. Obviously, we did the Davidoff Year of the Rabbit last week. We kind of, you know, discussed whether or not something with a price tag that high, is it really worth it, you know? So, I mean, this is kind of going to, this is going to fall into that category a little bit, you know?

Oh, this is definitely the, listen, $40 for a single cigar is not cheap. There are a lot of things you can get for $40 that, you know, are a lot more essential. So, if you're going to put that price point out there, especially in New York, when the taxes are going to bring it well, So, over that $40 price point, you got to come with a good product here. Sure.

Man, it's a, I must add, it's a cool looking stick with that triple band. Yeah. Because you got the band at the foot too. Yeah.

It's a nice, very fancy with the gold lettering and everything like that. You can tell it's made, you know, like a number one cigar. Yeah. I don't know if any of you guys saw the box, but like when you did some research on this from your own, but it is a very, very bougie box.

It's got like a button to unlock it, it pops up, uh, similar to like the Atabe style, uh, if you've anyone who's seen those, and they definitely put some work into the presentation of that, so they want this to be in that, uh, Arturo Fuente, Davidoff, uh, level of presentation for it. Sure, sure. Caleb, what are we drinking today, buddy? All right, I'll have Rachel hold up the bottle for her camera, but we got the Breckenridge Whiskey PK Cask Finish.

This is batch number... Is this the PX or PK? Oh, PX. Oh, this is PX.

Yeah. Good job. Good job, Caleb. Batch number seven.

I'm looking right at it, too. I don't know why I said PK. Good job. Fucking dyslexic guy.

You idiot! So this is a 90 proofer. It's made from the Adelusian province of Spain, which is a luscious dessert wine produced By shriveled raisins in the Pedro Jimenez PX grape, it is highly viscocious, syrupy, it's a wine, and it's aged in ancient Solera barrels for decades before release, it's not unreleased how many years it sat in here before it was taken over by Breckenridge to make it to the specific blend, it says a minimum of at least three years before they blended it with the spicy, rich bourbon of Breckenridge. So, it's ripe, it's fruity, you get some fig, orange marmalade, maybe some licorice, a little sweetness to this one, a really fun one for, you know, you guys know, we've had Breckenridge on a couple times.

Definitely one highly sought after by Gio. We kind of cracked into this bottle last week when we all talked, but definitely a callback right here. And this is a great pairing right here, as we talk about pairing with cigars and whiskey. To touch on why we went in specifically, again, this being such an expensive cigar, we went with a more milder tone of proof for whiskey, just so it didn't interfere, because we really wanted to break down if this was going to be worth that price point, and sometimes, I think we discussed this before, the higher-end whiskeys, or higher-proof point.

Higher-proof, yeah, it's going to completely alter taste buds, things like that, and honestly burn part of your taste buds. And I feel like something like this too, like a lot of, I mean, I know Breckenridge, I'm not wildly familiar with a lot of their bourbons and stuff, but this being in a sherry cask, I feel like that's kind of very up and coming. Like, I think everybody knows that Penelope is one of my favorites. They do a lot of that, and I love the wine finished bourbons.

I just think it adds like a little something extra to it. And it takes away from that bite from the bourbon, in my opinion. I can't remember what I was drinking the other day, but I was definitely drinking something that was sherry cast finished and I was like, man, this is super good. I kind of was sleeping on it a little bit.

I slept on the wine finished bourbons a lot and Penelope kind of like opened my eyes to that because I was like, I don't know, like, I'm not a huge wine drinker. So in my eyes, I'm like, why am I gonna, you know, splurge on a bottle that's pricier because you're getting that finish, but it completely changes the way that the bourbon tastes, the mouthfeel, you know, You know, the little line, you know, the... Oh, you can definitely see the legs on it, when you twirl it, that's what it said, that viscosity, you could 100% see it when you swish this thing around in your cup. He said viscosity this time, but I'm pretty sure he absolutely did not say that word correctly while he was reading the description.

So, Kayla, there's too many words. Much improved, buddy, I really appreciate that. There's too many words here, I'm looking at it, and my mind's getting all jumbled, you know? What the fuck were you just doing with your hands?

My brain is like getting all jumbled, you see too many letters, you know? You're like Charlie Day, like his isms are coming out, man. The tism's out, the tism is out. Oh, love that for you.

Special boy right here. Yeah. Well, I think too, because I love a New York sour with wine in it, like a Lambrusco, so I think that's why now I'm like, okay, that's like one of my favorite cocktails, I'm starting to like bourbons that kind of have that characteristic to it of the flavor profile. So we specifically picked this bourbon slash whiskey to go with the cigar so it wouldn't overpower it.

Right. And I just got sick anyway, so now I'm smoking a $45 cigar that my review, just throwing it out there, guys, is probably not going to be that great. But I can tell you, definitely getting some cream notes, and I think that's probably all we're really going to get from me. So really, we're going to be relying on the palettes of Caleb here, who just reads shit, and Gio, who is, He's probably our harshest reviewer on the show, so...

I know, yeah. You have, like, even with, like, whiskeys and stuff, I'm like, damn, I thought that I was, like, judgy and picky when it comes to stuff. Like, you tear things apart, and I'm like, shit, I'd hate to have you, like, review me. Like, be like, nope.

Mm-mm. No, I'm not, like, I just... How do you think Gio would do in a roast, as a roaster? Yeah, no, I would probably cry.

That'd be pretty good. No, I would cry. So maybe we should... Give it to me with both barrels!

Can we just do, like, a Down to Herf roast? I would love that. We should. I think that'd be great.

The roast of Caleb. I don't think my ego can handle it. Every episode. Main character complex over there would be five.

I'll go first. We could roast me first, then, like, we'll do individual episodes. I'll roast the Caleb number one, then we'll do Jerry, Geo, Rachel, we'll do that. May it just be St.

Patrick's Day the whole time. We just play the episode. Just play the episode. I'll leave.

It's just like a repeat episode. We'll be like, yeah, you know. Rachel's highlights. And you'll have to show up by highlights.

We have highlights. This is our Easter Day episode, so happy Jizzy Egg Day to all you guys. Oh, my God. You knew it was coming.

That's a callback to our after hearth with the first time Rachel came on. Oh, my God. I was like, I don't know what I'm getting into. And then I'm like, I was asking my friends about that over lunch the next day.

And they're like, what? And I'm like, you've ever seen one of those? They're like, no. No.

And we're at like a nice restaurant. Whatever. Fine. I am not sparking this conversation again.

Yeah, we don't need to go. This went on way too long. This was like a two hour conversation. Now, what I do want to get into a little bit is...

Oh, I have one more thing about the whiskey. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. I thought I was going to say about the whiskey.

So, the whiskey goes for about $65 to $75, depending on what store you buy it at. And it is also a high rye bourbon that is also aged for a minimum of three years. And it's charred in new American oak barrels. Besides finished in the PXCAS.

And for this being a higher rye, it doesn't drink like it. Yeah. There's no aggressive bite to this one. Don't taste the rye at all.

Where did we get this bottle from? We got it from a listener and fan of the show at Jacuzzi, so thank you, Ed. My man. Yeah, hell yeah.

Cheers, baby. We love you. Go, Ed. But obviously, as Caleb would say, he wants to start getting into the...

Am I supposed to say it? No, we're not saying it. No, no, no, no, no. But we want to get into the main part of the show.

Right in the middle of that sandwich there. So, obviously, we had some questions, and I don't know, maybe for some of our listeners out there, maybe they don't know how they determine these lists, like these top cigars of the year, but obviously, we had Gio do a little research on it, and, you know, he was able to come up with how these companies actually come up with their top cigars, because, I mean, every year, I mean, one year, it could be, like, if you're looking at Half Wheel, right, you got cigars like the Karloff, you got cigars like the Alfonso, two totally different cigars. One is like a completely, it's like a dark-wrappered cigar, really, really strong, and this one's gonna fall on that medium to full-body cigar. Totally different, completely different price points.

How do they come up with these lists, Gio? So, to give you the background, I researched the main two lists that people would associate, or associate with, you know, the top cigars. It's gonna be Half Wheel and Cigar Aficionado. Those are kind of the biggest review companies out there, and if you get that claim that you're high on that list, you know, every cigar shop is going to have that little, you know, shelf tag talking about it to help sell it.

So I'll start with Half Wheels just because I think it's a little bit, I like their process and I like their reviews a little bit better just because I think they incorporate a lot more of the lesser known brands, and I think that's cool. So that's how I'm going to start here and then we'll get into Cigar Fiction. So the way Half Wheel does it is they take their cigars that have to be released either the year prior, so for 2022, they had to be released in 2021 and smoked in 2022, so for example, it came out in December of '21, they smoked it in January of '22, that's how they started first off, they all qualify, the cigars that qualify have to be reviewed with a 91 or better to qualify for the list. They smoked the exact numbers I have here.

Let me a sec. Of course, everything wants to load slow when I'm looking at it, but basically they're looking at only about eight out of every cigar they smoke qualifies, and it's pretty actually intense on that for right here. So here's the exact figures here. There are only 28 eligible cigars for the list.

And 25 make the list. Right. And it's only three people doing it too, right? Three or four?

But they smoked 700 cigars. Crazy. So these dudes are out there just banging cigars all day. Chiefing.

All day. I would love to do that. I'm sure you would. Every cigar that you smoke would qualify.

Yeah, I don't think you've given a cigar under a 91 yet, buddy. Lately, we've been smoking some heaters though. We've been smoking some fire sticks. Like, look at us, we're doing back-to-back, like, number one, number two cigars, high-end, expensive cigars, so, some ratings are well-deserved.

To be fair, the Davidoff has not found a list yet, just throwing it out there. Well, maybe, you heard it here first, on down to her podcast. Hit your list. Well, what's crazy, too, is, like, now these guys also smoke multiples, so they're smoking three of these each, so, and they have three people on their panel.

And so their three people are going to be Brian Burtt, Charlie Minato, I'm sorry, four, Brooks Whittington, and Patrick Lagarde. So those are the people that are in their panel. Then afterward, they don't do any like tournament style thing or they just go by the math of how they rated it and whatever is the highest one wins. They don't break any ties.

They just put it in order. So the math is the math there. Right. So really, it just comes down to that number.

Correct. What I do like is that like, they don't purposely review because somebody advertises more with them or not. Like, there's no limit to how many companies can have their, so like, if United puts out four incredible cigars, and I'm like, well, we have four United's, we can't put them on there. If United put out four 91's, they're gonna be on that list.

So you're at least eligible for that. Correct. So is this almost like soccer style? Like at the end of the season?

Pretty much. Whoever has the most points, that was your number one cigar. Correct. The math is the math.

The math is the math. Okay, so it's like English premier soccer. At the end of the year, whoever has the most points wins. I did some math.

So no like sleeper seed, 16 seed coming in like in the fucking March Madness tournament. Right. They just, they slide in and that's it. That's it.

I did a little math. Okay. So between those four guys that Gio mentioned, that's about 700 cigars divided by four, that's 175 cigars smoked by each of these guys. That is pretty incredible when you come down to think about it.

I gotta just throw it out there. I know for a fact I smoke more than 175 cigars in a year. Oh, no doubt. I smoke one every single day.

No doubt. Yeah, but see, here's the thing. That's their job. That doesn't count for the personal smokes.

Sure. Sure. By any means, I'm not trying to compare myself to these guys. I'm just saying that, like, I could be, you know, like in a discussion, like I smoke a lot of cigars, like we all do, we all smoke a lot of cigars, you know, I just feel like 175 cigars, I hear that, I'm like, to like an average smoker, you know, the occasion smoker, you know, oh yeah, it's an occasion, I'll smoke one, that sounds insane.

Right. To me, I'm like, eh, that number's not really that crazy. Now, Caleb, did you factor in that they smoked three each of those cigars, or was those, uh? That was strictly just 700 divided by four.

I didn't, so it could be, if you multiply that 175 by three, there you go, even more. Rachel, how many cigars have you smoked? In your lifetime. In my lifetime, probably I would say around like 20.

20? 20, yeah. Give or take. You gotta pump those numbers up.

I know. Rookie numbers. Yeah, I'm not even... At PCA last year, I had like eight in one day.

It was pretty impressive. Really? Come down. No, it was awesome.

Come down. That's the kind of life I want to live. So, now I'm going to switch over and go and do cigar aficionados process. Mm-hmm.

So, week after week, they have a tasting panel that goes through a cycle of smoking and rating their cigars, given to them by a tasting coordinator. They come from all over, different sizes, different brands, they're not like a pay-to-play type thing. They're smoked blind, the bands are removed, and there's just a corresponding number tied to like a blank white band. So it's all, you don't know what you're smoking, so you can't.

Really? Yes. I like that. So then, ultimately, a list of like the top scoring cigars is created.

They go through the blind smoking process once again in a sort of March Madness-like tournament to decide their top 25. Huh. So, then they announced their top 25 like in breakdowns there. So, I do have a quick question, how do we always seem, and maybe this is just based on quality of the cigar, I feel like we get the aficionado list every year, and it's always like the same five brands that are always in the top of these lists.

Maybe that's just a coincidence, but how are these same five, like, brands? You know, your Fuente, your Padron, your Cohiba, Cuban style, because, you know, every couple years, Cigar Aficionado puts out a year of the Cuban, right? Like, obviously, the Rocky 60 was the number one American cigar, or, you know, non-Cuban. But, like, how are they coming up with these, like, same five brands?

See, my guess is that there is some form of, here's what you can try, because I don't, I can tell you right now, I don't think Cigar Aficionado is paying for their cigars. I think if you're not sending it to them for free, they're not smoking. Well, they also have like one of the best magazines out there, right? I mean, if you're trying to learn anything about cigars, that's definitely, definitely the magazine you want to be subscribed to.

They do put out a good product. You can learn a lot in the magazine. Absolutely. I mean, it's tough, because, naturally, in order to stay in business, they got to keep their advertisers happy.

Sure. Now, if it's close, I don't know how they do this whole March Madness-style tournament. " So, that's kind of what I was getting at. I don't want to speculate and say, "Hey, you know, there's definitely some...

" But, you know, you see, like, listen, I'm not taking anything away from brands like EP Carrillo, because when you smoke the Carrillo cigars, right, the Encore, the Pledge, we haven't smoked the Allegiance yet, but my bet is going to be, it's going to be a really, really good cigar. Now, obviously, that's in the next couple episodes, we're going to do that cigar, but I would imagine, like, these same brands, like, you get these banger cigars consistently, that's definitely going to happen. It's going to factor into it a little bit, right? Absolutely.

I mean, what I've noticed with Cigar Fictionado, you're not going to see too many of the lesser known brands though. " You know, Tatuaje, not to say Tatuaje, well, they're smaller. I think they did have a couple cigars in the top 25 in the last few years. Yeah, and going off an advertisement in Cigar Fish Channel Magazine, because my dad does get those magazines, you see all those legacy brands always advertised on the front page, the middle, almost every section.

But Tatuaje does break its way into there, too. But these are the same brands, right? P. Carrillo.

These are the brands that are paying and fronting all that money. Rocky Patel. These are the guys that are fighting, you know, they're fighting the government against the war on tobacco. These are the guys that are fronting all that money.

And I know that, obviously, we thank them for their services and they're putting out great products at the same time. But man, hats off to those guys. I get it. These guys are definitely the, they're the bank.

You know, these guys are the bank. Like, these are the guys that are... You're doing all the work out there. You know, the Osgander family and John Huber, they put a lot of effort in.

I mean, there's a lot of brands that definitely go boots to ground for this. You know, you have your major associations with TAA and PCA, and that's why... Well, just look what TAA does with their donations, you know? I have a weird question for you guys.

Has a TAA cigar ever made a top 25, or are they, like, not eligible to make a top 25 list just because they are, like, a TAA limited release or something like that? You know, Caleb? Yeah, I have no idea. That's actually a pretty good question, because I really don't know.

But I can tell you that, you know, just smoking a few of the TAA cigars over the last couple years, dude, like the tats, they don't miss. They're incredible. But I want to tie Rachel into this a little bit, because obviously, you know, more like the bourbon and whiskey side of things. Like, when they go to these, like, major, you know, tastings and stuff, how do they come up with these lists?

Like, how do we know who's the number one whiskey of the year? Obviously, we know last year, what company did the Bonded? I thought it was the Jack. Yeah, well, Jack Bonded.

The Jack Bonded was the 2022 Whiskey of the Year. How do they come up with these lists? Obviously, we know San Francisco is a huge one, Chicago is a big one. A lot of people, honestly, in the nicest way possible, they are pay-to-play.

Sure. I get asked consistently through Lockhouse to enter these competitions, and the entrance into those This is anywhere from $500 to $5,000, just to get your product entered into it. - Just to be on the list, somewhere. - Just to be on the list, and most of them promise everybody a participation award, so to speak.

- 'Cause how many bottles have you seen? - Oh my God. - So many awards on it, you're just like, who is awarding these bottles? - I was talking about this to a few of my friends in the industry recently, and there's only, there's very few That are actually legitimate.

Like the San Francisco people do recognize that one. Fred Minnick is huge in this industry. I don't know if you guys are familiar with him. He actually does his own list.

He is kind of like a holy grail in like the bourbon industry. He did his own. And I would go off of somebody that I trust more so than like a San Francisco that you're paying to enter into that. And I do feel like, you know, granted, I refuse to actually enter lockhouse in of those because in the nicest way like if you guys see you know a cigar or something and it's got 20 awards on it but you don't know any of those and it's like okay cool so you have 20 awards now but what is that saying you know like well because one of those awards could could be from me but that's what i mean like you know what i mean we were joking around the other day and i'm like i could start my own like spirits competition um you know we were it was funny i'm Like, and then, you know, for an extra $5,000, we'll have somebody read this accredited thing and, you know, film it with the bottle.

Like, that's basically what they do, is a lot of these, it's a pay-to-play, you enter, you have somebody try it and they tell you like, "Oh, this is good. This is a gold. " Sure. That's why I like the list from people like Fred Minnick, that actually know what they're doing.

Bourbon Pursuit, they, you know, obviously they get sent a lot of bottles, But they're very upfront about what they think is great and what's not. They're not just saying, like, these are all amazing. They're going through, and like, I know Fred buys his own bottles, and that's why I trust it. Because this man's going out of his way to try all these different whiskeys, bourbons, ryes, and he's saying this one, I believe, I want to look it up now.

I know that Old Fitz placed high on one of them, but I want to see which one Fred, because I get the emails from Fred, and it's always interesting to me. We'll look that up and let me know, but my mind. So, I got an answer for Caleb's question. Okay, go ahead.

The Tatuaje TAA 2015 was number one on Half Wheel's list that year. Really? Awesome. And the 2020 was number nine that year.

Okay, I gotta throw that out there. I was fortunate enough to get a bunch of the TAA 2020s on the Tat. That thing was absolute fire, man. That was such a good cigar.

Cool to know. I actually gave one to Jake. Oh yeah, he liked that one. Yeah, he loved it.

He smoked it down pretty fast, if I recall. Yeah, so I just looked, Tat has had six of their TAAs place, and then obviously their 15 took number one that year. Now, to touch on like what Rachel was saying, so any cigar that is reviewed by Half Wheel, they actually will tell you in the review if they bought it or if it was given to them. Yeah, I like that, though, because honestly, like, not that there's anything wrong with paying to enter your spirit into an award, but, um...

Yeah. So, it's definitely something that you want to be mindful of, because it's acknowledging that there might be some biases if, you know, if Breckenridge, for example, is giving their stuff away, you're going to be more inclined to possibly give it a better rating. So you're not going to be a fan of the game, but you're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game.

You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game.

You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game.

You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game. You're not going to be a fan of the game.

Mike's five was Michter's 20, so you know that these distilleries likely aren't sending him stag. Yeah, they don't need to. They don't need to. Or Michter's 20.

That's the thing, is they don't need to send him. What is that, a $7,000 bottle? $1,200, SRP on that is $1,200. Yeah, yeah, the MSRP on that is $1,200.

A hundred percent, but if you're spending secondary pricing on that, easily, several thousand. Lucky we got to drink that one. So number 23 on his, top 25, was Rabbit Hole, a 16-year finish in French. It's an $895 SRP bottle.

So it's like you know that a lot of these aren't just sending these for the participation of it. Well this guy's probably got a very serious collection. He does. He takes the shit serious.

He does. And you know, I respect him in this industry and I feel like a lot of people do. So seeing a list like that, that I'm like, okay, like I follow him on Twitter, I follow his website, You know, I watch his socials, he actually knows what he's talking about, and he's not just making this list to be like, this is clout for these distilleries. He's doing it for the sense of, okay, these are the best 100 whiskeys bourbons rives that I've tried in 2022, and it wasn't like, I'm doing this competition, anybody send them to me.

Like, he doesn't advertise it like that, and I trust something like that over an award that they're like, hey, we're doing this award saying, do you want to send it to us and pay us to give you a medal? It's like, again, my banner on my Facebook is my spirits with a bunch of awards on them. Could I tell you what half those awards are? No.

So that's kind of touching back to like how this ties into our conversation that we are having about the cigars and how they come up with their lists, right? Right. That's why I kind of feel like I enjoy Half Wheel's list a little more than Cigar Aficionado because I feel like these guys really take the time to try these cigars out. I mean I can't even imagine what their mailbox looks like daily like guys just trying to get their cigars reviewed and I feel like it's got to take a lot of patience and a lot of like time and just to be able to come up with these lists and figure out what's worth smoking what isn't like you know there's a lot of research that goes into it right there's only so much time in a year right and and you think about a cigar right cigars taken about what an hour and a half two hours and and these guys are they're not just smoking They're smoking them just to smoke them.

They're smoking them to get notes. These guys' palates are really refined. Right. These guys are able to taste things that, you know, you and I could just imagine, you know, like, you have a pretty good whiskey palette.

I do, like, when you drink, you are able to come up with a lot of good notes, but I feel like cigar notes. Cigars are very different. It's different. People ask me now, they're like, "Oh, you're getting into cigars.

" Like, I know things I like and things I don't like, but I can't really articulate, like, this is what I like about it, this is what I don't like, you know? Yeah, I feel like the two are really similar in that sense, though. Yeah, and I mean, like, same with, like, whiskeys and stuff, and like I said, like, I really am enjoying, like, the wine finished right now, because I'm like, okay, I'm picking out different things that I wouldn't get in, like, a Breckenridge, you know, high rye, if it wasn't aged in that, or even if it was finished in something different. I feel like I'm getting kind of like that, too, because, like, I went through this phase, it was like, oh, you know, 90 proof, and then it was like, okay, how high can I go?

I really am enjoying high proof whiskeys. Yep. Now we're starting to experiment a little more into, like, these nice finishes, and you're like, okay, I really like this. You know, it's weird.

It's weird how your palate kind of changes. Everybody kept telling me that I get into super high proof bourbons, whiskeys, things like that, and, like, I appreciate them for what they are, but I I don't prefer them, I do like some higher proofs that drink like a lower proof, but I'm just not super into what can I drink that's a really high proof, I want something that has like a unique finish to it, or, you know, like the Penelope, they do a lot of really cool like finishes, blends, things like that, I want something different, I don't want something because it's going to be 120 proof, just because of the proof on it. I was buying whiskeys for that reason for a little while. Yeah, I think that everybody goes through that little phase of like, I want the 120 proof, or I want the high proof, or the barrel proof.

I definitely discovered the finishes probably by accident, I think, and it was because of Breckenridge. When we first started doing this show, the way we would decide is, oh, it's your turn to buy this week, you go into a liquor store and look for something different. Right. Rum finish.

Oh, rum is good with cigars. Yep. And I really like a rum finish, honestly. Sagamore makes one, and it's fantastic.

Well, I think it's that sweetness. I mean, you're almost bringing out... Yeah. 100%.

I mean, we had a guest on the show, obviously just a little callback to Miguel from Crown Heads. He came on the show, and he's like, you know, there's no, there's no, like, explanation, you know, for the fact that these people that are hand-rolling cigars and smoking 10 cigars a day, while they're rolling your cigars, they're drinking rum. Like, you can't. Interesting.

Island vibes. They all love, they love the rum, man. And the dark, spiced rum. So I was gonna say, not like the light rum, the spiced rum?

No, uh, Dominican rum. Okay. You're talking about, like, Diplomatico, 23, Zacapa, all that, yeah. So can I say, I went to New York City two weeks ago, I was in New York for a trade show, and the Zacapa, that rum, we went to employees only, which is kind of like a little speakeasy, and I was looking at this one espresso martini cocktail, and Pat pointed out this one, because I love raspberry.

We had Zacapa, and I'm like, I don't know what the hell that is. But it was that coffee liqueur, honey simple syrup, and a raspberry simple syrup. That was the best cocktail I've ever had in my life. Hands down, the best cocktail I've ever had.

I had three of them. And that's coming from a person that, you know, obviously is the president of a distillery, makes drinks for a living. Yeah. Like, I could not get past it.

And I was like, what is this? So I like looked it up when I got back to the hotel and I'm like, this is rum. Like, I don't drink rum. Dominican rum, yeah.

I don't drink that. And I was like, that didn't taste like rum, though. And it was one of the best cocktails, if not the best cocktail I've ever had in my life. Yeah, it's definitely very, very versatile.

Yes, because I'm like thinking of that with like a coffee liqueur, a raspberry simple, and a honey simple. And that doesn't sound appealing, but together, it was amazing. Yeah, I would say, in regards to that, now on the whiskey side of things, we were touching about some of the bigger companies, and then you brought up, I'm sorry, can you say his name again? Which one?

The gentleman who just gave the reviews, I'm just having a... Oh, Fred Minnick. Oh, Fred Minnick. Okay, so you have Fred Minnick.

Now, what is it? There's the big one in Texas, isn't there? That like also does it? And then in San Francisco, obviously.

Yes. I think there's a huge one in Chicago too. There is a big Chicago one. There's a New York one as well.

But then there's a lot of little like sub ones that literally, I'm not kidding you, like, I get a lot of requests for donations daily and I get a lot of requests for spirits awards daily. It seems like every single day there's like a new one popping up that they want you to enter your spirits in and it's X amount of money and you're guaranteed a participation as I put them, but it's like what am I going to do with you know all these awards and I mean they're cool to look at and it's like clout for the bottles and it looks cool we have them behind the bar but at the same time I'm like okay so I'm paying for this it's not you know it's not guaranteeing that this is a quality product. Sure. You're essentially just saying that I gave you $500 so you gave me a $3 medal in the nicest way possible.

Like that's basically what it is to me. I'm not knocking anybody that enters because a lot of spirits are fantastic. And I've been to like Whiskey Fest in New York City and seen the awards and tried some bourbons that I'm like, holy shit, like these are worth it. But I've seen some that have these awards and I'm like, I don't get it.

So, it's funny, so, like, you talk about the, like, awards and points, so, I just happen to have this bottle of Rabbit Hole, and, 92 points, Whiskey Advocate, I don't know what the fuck that is. Whiskey Advocate is a huge magazine, so that's the one that gave Cigar Officials, or not, or the Jack Bonded, the 2022. Yeah, so they actually, Whiskey Fest in New York City, which if you guys ever get the opportunity, that was the coolest experience to work with Devil's River Whiskey, They put that on. It's at the Metropolitan in New York.

It's a huge whiskey fest. They're actually a huge magazine for a lot of spirits, obviously, specifically, whiskeys, bourbons, ryes. They definitely are known in that industry. But again, it's strictly going to be, okay, you're getting a 92.

But is it breaking down, what does 92 mean? What are they judging at all? That I don't know, because I just looked in and it was like, James Beard Taste America Foundation. Okay, so that's a big one, too, though.

That's a bigger one, but again, like, what does that mean to the everyday consumer? Sure. You know what I mean? Like, if you're Joe Schmo and you're going into a liquor store, you're not really versed in anything, you just want a cool bottle, and you see these awards on it, is it going to make you purchase the bottle because it has 15, like, on the little shelf talk, you know what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about. The Shelf Talker, it's got 15 awards on it. Every bottle's got one, at least. Yeah.

So it's like, what's differentiating, you know, this bottle from this bottle? Are you going to buy it because it has 15 awards on it? Or because of the price point, coloration, the finish? What are you buying it off of?

Or are you just one of those crazy hunters? Right. And you're just buying a bottle because you know it. You want it for the collection.

You want it for, you know. Looks cool on the shelf. It's a trophy on the shelf. Yep.

Which is a shame that that exists, but there's a lot of that out there. I mean, I feel like that definitely works on some people, just because of the fact that, like, you have, with cigars, there's the people who, like we said, hunt for, like, the higher end, they know what they want, they know what they like, they don't need it, but the guy who's just looking to get cigars for a wedding might see, oh, this might be, this looks pretty good, cigar fictionado, they sound reputable, like, they see a 92 on a bottle, okay, I mean, 92 out of 100, that's pretty high, right. So that's actually, that's partially why I started smoking cigars and hunting cigars, because I really, one day, it was like during COVID, I was like, you know what, let me fucking, let me just search, what's the best cigar you can buy right now? What's a top rated cigar?

And it was that Aging Room cigar, the Nicaragua Maestro, or I think it was, the Aging Room? Was it the Quattro? Yeah, the Quattro, yeah. It was the orange banded one.

It's a great cigar. That was the 2019 Cigar of the Year for Cigar Aficionado. One of the first ones I ever had. But that kind of took me down this fucked up rabbit hole where like, now I'm chasing all this crazy shit.

I'm like, all right, well, I want to see if I can get last year's top cigar, which was, I mean, 2018. I think that might have been the EPC Encore. And then we had the 16th in the show. The year before that was the Eye of the Shark by...

Fuente. Fuente, Don Carlos. The year before that... LFD.

Yeah, the LFD. The 15 was the La Bijou 1922, the Torpedo. I mean, the list goes on, and then now you get this accumulation of these cigars, and you're like, alright, I want to see what all the hype's about. And next thing you know, you have four humidors, they're all completely full, and you have 150 cigars on the way, and you have nowhere to put them.

And a podcast. And a podcast. And a podcast. And a fucking podcast, dude.

And we get people who are sending us cigars now, so it just adds to the collection, it adds to what we're gonna smoke. I know, I actually have people sending me cigars, and I'm like, well, I can't bring them on this, but I can't tell you a lot about it. I can try. And you know they're not in a humidor.

No, they just, they mailed them out, so they're not here yet. Oh, okay. So someone mailed them to me. Well, they put them in the mail on Thursday, so they're probably at Lockhouse right now.

Nice. Cool. Don't bring them on, because I know nothing. We're doing great.

We're teaching you though. We're trying. You teach me a lot about whiskey, which I appreciate, and obviously this is just a small little introduction to cigars. You know more right now than I knew when I was new, you know, obviously just having conversations with us about cigars and stuff.

Like, this is how you learn shit. You want to learn stuff, you've got to have conversations like this. You have to have conversations, you have to educate yourself, and you have to be open to trying new things. And a lot of people don't want to do that.

Or, you know, like, they're like, I like flavored whiskeys, and I don't want to get into bourbons, you know, and it's like, okay, but we can do this finished bourbon, that even if you don't like just a straight, and like, that's kind of how I eased into it, because I was not, like, six years ago, I was not a bourbon drinker, I was strictly, like, gin, and now I'm- It's amazing how much our palates and everything can change. They adapt. They completely adapt. And if you...

I've read somewhere, I think it's like seven or eight times, if you eat something or drink something seven or eight times, your taste buds like adapt to it. Now I heard it was every seven years your taste buds change and you might like something you didn't. Yes, but you can also kind of like adapt to things. I've read it, I don't know where I read it, but it was like you can train yourself to like something.

Okay. I believe both. I got a question for you guys here, since we're talking about the fun finishes of bourbon and all that, you being in the industry, you, you know, being at a liquor store, you have kind of both a unique eye, what finish do you think is on the rise and up and up? Because, I mean, I've tried some crazy finishes within the last year, like, Penelope did that rosé cask, which I really enjoyed.

Yeah, that was good, man. That was real good. Yeah. So I feel like people don't really know that we really do dabble in whiskey just as much as we do cigars, so obviously if you're at this point in the episode, I feel like you're starting to learn that we are just as much whiskey fans as we are cigar fans.

Hunters, for sure. Yeah. To get to Gio's question, I'm gonna say a lot of the wine finishes coming up, like every company's coming up with one, but I think Cognac is on their eyes. Cognac is more rare, it's more high-end.

People think of Cognac, you're thinking it's gonna be locked up, you got your Hennessy, your Remy, stuff like that. Stuff like that. So I think a lot of whiskey with the cognac, and the one that first got me into it was that Jefferson Rye with the cognac cast finish, and I thought that was awesome. We did that on an episode, didn't we?

Oh yeah, I loved it. Yeah, we did that on an episode, it was great. That's honestly, I'd say the same thing. I'd say it's a lot of wine though, like even just coming from like Breckenridge, Penelope, a lot of them are doing the various wine, like the Penelope, Valencia, it's a Naraja wine cast, which I'm like, I don't even know what that is.

And I'm like looking into it and I'm like, okay, it's a little bit of like a citric. Educate yourself. I had to educate myself on that one because I was like, I want this bottle, I tried it and I'm like, I don't know what this is. There's some crazy ones, like we tried a Marsala one, which I wasn't a fan of.

But do you think that's because it was in Irish? Obviously, we're not like huge Irish whiskey drinkers here, but like Irish whiskey has a very distinctive taste. It does. It absolutely does.

It absolutely does. So that could be why. Well, I'm going to just say, I don't like Marsala in general. Like, I don't like chicken Marsala.

I love it. Really? Yeah, it's just not for me. Okay.

But, so, like, then it, like, amplified that flavoring, and I didn't know what it was until, like, I was like, oh, no wonder I don't like this. So, just, I kind of wanted to touch on the question you asked them, Gio, because I feel like I have a pretty good, you know, way of looking at it. If you look at all the experimental stuff that these distilleries are putting out now, you're noticing a lot of sherry cast, you're noticing a lot of port cast, you're noticing a lot of wine stuff like you guys are talking about, you know, and I feel like these experimental expressions these places are coming out with, you know, these things are a hit, man. If you look even locally, like Hartman's, they did that experimental, the wine barrel.

And the Stout. It was delicious. And Buffalo Distilling is doing stuff like that as well. Last time I went there, Frank showed me a few things that they have that are like under wraps, which they're going to be coming out with, which are really fucking cool.

Is it a one-foot cock product? It is. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

But they even like, they came out with their Irish whiskey. Like, everybody's just trying to do something different. Like, I could say personally with... No, that really...

You guys are laughing, right? That really is the name of their, that's the name of their bourbon. I know, but it's one foot cock. You were probably expecting a joke from me.

No, no, no, no, grower gang. I asked them, cause I was like, what's up with like, the fucking name, like, what's going on? And he's like, it was like a family thing, and they actually used to have a barn with a chicken. God damn, no wonder, that's nice, I love it.

Family's got a fucking footlong. I'm calling the cocks. That's the original $5 foot long. It's like a family thing.

It's like a family curse. They all had one-foot cocks. No, Frank told me that they used to make, like, kind of moonshining, but not really, out of this barn, and there was a huge rooster on it with one leg, and they called it, like, one-foot cock, 'cause I'm like, that makes more sense. And if you look outside, there's in on the bottle, there's a rooster.

And if you look at it as one leg, so I'm like, I get it, but also like kind of funny and punny. But I mean, going back to it, like even with lock house, like we're playing around with experimental stuff, too. I just think it's kind of on the up and up. And if you can differentiate yourself and release something that not necessarily someone hasn't done before, but it's newer to this area, people want it because it's a limited any, as we all know, anything allocated, anything you can't get your hands on.

People want it because they can't have it. Everybody wants what they can't have or what they can post on social media for clout and be like, look what I got, because I mean, really, that's what 90% of the hunters do. So truthfully, if you look at my personal page, you'll never find anything about, like, the collection of whiskey I have. Hey, look at my personal page, I don't have anything on my personal page.

You won't see any of that stuff. Obviously, the stuff that we share on our social media page, some of that's in there, but we don't really, like, I don't think we fucking post shit's a brag. No. You know, we drink all the shit that we drink.

We drink everything. Almost every bottle, aside from maybe 10 total, have been cracked, and there's like over 100 bottles. And what hasn't been cracked yet will be at some point, and just one more shameless plug. Guys, we also did our Clown of Kilty single barrel pick in a port finish as well.

Yeah. Eight bottles left, only at Key Liquors. Go get yours now. Eight and they're gone forever.

Shameless plug. You hear that Cigar Hustler universe? Yeah. Make sure you guys are fucking getting those bottles.

They're getting one, so one's going to them. Cool. Yeah. I love that.

Worked it out with Mike. I love that. All right. So here's going to be what I'm going to just take a guess here and just what I'm seeing as patterns.

I'm going to say then right now it's going wine. The next thing it's going to be like these beer type barrel finishes that's going to be popular. You see that these are starting to get a little more popular too. If you look at like Bardstown, they're starting to do collaborations with breweries.

The breweries, so they're starting to do stuff like that. Weeks till they're gonna find a way to do like an IPA finish, something like that. Oh, they do, they do. The Founders, that's what Founders is, they do a lot of IPAs.

Lockhouse did a single hop spirit and it was not, I mean you guys had a bottle of it left for two years, like Lockhouse did a spirit that was literally called single hop spirit before my time, but they would work with different breweries in the area and use their hops to make like a spirit out of it. I will say I don't like IPAs. I know that Jerry does because he dumped his IPA into my blue moon on St. Patrick's Day.

Hold on. First of all, I don't remember that. I don't remember that. Okay, well, it happens because I think about it a lot.

Well, here's the thing. I have this motto I live by. If you don't remember it, it didn't happen. Well, I'm going to remind you.

It happened. Well, apparently I did that. You poured an IPA into a Belgian. Oh, man.

First of all, we were working, okay? That was work. Yeah, that was work. working so working yes so aka uh team morale building and drinking is important cheers you can't drink together you can't work together i do still have a bottle of the single hop spirit really it's not opened hey fucking try it you could like honestly i i've tried it i tried it one time ever it's very interesting but i don't know how i would feel then about aging I think a sour would be the way to go.

Dude, I think sours are some of the absolute beers. Like, they're the worst beers. I liked them when I was younger. Now that I'm in my 30s, my stomach does not agree with sours.

So you bring up the, I immediately, I think sour, I think heartburn. Yeah, that's what I mean. Or some sort of summertime drink. And if you're going to mix it into a whiskey, it's got to be some sort of lighter summer spirit.

You have to do a summer spirit. I don't know if it'll work. Like a Shandy or something. See, I'm a big Shandy person.

Yeah, a Shandy would be something. Like in the summer, nice Lion and Kugel. Oh, hell yeah. Or a Sam Adams Summer Ale.

Oh, yeah. Give me all the Mexican beer. That's my summer beer. Cerveza.

Speaking locally, a nice Dayburner by Big Ditch. God damn it. It's a free plug to one of my favorite breweries. Yeah, I know.

Hey, they've been on the show. You literally poured it in my beer. I don't care. That was a hay burner.

I don't care what it was. You did it. Did you drink it? Yeah.

Did you black out? No. Maybe. I don't think so.

I don't think so. Do you remember filming the show that day? Kind of. To be fair, I found pictures of us taking selfies at Molly Maguire's and I'm like, ooh, okay.

Funny pictures though. Funny pictures. It's like the hangover the next day you wake up and you're like, oh my god. friend responded to like my story i was like ha ha ha and i'm like what is she responding to and i'm like oh no that's no absolutely not that's gotta go um but yeah like i think that if you were to do it in a finish but then you would have to put the beer how would you finish it like that though you'd have to put a beer in the barrel and age the beer so i feel like you could do a dual collaboration then because actually when i was with iron smoke we did something like that we did it with ellicottville brewing as well as um what's the other one in rochester they're on railroad street by black button i'm like blanking on the name but i have the bottle at my house they like aged the bourbon in the barrel aged the beer and then put the bourbon back in the barrel that had been aged with the beer it was really interesting i mean i know you could do they did that with the stout finish with klonic guilty yeah i don't know well i mean i think it It would depend on the beer.

Right, you gotta play with it. Right, you'd have to definitely play with it. The only reason I said a sour is because I think that that flavor profile would lend itself in the sweetness to the bourbon. Right, I mean, yeah.

Hey, if somebody wants to collab with Lockhouse, they could age their bourbon in a Lockhouse gin barrel. Obviously, we're also a cigar show, so let me just touch on something real quick. I do have a question to get back to cigars. What do you guys think of this, man?

What are you guys thinking of this Alfonso, man? Dude, it's a... Dude, the burn on this is like... It's constructed beautifully.

This is a work of art. Yeah, oh, 100%. This is a work of art. From the stack of dimes you get to the appearance that you get with the triple band, it's beautiful.

I wish I could taste it. A little more, a little more. You're not getting much at all? No, it just, I know it's smooth, so I'm gonna guess there's a lot of, there's creaminess to it.

Why don't you try a retrohale? Yeah, like through the- I can't even breathe. I'm getting a little sweetness, and I definitely got that on the cold draw. I don't know if you guys got that, Gio or Jerry, but I got a little sweetness just on the cold draw.

Not like a super sweet, but just like I'm thinking like a light coffee first thing in the morning coming right at you. I feel like you're just fucking with me right now. You're like, I don't know if you got that. I'm like, dude, I can't taste anything right now.

Well, maybe Gio can help with that answer. I mean, Gio, taste for both of us since you got me sick. It's sick. I would say this is definitely on the lighter side for me.

Oh, for sure. I don't consider this medium to full. No, no, no. I don't know why this says that, and maybe, I guess, for the average person, this might be medium, but I don't know.

This, to me, like, I like to call it a breakfast smoke. Like, you wake up, you know, if you're smoking this on the coffee on the beat with a coffee on, like, a beachfront patio, yeah, you're living. I don't know if you're waking up smoking $45 cigars, but if that's in your budget, this is definitely the way to go. Listen, if you've got a beachfront patio, it's in your budget.

Hell yeah. Do you know what I got to say about this cigar, and maybe I'm a little crazy, yes, I'm having a little issue right now tasting the cigar, but I'm noticing I'm not having the lingering smoke taste on my tongue. Like, I feel like this is not gonna kill your palate, and obviously I know that's gonna have to do with like the medium cigar, but you notice it's not really lingering? No, I mean, so mine took a minute to open up, I was like having a little tight draw at first, so, but once that happened, it was like, no issues whatsoever, man, this thing, I'm really appreciating the work, you know.

Oliver and all those guys are doing over at United lately. Between the Red Anchor and this, these are very, very, very fantastic products. You know what? It's really funny that you said that about a tight draw at the beginning.

I, too, also had that issue. It fixed itself after a couple lights, but I did V-Cut as usual. I kind of wish I went straight with this one. That would be my only complaint, and that's a personal error.

Yeah, that's okay. It's not the first time you wished you were straight. Awwww. Come on, man.

Great, great, great. Gonna hit me with that. Is this going back to the AIDS thing, or? You know what?

It's a callback now. You know what? If you don't get tested for AIDS, you don't have AIDS. That's what I always say.

Why do you have a lot of sayings about AIDS, though? Magic Caleb Susick. I got a lot of isms to go with my tism. It just works.

And that's another saying, too, right there. Alright. Yeah, yeah. Put that on a t-shirt.

Caleb's pro tip. Why do I feel like that no one would buy that shirt? buy that shirt tisms no one's buying that t-shirt it's only for like a select uh market of people with schizophrenia maybe like myself that's about it bring back bullying i said that last episode and i told you guys i fought my bullies by making fun of them and it worked so that's a little pro tip pro tip number nine for you guys out there in the universe i did have a question though about the uh getting back to the top 25 rating um how do you think they pick like vitolas like and based I think it's based on what gets sent to them. Like, how do they know that, you know, you gotta smoke a Toro or a Robusto or a Gordo?

Like, how do they know which is which and how do they know that that makes the list? Like, that's crazy to me. Like, they got so, like, this one has six different Vitolas. So, like, how do you choose the right one?

That's a fair question. I don't have the answer. So, yeah, maybe like, it's whatever one they're like, yeah, we're gonna smoke three of this one. Okay.

Yeah, you think that's what happens? I wonder if the, you know, the reviewer has a personal preference. Like, there's gotta be some choice here. Some only come in one Vitola, so that's pretty easy.

Something like this, which is going to be a Coraline but yearly release, I would imagine there's probably, like, some form of just method to their madness. Like, I personally don't like fatter cigars. Like, I wouldn't want a Gordo of this at all. Yeah, I think it would kill the enjoyment.

Yeah. Like. I could see that. I mean, ideally, like, that 4x52 is probably my alley.

Yeah. Like, but, I mean. This is a nice Toro, man. I mean, this is a nice, enjoyable, long smoke.

We could make it last, hang out, really enjoy it. Slow down time. Unless you're Caleb. You know, we always talk about that.

Caleb already smoked two. Yeah. I'm taking my time. I'm slowing down with this.

He smoked two already. I'm like studying the band right now. Rachel's been done with hers for, you know, an hour. Caleb's like, half wheel smokes three?

I gotta chief this motherfucker. One pull. You know what? That's funny, dude.

I'm glad that you and I are just right on stage. It seems like it was a triple band, but it's actually just one. Just one? Just two bands?

Yeah, I thought this was separate, but it came off all day. Oh, so it's like the push-up raw of bands? I guess so. Oh, look at that, man.

A little tease right there for you. Tease me. Wow. All right.

Caleb, don't say that. We do have a, obviously, we do have a Patrol Gone Wild segment we got to get into here. Caleb, don't say that. You know, don't make it easy, tease me, you know?

Isn't that a rap song? I'm calling the cops. Oh my God, what is wrong with you, dude? You know, I'm just...

Sometimes people got to bring the fun. Let's just get the Patrol Gone Wild. We're going to start with Caleb's because Caleb always starts, so... I've seen this was literally on my favorite podcast.

All right. And I died. Your favorite podcast besides Donna Herff podcast. Well, my favorite true crime podcast.

First of all, I don't like that you came in here with that attitude. Okay, you know what? Your favorite podcast. Okay, have you guys talked about JonBenet?

No, we're waiting for you. Have a seat. We're waiting for you for that. Jerry, don't.

Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. I'll give a fuck what you think, Jerry.

Yeah, I don't. I know, I know. Don't. You guys just treat me like garbage on my own show.

Because you won't even watch John Donne. About time. We'll get to that. Now that you're back.

We missed ya. We'll get to that. All right. Here we go.

We're getting into it, Caleb. All right. So gone wild. We're doing it big.

Bang, bang. Here's our first clip. Did you hit her with a can of corn? A can of corn?

I don't know if Timmy is here. Is that Timmy? Are you Timmy? Yo, Timmy looks scary.

-So she did hit it, hit her with a can of corn. -Suss, yeah. -So where'd you put the can of corn? -It's gone, it's out in the woods somewhere.

-I'm gonna go find this can of corn. There it is, right there. Here's the evidence. -She hit me right there.

I saw stars. And then I looked on the floor, there was corn everywhere. I bought the damn can she hit me with. She hit me dead in the mouth, and I had my glasses on, which if I was expecting a fight, I would have took my glasses off.

She called me a piece of s**t, liar. And it was on. It was on. What's that mean?

It was on. You hit her with a can of corn? It was on. So, okay.

Gio. Assault with a deadly vegetable. Yeah, right? Seriously.

I mean, yo. But I feel like if corn can take you down, like, you deserve it. She had a black eye. Yeah, like, I feel like Timmy hit her in the face, and she's just saying it was the corn.

Tell me that Tim wasn't sus. He was. I brought Tim up almost immediately. He's sus.

Tim is just, like, standing in the woods like this. I think he was taking a pee. I think it was Timmy. I don't know.

Tim looks like... A little sus. Yeah, he's a little... Smoking meth.

Oh, he was definitely smoking meth 100%. Oh, for sure. He's definitely under some kind of... Yeah, the corn, man.

Drug. Like... You gotta watch out for that corn, though. It's corn.

It's corn. It's corn. Was it cream of corn or regular corn? I think it was just like regular corn.

Found the evidence real quick in the woods. Like, that guy took two seconds. Alright, first of all... But why didn't he use gloves to pick it up?

Do you guys just pick things up without gloves? Because that seems sus, too. I don't think that this is like a real case. That's not the real case.

That might not. I just will also point out, they don't pay for us to have gloves. You don't bring your own? 'Cause I would bring my own.

Do you know how much gloves cost? I do, because I have to buy them from work. You're making a sound bad, Gio. Nah.

First of all. I'm throwing it out there, buddy. Yes. We roll up to this scene, okay?

Hang on. Wait, hold, please. You're smoking a $45 cigar and you're complaining about how much gloves cost? Stop.

She did just kind of put you on blast there, buddy. Listen, there's really no coming back from that one. I know a lot of guys that search people bare hands. Well, okay.

Love that. We roll up to the scene, dude, the corn lady, Tim's in the background, he's staring you down. Like, what's going through your head here, Gio? And that's why I wanted to get you guys' perspective on this, because what are you doing?

I mean, the evidence is there, man. It's Timmy. Timmy's getting a pat down, for sure. I feel like Timmy...

Tim, get over here real quick, buddy. What did you have to do with this? Tim, you had something to do with this. Well, because why would you pull him into it if he didn't do anything?

There's your crack pipe. Yep, yep, yep. Okay, all right, Tim, I don't care about this. Go back to your corner.

Yep, there's the whole meth lab. Go back to your crack hole. There's the whole meth lab beneath your trailer. All right, I just don't know how serious I would take this.

Obviously, there was an injury here, so I mean. I mean, here's the thing. She's probably going to jail. You could definitely do some damage with a full can of vegetables.

Are you fucking kidding me, bro? It was peeled. All right. You've seen me throw like a snowball.

Imagine me throwing a can of corn and hitting somebody in the back of the head. That is a dangerous weapon. I just assault with a deadly weapon. Corn.

Well, and the top of that lid was peeled. That's sharp, so I could cut someone. Why did she just randomly have a can of corn, like, available? I don't know.

Maybe it was dinner time. I don't know. It was light out. I feel like we both had different reasons, and both of those are legitimate reasons.

So, like, I mean... To have corn? Well, she said she just bought it. Maybe she was putting away groceries.

Listen, we all can't afford to eat out every meal, okay? You know, hey. I'm not over here smoking $45 cigars, guys. No, you smoked yours an hour ago.

Hey, when you're in a fight, just, you grab the closest thing and it becomes a deadly weapon. And it was corn. That is true. And it was a can of corn.

Okay. There you go. I love that breakdown. So, obviously, it being the spirit of Easter, I did have a great clip for you guys.

Okay. I just wanted to bring this up. It's an oldie, but a goodie. This is a couple years old, But I feel like we would appreciate it being it, it's Easter.

So here we go. It has gone viral since Easter Bunny taking to the streets and getting into a fight. When you look at this video, you're like, yep, that has to be in Florida, yeah. Bro, the Easter Bunny is just wailing on this dude on the street.

Here comes the bike police, thank God. Oh, God. I don't know. Why is his shirt off?

It's crazy. It's Florida. We've got a fight between two people, and then for some reason the Easter Bunny wanted to hop in and get in on the action. Peter Cotttail, Peter, catch these hands.

I like it. He's doing boxing jabs. I love this. I mean, happy Easter, guys.

You can't condone fighting, but when it's in an Easter... Okay, so what I gather is I can fight somebody in a costume. And no one's going to stop me. I mean...

So, there was actually more to this story. So, the guy in the Easter Bunny costume actually turned out to have, like, several warrants for stealing cars, and he may have been linked to, like, some gang violence in Florida. Okay. So, is that why he was in a costume?

That could be, or it could have been Easter. Because I feel like, you know... " If it's Easter, they're just going to be like, "Oh, go on your way. " So, this is Florida.

I mean, is anything really not normal in Florida? No, no. So, if it was December 24th, we're talking Christmas Eve here, okay, and you saw an Easter Bunny hopping down the street, you probably wouldn't think twice because you're in Florida. No, no.

It's just normal behavior. Yeah. I mean, what I found entertaining here, though, is just the warrants and, like, I think one of the things we looked at when he said he was like, He wanted for like armed robbery. Yeah, like he's, it's a violent felon just running around in an Easter Bunny costume.

Kids took a picture with this guy. Yeah, like 100 percent, 100 percent. He's like one of those creeps in New York City, Times Square. Yeah, or I always bring up the people in Vegas, like the people dressed up in the costumes that your kids are taking kids with, they're definitely like registered sex offenders.

I always say that, like even when you go to like Disney, I feel like all those people are pedophiles. They're something, for sure. Why do you want to dress up in a costume and touch little kids? I think that's weird.

I think it's weird. But I don't like it. That is so fucking accurate in terms of that. Like, it's happened before, you know, like a fucking car accident and both people have suspended license and felony warrants and you're like, God damn it, I just wanted to do an accident report.

This was a fucking fender bender. Now everyone's going to jail. Everyone has substantial criminal backgrounds. Oh, God.

I love that. Sir, why did you not show up for your gun case? Yeah, right. Like, sir, you were supposed to be in jail like a year ago.

And now you called us for a fender bender. How dumb are you? I love the clip. It's Easter.

It's fitting. We got a bunny hopping in on a fight. Love it. How many puns can you make off of that?

You know, a lot. Can we get one? Bugs Mayweather, Bugs Mayweather, I like that, I was thinking about that one. I'm trying to reach for you, Gio, I don't know, man.

I mean, there's just... I got a... That was some dead air silence. Jackrabbit, Dempsey.

Dead... I got nothing, man. It's tough. For those watching the show, get ready for this.

Bruh. Sorry. Gio with a bra. Look at the smile on Caleb's face.

I got eight. I got eight so far in season two. I thought you were gonna say I got AIDS. I'm like, okay.

No, it wouldn't surprise me. He's been talking about AIDS for the last two hours. Guys, this is actually the real topic. Caleb also is coming out saying he has AIDS.

Look, we are not against the AIDS community, but Caleb clearly has something. Something about AIDS is on his mind. I'm just the only one not sick here, so that's on you guys to decide. All right, you can also make a donation to Project Red in Caleb's name.

Yeah. Yeah, RIP. I'll be gone soon, guys. Won't make it much longer on the show.

Cool. And in life. Love to see it. All right.

I wish I would have got the polo notice, too, by the way. I don't have a polo on. I probably would have wore a nice Easter shirt. Yeah.

Periwinkle blue, man. Easter. Periwinkle blue? No, that periwinkle is purple.

Oh, I thought periwinkle was blue. No. That's like sky blue. There you go, Caleb, for you.

Bruh! All right, there's nine. Bra count to nine. Oh my god.

Anyways, look, we got our last thing we got to get to for the show. Obviously, things are starting to wrap up a little bit. We got to get to the cigar review. Caleb, did you happen to get any of your cigar review?

Yeah, the only thing, well, I'll just quickly do my construction because this is easy to do. And enjoyment, yeah. Take your time, I got to do mine real quick. All right, well, and let's just play a lead-in to like what we're smoking as well.

Being that this was Half Wheel's number one cigar of 2022, the main question here, Is this worth the price of a $40, $45 cigar, we'll get to that after the review so I just want to make that known. Some notes I have on this, very cool with the double band, the appearance on this was awesome, very sharp looking cigar with the gold and everything like that. Like I said I had a cold like sweet, you know, a sweet cold draw to it and I thought it was a very smoky stick, nice easy smoke, more on the medium side, not too full bodied at all. So let me just pull up my calculator because doing simple math is kind of hard for me.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. 5 with the band and all, thought it was great. Uh, burn, I, you know, I had a little trouble, like I said, in the beginning.

Um, trouble getting lit. I, it did fix itself pretty fast, so I'm giving it a nine. Um, construction, nine and a half. This thing was pretty much near perfect.

It was pretty awesome. Um, the draw, here's where I'm gonna go with an eight. I wish I did a straight cut rather than a V cut. I don't know about it rather than a V-cut, but that is my fault.

And overall enjoyment, smoking something that was, you know, a number one, it's pretty cool. Doing it with you guys on Easter is another bonus factor. I gave it a 45, so this is going to be a 90 for me, guys. So we didn't even really plan, like, obviously we didn't plan things for Easter.

Like, we were actually going to do this episode yesterday. I just don't think it worked out for us. But, dude, I'm kind of like right in the same ballpark as you, Caleb. As usual, which is kind of weird lately, I've been kind of agreeing with Caleb, I don't like to do that very much.

We've been really close lately. He's been out of his fucking mind lately, I think you're starting to lose it, but... No, we've been smoking some bangers, so when you smoke some bangers, they're worth the high rating, in my opinion. So, I'll get into my review.

Obviously, I have a little bit of a cold this week, so my tasting notes aren't really going to be there, but from my experience, this is what I can kind of tell you about the cigar. The appearance, I gave it a 9. Two bands, looks really, really cool. Obviously, I wish we had the box.

It comes in one of those cool boxes that Atabe, Byron, the Alfonso line, United puts out some really nice boxes. I think that they're really intriguing, and if you do have the opportunity to find a retailer near you or a brick and mortar that carries this stuff, check them out because they're really, really cool. I think that they're a box that's, they're more luxurious, you know what I mean? Yeah.

For sure. It's definitely one of the more unique designs. It's like a push-button unlock, and it pops out. It's like a nice...

I think they can be doubled as humidors as well. That I don't know. I'm sure... Don't quote me on that, but I think that they can.

5. I have no burn issues. This thing is almost as perfect as you can be without being a 10. The construction, I feel like I could throw this thing on the floor.

It would be fine. No issues taking the band off of it, because sometimes, obviously, that can affect the construction of the cigar. 5 and that's without tasting notes that's just based on how i feel the cigar would be i had no issues especially like the little i can taste just like a little cream uh Maybe like a light coffee, but this thing, Gio touched on this earlier in the show, this would be a great breakfast cigar, I don't know a lot of people that are starting their days off with $50 cigars, but hey, if that's in your budget, fucking go after it, man. 5 overall, bringing my score to a 91.

Very, very good cigar. I would definitely, definitely smoke this again, and actually, I'm looking forward to actually trying it, with or without you guys. Obviously, I know this hurts a lot of wallets. I'm not trying to make anyone go broke here, so I'll just smoke this in my own fucking time.

Gio, how'd you do over there, buddy? I'm just totaling my last number at the moment here. Rachel, what'd you give it? 5.

What the fuck? High rating alert. High rating alert. Not bad.

Not bad. 5 overall. Yeah, she smoked this thing in three puffs. Three puffs.

Mm-hmm. Yep. Legend. How was the aroma?

10 out of 10. Wow. 5. There's a lot of unique things about this, and they stand out to me.

For whatever reason, I feel like the last few cigars we've smoked have had really high appearance grades for me. Just might be a coincidence there, but the box, we talked about that. It is one of the more luxurious designs, if you will. Elegant.

Yes, there we go. 5. Add into the fact that we didn't talk about this at all, these are packaged in a different kind of cellophane. Like, it's like a sleeve that isn't fully enclosed, so they slide right out.

Like a cigar condom? Yes. Is that what you're about to go for? 100%.

It's definitely a condom solo. I'm not wrong. Don't forget your Jimmy hat! I'm scared.

Oh, man. 5 on the burn, because it didn't matter how you smoked this, how long you talked, once this thing was going, it stays lit. I think I touched it up once, and that's because I was talking too much at one point, and so that's my curve for that. So this is definitely getting some high scores on that, deservedly so.

5. I don't think I have a single ash that fell on me. Damn, man. Is Geo breaking into the 90s?

I think so. Holy shit. We're getting close. We're getting real close.

So this is where this cigar actually bothered me. Oh, no. 5. Oh, man.

I didn't like that how long it took this draw to loosen up when we first started smoking it. I agree. Usually, I try to ask around to see if anyone else had the issues. I found it very weird that Caleb had a draw issue because he almost never does.

How'd you cut yours? I did V-cut. Okay, I'm throwing it out there. We went wrong.

You cut the cigar wrong, man. I don't know why you guys are just getting away from the basics, man. Like, my draw, I gave it a nine. You're talking about almost a two, a point and a half, two point difference, just because you fucking decided to V-cut your fucking $45 cigar.

Get back to the basics, man. Hey, listen. I know it's preference. I'm not gonna shit on your review, but.

Which is weird, 'cause that's not really Geo's, that's not really Geo's preference, though, either, so. No, I know, so I don't know why you're experimenting on cigars like this. I mean, hey, I'm just telling you what I experienced. Sure, I get you.

And I know I'm not going to be the only person. We're not always going to agree on this, but I'm going to tell you. I know I'm not the only person that's going to V-cut one of these cigars, too. Sure.

Like. Either am I. But you don't usually V-cut. You have been a little bit, but why experiment on this?

Why not experiment on that $15 cigar? Today I just did it. I think a little bit of Caleb is going on Gio. That's what I think.

We've been hanging out too much, and Gio's like, he's growing to like the V a little bit more. What do you mean by that? Well, I mean, I certainly hope I like the V. I don't want AIDS like you.

Just kidding. All right, let's get out. Finish your review. All right, anywho, enjoyment.

I gave it a nine. Really actually enjoyed the flavors. It's a very mellow cigar, paired well with the whiskey that we had with it. I like being able to smoke something that was very highly sought after, you know, getting into the research to the craftsmanship of it knowing that it's five years aged tobacco this is also an invade in that aged in barrels to pick up specific flavors and it also tied into the other stuff we talked in the episode so it brought even more factor to the general enjoyment here because when you smoke a cigar your experience is also associated with it like you smoke a cigar it doesn't matter how good it is when you're sitting down you know if you can't If you don't even enjoy it, you're not going to.

Period. If that makes sense. I know I just used the same word twice in a sentence, but I think you got what I meant. Sure.

Yeah. So that brought my total score to a 44, bringing me to an 88. And he didn't make it into the 90s, because he didn't V-cut it. Because he didn't straight cut it.

Well, even if I would have gave it... 5 or a 9. So, that could be a three-point swing. I feel like Geo has this, like, persona now that he has to, like, maintain, where he has to be, like, this harsh raider, and he just refuses to give anything in the 90s.

That's not true. I think that he's getting to the point now where, like, he's doing it on purpose. He purposely V-cut this cigar. Yeah, no.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. He couldn't give a 90. You know what? I'm totally kidding.

I've given 90s, though. I'm totally kidding, because like I said in my review, I should have straight cut this. That was totally on me. Caleb, what did I rate the Year of the Rabbit the last?

I know I gave that a higher review, and I'm pretty sure whatever we smoked before that. You gave it an 88. Yeah, 88. Oh.

Yeah, you're not touching the 90s. No, there was a cigar we recently smoked that I gave in the 90s. I'll find it, but guys, overall question for the episode, would you smoke slash buy this again, single, five pack, or a whole box? I am not dropping the G on no box.

I've been there, done that. Can't do it. $1,000 for a box of 25, I think, that comes in a box, but can't do it. That being said, I would maybe buy five of these.

If the price was right, I would probably, I think they're price protected, Atabe, Byron, Alfonso, I think United with their, you know, their more premium cigars, they're price protected, so it'd be tough to find a deal on them, but that being said, I would definitely smoke one again. In fact, I mentioned that in my review, I'd love to smoke this one, I can actually enjoy it a little more than I was able to today. I would say this is definitely a three or five pack worthy cigar. Like, you can definitely buy multiple, save it for a good occasion, though.

This isn't an everyday smoke by any means. Sure. Like, it's meant to be a treat. What do you think, Caleb?

I'm cheap, so I'm gonna go with like a one to three pack for me. So that's just me being honest. No offense to, you know, the cigar and, you know, United as a company, but yeah, I'm a cheapy, so. That being said, on the main show of the Down Hearth Podcast, Caleb, any closing notes?

guys let us know if you have any other questions on what makes a number one cigar put those on the comments on the youtube page or when you listen to the audio which can exclusively be found under the cigar hustlers podcast network so just pointing that out there you know leave us some comments leave us some likes up put it on the instagram put on the facebook put it on the youtube just let us know what you think and you know what goes into the number one what do you guys think we want to know other than that just guys make sure you're following the youtube the The Instagram, the Facebook, the TikTok, everything, look for us again on Cigar Hustlers Podcast, you can find that on Spotify, iTunes, everywhere, man. That's all I got to say. The number one cigar podcast on Podbean. Lucky to have us, and we're lucky to be on their network.

100 percent. 100 percent. Rachel, any closing notes? It's always great to have you.

Obviously, we're going to do a little after her, if after this, I think this is going to be a little more your speed. Yeah, I'm like, yeah. Make sure you give your plugs, too, because this is a whole new audience talking about everything. This is a whole new audience, homegirl.

Yeah, so if you guys want to follow my distillery, it is at LockHouse Dist, we're the only female ran and distilled distillery in, I'm pretty sure in New York State at this point, I'm searching. My personal page would be Buffalo Bourbon Babe. Closing notes would be, don't be like Caleb and get AIDS. And then boast about it.

Don't get too close to your friends and all get sick. And if you have to quarantine, at least this is a fun place to do it. Hey, I love that. I love that.

That being said, guys, make sure you're just following the YouTube. Make sure you guys are checking us out on Cigar Hustler Podcast Network. When you keep saying Hustler, I keep thinking like the magazine. I'm like...

I wish. I know, I was like, is that what we're doing? I wish. Is that the one that Larry Flint is Hustler, right?

Yep. Nice. His lawyer is from Buffalo. Hey, dreams can come true.

Nice. But that being said, guys, we'll see you guys next Wednesday, obviously, and enjoy your week. We invite you to write the show's host, Jerry Lewandowski, with any feedback or suggestions you have for their show. These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hopes that they will be entertaining to hear from you, to hear from you, to hear from you.

We invite you to write the show's host, Jerry Lewandowski, with any feedback or suggestions you have for their show. These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hopes that they will be entertaining to hear from you. And they have been presented and made public as entertainment in the hopes that they will be entertaining to the audience.

Show Notes

The Guys Smoke Halfwheel’s 2022 cigar of the year the Alfonso Extra Anejo #3. Lets dive into the selection process on how a cigar earns a top spot on these lists! Rachel (@BuffaloBourbonBabe) joins the herf and gives a unique perspective on how whiskey lists are selected from the eyes of an industry insider.

Cigar: Alfonso Extra Anejo #3

Whiskey: Breckenridge PX Cask Finish

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