Cigar Hustlers Podcast 218 Jas Sum Kral Cigars Exclusive

Episode Summary

Episode 218 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast centers on an exclusive phone interview with Riste Ristevski of Jas Sum Kral Cigars, who called in to respond to a Half Wheel article by Charlie Minato that named him in a discussion about cigar packaging and "marketing to children." Ristevski walks through how his new infused release, The Munchies — a Rocky Road ice cream–flavored premium cigar — came together, how he tested it with full-bodied, non-flavored-cigar smokers before launch, and why he considers his approach different from the "chemicalized" flavored cigars made overseas. He also confirms the line is only sold through brick-and-mortar retailers and an age-verified website, never convenience stores or gas stations.

The bulk of the conversation is an industry debate about FDA overreach and whether the premium cigar business can realistically self-regulate. Ristevski and the hosts argue that nobody can define where the "kid marketing" line actually sits, pointing to chocolate and dessert descriptors used in nearly every cigar review, plus existing releases like Aladino's candy-bar-style packaging, Trail Mix, and the old Bradley Bar. They question who would ever be trusted to police the industry, note that flavored spirits like peanut butter whiskey and vanilla vodka face no equivalent scrutiny, and argue the trade should go on offense with the FDA rather than operating out of fear. Ristevski says he won't apologize, describes the coverage as a net marketing positive, and reveals a slate of upcoming flavors including Crunchberry Cereal, Banana Cream Foster, Nutella, Double Dutch Chocolate, Café Cream, and Blueberry Waffles — plus a planned donation of proceeds to the children of a late friend.

The news segment covers Jas Sum Kral's two planned exclusives for Ristafaria 2022 at Golden Leaf in Hobart, Indiana (March 12): a Tyrannical Buck barber pole 5x50 Robusto aged two years with Connecticut Broadleaf and Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrappers over Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan/Pennsylvania filler at $12, limited to 500 cigars; and a Connecticut Toothpick 2.0 at $7, limited to 50 boxes of 50, rolled at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez de Nicaragua. The first half of the show is the usual free-form banter: an Eric Church concert, an LL Cool J show, lingering COVID taste loss, UFC pay-per-view prices, and a long, largely negative review of The Batman.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Opening banter and life updates
   The hosts cover an Eric Church concert, an LL Cool J show with the kids, and lingering loss of taste from COVID that still affects everything but cigar smoke.
2. 02
   The Batman movie review
   A spoiler-laced, mostly disappointed take on the new Batman, its emo tone, the Penguin and Riddler portrayals, and the Joker cameo.
3. 03
   Riste Ristevski calls in on the Half Wheel article
   The Jas Sum Kral founder responds to Charlie Minato naming him in a piece about cigars allegedly marketed to children.
4. 04
   The Munchies: how a premium infused cigar gets blended
   Ristevski explains his Rocky Road ice cream–flavored release, his market testing with full-bodied smokers, and why he says his process differs from typical flavored cigars.
5. 05
   Age verification and where the cigars are sold
   Discussion of 21+ retail-only distribution, age-gated online ordering, and why responsibility for underage sales falls on the shop.
6. 06
   Can the cigar industry self-regulate?
   The hosts and guest argue that no one can define the line on 'kid marketing' and that whoever holds self-regulatory power would abuse it.
7. 07
   FDA fear, precedent, and double standards
   Comparisons to flavored spirits, prior releases like the Bradley Bar and Trail Mix, and a call for the industry to go on offense instead of defense.
8. 08
   Jas Sum Kral Ristafaria 2022 exclusives
   Details on the Tyrannical Buck barber pole Robusto and the Connecticut Toothpick 2.0 debuting at Golden Leaf in Hobart, Indiana.

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 episode 218, Cigar Hustlers Podcast, still the number one show on Podbean, show that keeps Mr. Garofalo up at night. That's it, that's us. The only show that hasn't been on Meet the Professor.

What's Meet the Professor? Uh, that's that one Fuente, Carlito does with, uh, with Booby Girl. Oh. Oh.

Uh-oh. I lost my thing. I hate when I lose my thing. You do.

You do can become part of our podcast family and invest in our show. Anybody can be part of the family. Anybody. Well, not anybody.

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Put your products in front of thousands of listeners and viewers every episode. This episode, we are heard on 13 different podcast providers weekly all around the world. All around. All around the world.

com. Yeah, yeah. Send any email, I don't even know if it works. Anybody want to email me for any reason.

Just go ahead, send that in. That's funny. Remember to please rate, comment, and subscribe. You know that it works.

You had correspondence with people on that email. Yeah, I get emailed. It'll be funny. I get email all the time in there.

You know, join this, become part of that. Join this, become part of that. I'm king, but I can't buy in Wakanda. I have, send me $7,000.

I'll send you $7 million, he says. Caught you masturbating on your computer, so you better give me money. Did I use your cutter? I'm sorry.

I'm irresponsible. I'm irresponsible today. Just today? Left it on the patio.

What are we doing for the Patreon, Michael? I don't know, whatever else I got, there's in your hand. The patina. The patina.

Maduro. Maduro. Looks like a Toro. Toro.

Toro, patina, Maduro. Let me weigh it. It's right there. I'm not going to weigh it.

Not going to weigh it right now. It's right there. I'll be weighing palmers. Out of the view of the camera.

It's over there. Where it should be. Over there. Over there.

Over there. So what's good? What's new? What's going on?

Where you been? I saw Eric Church on Friday night. I heard. It's a good concert.

You had fun? Yeah, we did. I'm not a concert guy. I don't like him.

But my wife, apparently she'd never been to one. I didn't know this. Never been to a concert? Never been to a concert before in her life.

75 years you've been married to this woman. You've never... I don't like concerts. Ah.

But that was fun. We went with Boots and his wife. I heard you ran late. Well, I don't know.

Is there an on-time thing with concerts? It's supposed to start at like 8:30. I heard you start, you can get on to like 9:15. Really, all those guys, they start when they want to start.

They tell you, be there at 8:30, so they can saunter in it and, you know, whatever. It gets going when I want it to get going, American Church. He, you know, played all his good songs and the whole song, didn't, like, the guy you saw where he just does, like, the first two minutes and stomp. He gave a couple of nice little speeches about things that are going on in the world, which I thought was nice, little political statements.

He went out towards the end, he went, okay, so he did, it was at the arena, so he did the stage in the round thing, you know, well, stage in the middle thing. So he could go to both ends and out the middle, like a T or an X or whatever. Right. But he went into the stage, I mean, down into the crowd where he was singing.

Okay. Kept singing and talking, signing autographs, signing things, shaking hands, kissing babies, went all the way around the stage. Kissing babies? Oh, he didn't kiss babies.

In today's climate? He did kiss, well, that's what I'm getting at. He did kiss a lady. People are handing him Sharpies.

Mouth to mouth or? Well, like cheeky. Little cheeky? Yeah, yeah.

Cheeky? Yeah. But people are handing him Sharpies to sign stuff, and he's going like this, he's going, oh, put him back on to give him the Sharpie back, he spit on my wall, but that's what I'm thinking, oh, he's definitely got COVID or something, but he gave a little speech when he got done, like, you know, for two years, I sat in my basement drinking beer, never thought we were going to get back to be able to do this stuff again, but this is what we're supposed to do, we're supposed to meet, we're supposed to have fun, we're supposed to drink, blah, blah, blah. Damn, I mean, he touched hundreds of people.

A lot of touching. No social distancing. Didn't see, I don't even think I saw one person with a mask. It's Florida, bro.

We've been there a long time ago. I understand that, but still, I mean, it made me a little nervous, and I wouldn't walk in, I wouldn't kiss some people walking through a crowd. I don't think it takes much to make you nervous. I'm not gonna lie.

No, nervous for him about getting sick. I mean, I obviously don't wear a mask either. Maybe he already had the Rona. He's fine.

Maybe he's got the antibodies. I don't know. Are poor Chet's down from having the Rona from before? Yeah, maybe.

Well, no, the scarring is definite, they said. There is scarring from when he had it. Which probably weakened it enough for something else to attack him, I guess. Greg can't walk up the back stairs without stopping and breathing heavy.

This damn Rona's got everybody jacked up. I mean, we had it, I'm fine. We had it. My flavor's not the same still.

Oh, really? Yeah. Like the cigars, I can taste the cigars when I retro. But like the spices.

Oh, so your taste buds gone, the nose, just the nasal cavity works. Yeah, I gotta push through it. Wow. Mm-hmm.

It's getting better though. Yeah. Like every week, it's like a little bit better. It's like so slow.

It's just a little bit. It's kind of maddening. I'm not going to lie. Oh, we can't do that, man.

Don't make noise. Don't make noise. Don't make noise in the microphone. I bet she hates that ASMR stuff.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They just sit there and go . .

Oh, so what'd you taste? You just snorted through your nose. I can taste it. I can taste it.

Good for you. Yeah. I figured it out. The thing that I can taste the most is probably cigars.

Oh. Crazy. But like… I mean, it's not like you can, you know, retrohale a taco. No, but you can force the air, like you can kind of retro, I mean, you could retro almost anything.

You could force it through, and then taste it. But it's not as strong as the smoke, I would think. Trying to think what we did, because that was Friday night, Saturday, what did we do Saturday? We did something.

Oh. Maybe we didn't… Saturday for me was like… Oh, we ran airs, did shopping, we went shopping. Nice. Shopey, Shopey.

Saturday was like a run and gun kind of a day for us. Yeah. Yeah, bring it to the grocery shopping early. And then we went to like a Chargers, the football team, one of the families did a little Chargers party for us.

Oh, wait, I was supposed to go to the thing at Executive on Saturday and I didn't go. Oh yeah, you didn't go. Alfredo was allegedly up here. I had the Ria.

Oh, the Ria. The diarrhea. The purge. I had the diarrhea.

A little purge action. Right, hit me about noon. Oh! We were out shopping, I'm like, oh, we gotta go somewhere else.

I am not going out tonight. Well, we were at Ross, I'm like, I'm not going to go to the bathroom. Oh, yeah. Were you dressed for last?

Right. I got to go to Kohl's. Kohl's has a nicer bathroom. Ah.

That's nice. So, Kohl's, and then, I think we had to stop somewhere else on the way home. I like that you have recommendations of bathrooms. Oh, yeah.

I have bathroom things. Good bathroom. Good bathroom. You should go to the clean bathroom.

Yes. Same with Sanford Mall, Dillard's. Dillard's is the way. Dillard's is the bathroom.

Dillard's is the bathroom. Very nice. Right. Because nobody goes there.

Nobody goes to Dillard's. Nobody pooped there. The men's bathroom was way downstairs, all the way in the back corner. Nobody ever goes.

Very clean. In a big stall. Oh. With almost a solid door.

Oh, it's like the suite. Yeah. I call the handicapped ones the suite. No, no, no.

One of the suites available. Handicap's too far from the doors. There's safety issues. Oh.

Too far from the door. My goodness. They can easily jiggle it and walk in. The thought that goes through your mind.

I know. Well, Adrian was at JCPenney's. You get caught with your pants down. " Like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction.

Right. I don't know what you mean. I don't get the reference. Anyway, you get iced at the Dillard's toilet, dude.

So you're running, running, gunning. Yeah, so we did the party at this family's house. It was very nice, you know. Oh, very nice.

For a doctor? No, that's the other team. I don't know what this guy does. It's something, though.

Something fancy. Something fancy. Big house. Something health-wise, or something.

Oh. Yeah. So, but he's super cool. What kind of food did they have?

They covered all bases, brother. They covered all bases. It was like, they had an array of catering. Oh, catering.

They had pizza. Pizza? Catered? Pizza.

Zaxby's. Okay, now we're just door dashing. I don't think it's catering. Oh, yeah.

Oh, I mean, what's the difference? Catering, there's like people going around, would you like a pan? Oh, no, it wasn't that. It wasn't that.

It wasn't that. It wasn't enough. A can of pay, I have these little can of pay. Believe me, there was enough food.

Maybe a cheese puff? I think there was like three different places that they ordered from and there was a fuck ton of food. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, but the, you know, the main part, like what's important is...

Oh, I bet it's the little Zaxby sandwiches. I think that's what I had. Oh, those are good. Cheeseburgers?

No, Zaxby's a chicken. Oh, I don't know what I had. I had many cheeseburgers. Oh.

Maybe from Gators? I don't know. I don't know, who knows. But...

Hooters, Hooters. for the football team to kind of like get the kids together when they're not just doing, and kind of gets to know more and more about the parents and stuff like that. Interaction. Yeah, yeah.

Was there a pool? There was a pool. Kids playing in the pool? Oh, yeah.

That's always good. They went in the pool. They went nuts in the pool. Then from there, we went to see LL Cool J.

Yes, I heard you going. I'm going to knock you out. I'm going to say knock you out. Right.

Which was very cool. Yeah? Yeah, you know, I like, I enjoy, and we took the It's the whole squad this time. It's the whole squad.

All the kids and stuff. Oh, the kids get to go. So we have to introduce them to the Ladies Love Cool J. Oh, wow.

Which is nice, you know. Even little baby Teddy? Oh, Teddy had a great time. Did she?

Oh my goodness. She's dancing? Yeah, she's going nuts. Oh.

Teddy had a fantastic time. Good. And then we watched the fights. Oh, is that still going on?

UFC? Every Saturday night thing? Yeah, yeah. Well, pay-per-views once a month.

Oh. I'll tell you what, man. It's so fucking expensive, though. So, though, it's just like, oh, God, hit the button, oh, $75, plus taxes, like 88 bucks, or 80-something, I'm like, oh, God.

I paid my credit card bill today, saw a $10 movie I rented, I can't even remember what movie it was. Like, what was this? Yeah, Prime, $10, what did I rent? Son of a bitch, you got me for $10.

I really have no idea what it was. But it was generally a good card, so, you know, I enjoyed, you know. Yeah? Yeah, it was fun.

It was a fun card. Good. Masvidal, sadly lost. Oh, the lady who played Wonder Woman.

Yeah, that's the one. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. She was fighting Colby Covington.

Oh, no chance with the bracelet thingy. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't even close. The robe thingy.

Yeah, not even close. Yeah, Wonder Woman won. Oh, nice. Nice.

You're talking about Gal Gadot or whatever? Isn't that what you said? I said Masvidal. Same thing.

Jorge Masvidal. Name is your cousin. George. George.

No, Jorge. Jorge, your name is George. My name is Clay. I'ma call him Clay.

Hello. George. My name is Jorge. No, it's not George.

Yesterday, it was George. It depends. It's one of those situations where you can kind of use that accordingly. I found myself a Sharpie today.

I thought it was gone. Hmm, nice. Found it downstairs. And then Sunday, I went and saw The Batman.

Oh, see, everybody sees all these movies with the kids. I went and saw, yeah. You took your kids, didn't you? I took my kids.

Yeah, see, all my friends have kids. They all go to the movies with the kids. I went and saw them with the kids. Boots has probably already seen it with his son.

Saw it with the Manny as well was there. As well was there, and the Manny's Wife was there. Oh. So you didn't have to watch the kids during the movie?

Well, um... According to what Brittany said. When did she say that? She always tells me when you do things and you take credit for Brittany, you take people with you.

You know, what's funny is that, you know, Justice wanted to go to Lex, so, the Manny's Wife. Yes. So he was hanging out over there, but I was like, mate, don't let him fall asleep. Don't let that fucker fall asleep, whatever you do.

Don't fall asleep. But Justice was, or Jack was next to me the whole time. They raised the prices I was reading for this movie. 50 for adults.

Did they? I don't know. You don't know. Let me just hit the button.

Oh. So was it good? They're saying, wait, wait, wait, wait. Spoiler alert.

Just so everybody don't complain, we're going to talk about the movie. I don't know. Now I've heard, I've read, he is supposed to be the best Batman. Oh, God, no he's not.

No, no, no. No, he's not. When the Joker showed up, did he burst into a little sparklies like he's a vampire? Well, the Joker, no, no, the Joker actually, they do do a little cameo of him at the end.

Oh, did you stay to the very, very end and watch the thing? Yeah, that too, yeah, that stupid fucking thing. Don't waste your time. It's very disappointing.

Oh, I've seen it, I've seen it online. It's like a website and you have to... Yeah, you go to the website, you answer these questions, and then you get a glimpse into the next movie. Oh, okay, great.

Yeah. Look, you took, you took this guy, you took Batman. and you've made him like totally emo i just can't i'm struggling yeah i'm just struggling with the vampire batman yeah he's just so you know what i mean how old is he now i'm okay with him being younger you know but like batman's always been an older guy though let him hit the fucking gym a little bit or something like he didn't even beefed up no he wasn't he was just so skinny he doesn't have to be uh what's his name beefed up uh who was the last batman christian bale no no the last The Batman who does the, oh, crap, I can't think I can see his face. I can't think of his name.

He did Good Will Hunting with. Oh, Ben Affleck? Ben Affleck. He doesn't have to be Ben Affleck.

No, no, no. He could be Michael Keaton big. Yeah, or Christian Bale. I mean, they're like.

More wiry and strong than Hulk Hogan. Yeah, just give me like another 10 pounds of muscle mass or something. You know, fucking juice him up or something. Did they do him shirtless or anything?

Of course they did. And he had no muscle, huh? Yeah, and he's pushing on these things. He looked like me and Chet standing there.

Kind of. It kind of looked more like Marcus. Oh. You know?

Yeah. Like, just skinny, you know? Just don't, uh... You don't even remember.

Make it look like he's imposing or realistic. And, you know... I don't know. He's like, he's tormented.

Like, I get it. Batman's like this tortured soul. Right. As he should be.

Yeah, they killed my parents when I was little. I watched it happen. I am a revenge. Yeah, he's fucking pissed off.

And, you know, there were some cool things about it. Like, they made it... Spoiler! They made it to some degree more realistic.

It had a more realistic approach in some ways. But in other ways, I was just like, no, man, no, no, like, whenever I leave, whenever you leave a movie, I want to be like, I felt something, you know what I mean, like, I just want to be moved, I really want to be like, like, man, that's really sad, or like, holy shit, that was awesome, like, I feel motivated, or anything like that, I just walk down, I'm like, man, that was long, you know, like, holy shit. Who was his manservant? Alfred?

Who was Alfred? I don't know. He was a good dude. He was a good Alfred.

Yeah, Alfred did all right. He was a known actor? I feel like they kind of fucked the dog on Riddler. It was just me.

Who was Riddler? I don't know. I've seen him before in something else. I'm just like, eh.

Was there a penguin? There is a penguin. Penguin looked like he could have been. He was all right.

He was notable. So, oh, but you couldn't tell who Penguin was? Mm-mm. I think it's the, now I've seen a lot of interviews lately with this guy.

I can't think of his name either. He's an Irish guy. Yeah. Played, crap, I can't think of anybody's name today.

I'm drawing blanks. But he didn't really look like Penguin, the other Penguins. No, he looked more like a mob boss. Right, yeah, okay, that's it.

Which I'm fine with. Like, so they tried to, they brought it more into like a realistic, I don't know, some kind of, like, it felt like real. Okay, so Joker wasn't a guy dressed like a clown. No, no, no.

And, you know. Riddler didn't wear the green suit with all the question marks all over it. It was just this darker movie Which was cool But you know Your Batman was just I'm Batman No it wasn't to that level I don't know man Was there a Robin? There's no Robin he's younger This is year two of him kind of getting going That's really the premise of the movie He's just getting started But like The Batarang doesn't really work.

He's no longer vengeance. The Batmobile's got a carburetor problem. Yeah, exactly. We're still working on the kinks here.

The Batboat's only half painted. That sort of thing. He's always designed on the board for a Batcopter. And he's kind of regularly available, like back in the day with the movie, like the Adam West TV show.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He'd just kind of walk in, and there he is, there's Batman. You know what I mean? He's there, here you go.

Which I thought was cool. the approach that they were trying to do. But, you know, it was like he's no longer vengeance. He's just like, I'm changed.

I'm like, wait, what? No, no. I'm going to get you. I don't know.

It's like you were this, like you almost had it. That's close, huh? That's, you know, again, it goes back to the simple aspect of I felt nothing. Wow.

Maybe you see, how did the kids like it? I don't know. Well, that's a bad sign. I don't know.

The kids, it's not really a kid movie. No, but they were like. When they came out, were they running around going, pow, bang, smay? Were they running and jumping and saying, I'm Batman?

A little guy was like, I'm the Batmobile. Like that, you know. Oh, he's the car. Yeah, he's the fucking car.

Oh. Which was fun. I enjoyed it for him. But the other guy was like, I'm scared of the Riddler.

The Riddler? I'm like, first of all, the Riddler wound up in jail. And second of all, the Riddler's not real. It's a movie.

The Scarecrow? No. No. The major characters.

The Riddler, the Penguin, and the Joker. Yeah, but the Joker's not really in it. He did like a boop at the end. At the end.

I really feel like they're going to fuck the dog on that Joker. It's a tough role to follow, especially Heath Ledges, man. I don't know, man. I wouldn't want to go down that route.

They could get the guy from the other movies, the Joker. Who? The one that Will Smith was in, where he was dead-eye or deadshot. Deadshot or Deadshot or Deadshot?

Oh, what was his name? I love when we forget the names and then people tell us later. Dead Man, Dead, Deadshot. He does 30 Seconds to Mars.

What's his fucking name? Oh, the guy who played the Joker? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he was that kid.

He was in a movie where he played a gay guy for a long time, too. He's a good actor, and I really feel like he didn't get a good shake as the Joker in Suicide Squad. Suicide Squad, that's in the movie. Oh, I thought he did a good job as a Joker.

Jared. Jared. Jared Leto From Subway Jared No no no Not dead Jared Jared that hangs out here Who shouldn't drink Jared Leto Stop it right now So Yeah I don't know Get him in the gym man Get him a little bit bigger Get Batman a little beefier huh Yeah Was his suit not even make him look beefy And then there's like a scene Like the scenes where he would appear He would just kind of walk in You'd hear like click click oh he didn't like he's just not like like christian bale he's just there or he flies down yeah flies the cape hang glider he didn't yeah i don't want to ruin it sort of walks in hi i'm batman yeah i'm not vengeful i just feel you people are all wrong all right well we got to get going on the news here our guest speaker is yeah is he ready yep all right get him on the phone All right. Well, hit the news button.

Hold on. Do I need to connect this? Yeah, connect this. All right, hold on.

I'm going to hit this. I'll hit that. And I will hit RODECaster Pro. Yes, hit RODECaster Pro.

Oh, connected. Unsuccessful. Make sure mine didn't grab it. Other devices.

iPhone? Mine didn't. Oh, it's out for me to connect to your phone, though. Yeah, me too.

Two iPhones in here. Rodecaster's not there, though. Hit it again. It's flashing.

It's on the hit. Turn those machines back on. It says the Rodecaster Pro is now discoverable. I don't see it.

Move your phone closer. I can see your phone with your text. Come on. It's still discoverable.

Turn it off. Turn it back on. I can't make it more. Hit it again.

There you go. Now do it again. Would you like to pair a smartphone to the computer? Yes!

There it is. I like it, it looks just like before. So you did it. I did it the first time.

Hold on, it's spinning now. Hold on, we're working on it. Yeah, it's not connected yet. Here we go, we're in business.

Alright, hit the news, let's go, let's get the story going. Music. News. From the four corners of the world.

All the cigar industry news you could possibly want. The Cigar Hustler Podcast Report. This week, Michael, everybody in the industry is talking about marketing cigars to children. Yes, and FDA regulations.

So, as such, with our big research team here, and our connections with the industry, we have today on the phone, Michael, who? We're going to have a risk day of Justin Crow, who was under fire by our dear friend, Charlie Minato. Him and a couple other people, actually. It's not just him, but he seems to be the main focus of everybody's problems.

Yeah, he's talking in general about a lot of things. So let's just get him on. Let's get right to it. Let's get him on the phone.

Hello? Oh, he's not there yet. You have reached. Sorry, he's not taking calls today.

Hello? Hello? Hey, what's going on, man? Hey, what's up, brother?

How you doing? Hey, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. You're on the air.

Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers' podcast. You have to say you're on the air. You're on the air. There you go.

Oh, nice. Go ahead, shoot, let's talk. Let's get this going, you know, right off the rip. So, I'm going to do my best to not get emotionally charged on anything and just try and be as much as give my opinion and still kind of state the facts or at least what's kind of going on, right?

Go ahead. So Charlie went ahead and he, at Half Wheel, and I love Charlie, you know, I respect the guy, I don't think- I have no ill will against the guy, but I like him too. Right, I don't think that this was a like- Eh, I can sort of go either way. I don't think this is a direct attack on you, but you know, it certainly felt that way, especially when it was originally released, but- Yeah, that's the way everyone took it and started sharing it, I mean, my name is associated with targeting kids for throwing up cigars.

Right, and that's not okay. In the first line, they say his name, so. Right. You are in the first line.

Clickbait is clickbait, right? Clickbait is clickbait. Right, exactly. So, you have this new cigar coming out called The Munchies.

I think we covered that. Didn't we talk about it on the show? No, actually, I have it right here. You want to talk about The Munchies real quick?

No, no, no. We'll just do it as we go. Alright, so you have a new cigar coming out, and it's infused tobacco. Rocky Road ice cream.

It tastes like Rocky Road ice cream. Yeah, I mean, but, so far, everyone else, like, I'll tell you how I kind of like did this, it is a premium infused cigars, like people say they make premium infused cigars, but they're not, they make premium chemicalized cigars, that's how I look at it. So, I mean, so what I did is, this is like case study, I'm an IT guy, I like data, I like feedback. Yeah, you're not stupid.

And, yeah, you know what I'm saying, let me test the market. Not one person said they wouldn't buy it again. Right. And these are hardcore cat smokers, my father's smokers, they're just full body smokers, these are not flavored cigar smokers, you know, they were all blown away, like one guy's like, it really feels, the tobacco tastes like this, like it was blended this way, no chemicals, no nothing.

So nothing's been added to your cigar? Just the mix of tobaccos that you've chosen happen to have a similar flavor to Rocky Road ice cream? No, it has to have something inside of it to give it a sweet flavor. Yeah, I mean, since I've seen how they make flavored cigars in other countries, I do completely different.

I'm the only one doing that in the United States, also. Right. So, you know? So, yeah.

So, you give this press release out to the media, right? I'm just trying to paint a picture for you. Correct. And it was sent out to like 45 people, but two people chose to cover it.

Okay. So, sent out to 45 people, two people chose to cover it. And one I know for sure had a, you know, had an opinion on it that wasn't, in my opinion, too, Yeah. So, he goes around and he says that, you know, the argument is the fact that FDA could argue that this is, you know, marketing to children, right?

They can, but they can, I'm not the only person. Right, right, same scenario, I'm just kind of painting the, like, I'm giving the, maybe not the, our listeners haven't read this article or anything like that, I'm just trying to kind of... Yeah, he's not, Riste is not the only one mentioned in the article. There's no one mentioned in the article.

Right. Other people are definitely mentioned in this. Yeah, there's one that looks like... Yeah, there's one that looks like...

Right. Oh, okay. So this is kind of... Oh, yeah.

I mean, I can stay at home. Oh. Oh, man. Where is he?

Riste! Don't go! Charlie knocked him out. Are you there?

Yeah, you're here? Oh, my God. Rush is... They're attacking our podcast.

Charlie's a sniper! Charlie's a sniper! No, I'm out driving. My wife's driving.

I'm just buying a bunch of stuff, you know, for my vendors. Okay. Oh, jeez. Who's gonna cut in and out?

So, you need to find the top of a hill, and so we can finish this interview, god damn it. Alright, I mean, I hear you now, good. Alright, good, sweet. Okay, so, yeah, you weren't the only person that was covered, you know, there have been, obviously, Provada Club has come out with some things.

Yeah, Provada Club. Yeah, but I don't want to be associated with them either. Well, I mean, I don't think, you know what, I don't think that, they're not bad guys either, you know. How about Aladino?

I barely know the dude, you know, he does what he does, I do what I do. " Yeah, and he got kind of, right, so he got subjected to that as well. And you know, the fact of the matter is that, and you're still there, I hope, for the love of God. Yeah, I'm here, I'm here.

That, you know, this is something that is, you can only get this product in a place where you have to be 21 to enter, correct? 100%. Right. And, you know, it's not in some type of magazine for kids or it's not, you can't get it in fucking Nickelodeon magazine.

Oh, by the way, pick up these munchies. No, exactly. Right. You know, and you know what, I mean, I think in my website, I have not seen another cigar website that...

We lost your instinct. Like, if you don't put your real info, you can't buy it. Right. So you do a good job of protecting, as far as age verification is considered.

Correct, yeah. Okay, so, but like, I guess, you know, the major issue that really kind of pinged for me is, you know, for one, you can get other cigars in places where kids are, have access to, as far as like convenience stores and shit like that, and that shouldn't be okay, right? Correct. Your cigars aren't in sea stores, right?

No. Okay, your cigars are only with retailers. They're not, they're not, they're not on a, you know, shelf in a gas station. They're not, you know, some random sea store or whatever.

It's, you know, I package them that way because, you know, I mean, look at the whole industry for past year, past two years, everyone's doing it. And, you know, someone just had a fucking cow when I just did it, you know what I'm saying? It's creative marketing, right? Now, some people could think it's in good taste.

Some people could think it's in bad taste. But all that's kind of irrelevant because at the end of the day, we're all capitalists, right? Yeah, what's selling? Right.

If I feel that your product would work and people would purchase it, right, I would buy it. Right. If I didn't, if I thought that you were crossing some type of line, for whatever reason that is, whatever my beliefs are, I don't necessarily have to buy it, right? Correct.

And that in itself is kind of the regulation for this industry, at least in my opinion, right? But he talks about, he talks about self-regulation. Where? I mean, I know he talks about it, but where is it at?

Well, yeah, and that was kind of what I'm leaning into. It's like, you have this, I mean, I knew about munchies a while ago, you know, it's probably, it's probably been going on for longer than six months, but I remember it, you know, you talking about it six months ago. Yeah. Did anybody at the PCA reach out to you?

" Did anybody do that by any means whatsoever? No. No, they didn't. But like, so, but when it came out, when you did the media release, I mean, you definitely turned into a whipping post per se, right?

yeah i mean everyone was waiting for something like that to take their aggression out or whatever i mean right i get it i get it you know people know me in the industry i don't care but what are we really fighting we we are allowed to smoke cigars if we choose to or not to we can smoke whatever make whatever we want right it's like we're we're trying to regulate something that no one i mean this thursday that report comes out right it's not a binding report they don't have It's the same report I would pay, you know, a third-party IT company to assess my network and tell me, what do you recommend we should do? It's not binding. But they're making it sound like this Thursday's the end of the fucking world. - Right.

- You know, whatever. - Right, you're referencing the FDA release as far as infused cigars, right? Is that what you're talking about? - Yeah, the report they released this Thursday, they commissioned a third-party company to figure out what they suggest to do.

Mike Sinclair: Yeah. Mike Sinclair: And they're stating, hey, well, we don't want, you know, you, we can't tell you what we're looking for. You have to give us, you know, your blanketing opinion or some shit like that. Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, I get that. But, you know, I guess my major issue is when it comes to self-regulation, if we actually did do self-regulation inside of this industry, who would be in charge of that? You know? Well, I mean, there was another association that I think over the weekend said that we should do this and, you know, we are a small, like, I think it was a small boutique society.

Like, I don't like the comment or talk shit about a lot of people where it is what it is. But like, I mean, this is the same boutique association society who made a bunch of the cigars for people that, you know, did what I did. Well, I mean, right. That kind of brings me to where I was leading is the fact that whoever's going to self-regulate this, unfortunately, like their power, their absolute power is, It's higher than everybody else's right so and then it would have to be and it doesn't mean because you don't like it I can't do it right and then like determining where that line is where is the fucking line so what is considered kid marketing and what isn't considered kid marketing because I could tell you you know I mean one could argue that cerebrus that just came out is kid marketing right because I could tell you that that name Hercules fought cerebrus right yeah right that right that was mentioned in the The recent movie of Encanto, the blockbuster film by Disney, I mean, it's in the number one of the number one songs, and like, so then is that marketing?

Hey, dude, do this, you're in front of a computer, right? Uh, well, Michael is, yeah. Do this, go to Half Wheel and type in the word, search the word chocolate, and you tell me how many pages referencing to chocolate comes out to every cigar review. Yeah, well, they'll be talking, yeah, they use it as a flavorful.

Yeah, well, I mean, wouldn't that be targeting kids? Right. And that's my point. So like, where's the line?

You know, is the line, are we crossing the line because it's in packaging that says munchies and you have ice cream on there? I don't agree with Charlie Whittingham, but I think his concern is the packaging. Well, because he keeps calling it because he says like the cigars that come like what happened, like, I'm not knocking, like what call it was amazing with this stuff. But why didn't, why didn't he, why didn't he feel like this way when Little Debbie's came out?

Right, yeah, he's talking about the different ones now, like Aladino's one that looks like it's a candy bar. He's mentioned it now, but right, nothing was said when it came out. Well, how about the fact that the trail mix- Well, FDA has been doing this since 2015, since I've been in it, and people said, you know, why are you getting a cigar industry? FDA is going to fuck everything up, and this was in 2015.

Right. I mean, the Bradley Bar came out in 2015. It was a fucking Wonka Bar. Not knocking them, but it was a chocolate bar.

Right, exactly. Well, yeah, we just- No one's concern came over that. You're giving more case in point, right? We're not saying, hey, like I'm not attacking Terrence and Aga Norsa.

You know what I mean? I'm just saying, hey, for one, it's impossible to self-regulate because the person who you're going to put in self-regulation is going to have more power than everybody else, right? And we've already learned that in this industry. Doesn't it mean by self-regulation that you regulate your cigars, Mikey?

Ristey regulates his cigars? No, it's self-regulation as far as the industry is concerned. Oh, the industry should self-regulate. Like, Hey, I mean, I mean, I mean, Charlie mentions like when someone is talking about, it's talking to the FDA, like, well, what about this person?

Number six, you know, what about, right? Well, oh yeah, well we self-regulate, but what about this guy? Well, we, we, we took care of that. Well, what about the, and then he brings it up three or four times.

Right. So, or whatever the case may be, you know, I don't fact check. We just kind of go on the flow here. So like, you know, it, I don't see how that would work.

That doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense. Right. And what would happen is, and what we've seen in the past with this industry is like certain, certain companies will try their best to restrict other companies from continuing to grow.

There's always that type of fucked up marketing and strategy, right? There are, there are brand owners. Oh yeah. I mean, that happens all the time.

Every trade show too. You know what I'm saying? It's like, here's a new guy trying to do something. Here's the old guy.

He's like, Hey, guess what? Like, you know, side, side backdoor deals, eventually they're gone. Right. Or even, it's even worse than that.

New company comes up, and they're making great cigars, all of a sudden, big boy comes in and buys the fucking pylones and tobacco that they're using, so they don't, so all of a sudden their supply chain is less. I've heard horror stories about that too, right? Yeah, that happens. So, you know, so, so these things exist, right?

So then, so it's safe to say that we don't really know who the fuck would be in charge of this, because if they, if the person was in charge of it, somebody would get their meat hooks into them if it wasn't them, and then they would control it, which is kind of fucked, right? And you're not even doing-- Sounds like current politics. Right. Right?

It's kind of fucking crazy. I mean, that's what it'll turn into. I mean, my check's not bigger than someone else, or, you know, bigger than another guy's check. Right.

So, um, I mean, Trail Mix was a cigar that reached, that made the top 25 cigars of Half Wheel. Oh, that's right. I mean, is Trail Mix-- I didn't even know that. Is Trail Mix kid-oriented?

So are we can-- is that condoning-- It's-- do you see what I'm saying? Like-- There's no defined line. Right, it's like all of this is really kind of fucked, as far as I'm concerned. And I don't think that any of it is really catering towards kids in any manner or marketing towards kids in any fashion.

No, every shop I talked to said it does not fall on you because if I sell that to someone that's a kid, that's on me, that's on the shop, that's not you. Right. Yeah, you're not selling to the PTA so they can use it as a fundraiser. Yeah, I'm not going to my kids' school board meeting.

You get the Girl Scout cookies and then you can use the munchies. You can take these with you. Right. Exactly.

No, no, 100%. You know, that's kind of what I'm saying is that, you know, the real problem, in my personal opinion, isn't the fact of what people are making and creating. The real problem is the fact that we continue to be on the defense for the FDA where we should be on the offense for the FDA. And like that has never been around and waiting to see what happens.

Oh, please don't hurt us. We're fighting something that hasn't been put in place yet. Right. I don't have to look.

I don't have to agree with munchies. I don't have to love them. I don't have to hate them. I can be totally...

I'm sure they're delicious though. I can be totally indifferent to what you're doing and what you're making, right? Correct. But I, as a person in the industry, can fight for your right to do whatever the fuck you want, right?

Correct. And that's kind of my point. It gets to the point where everyone just wants to fight for what that one person wants to do. Right.

So I understand, you know, I understand that some people are scared and they're nervous about FTA and their approach and whatever the case may be, but like the line is so blurred and if you start giving them something, they're going to continue for more. They're gonna continue to take more and more away from you, so I believe in what you're doing, I don't think that you should, you know, I as a retailer have every right to, A, decide whether I would like to buy your product, or B, not buy your product, and I think that that's enough regulation for this industry, you know, I mean, I got some other angry stuff that I wrote here, I don't know if I'm gonna say that, let's see. I mean, but look at it, if the industry wants to stop what's really going on, then shops will stop buying it. Right.

Right. If we're really going to self-regulate, then stop buying everything that looks like that. Yeah, 100%. And you know, it's, and I think that, you know, if the FDA uses that as an argument, it's a fucking overreach.

It's a huge overreach on their behalf. Yeah, it's a small business overreach, 100%. Oh no, this is marketing the kid. Well, what data do you have where a kid's smoking a munchie?

What data do you have where kids smoking a premium-flavored cigar, or infused cigar, whatever the fuck you want? You know what I mean? Every business owner in the cigar industry who has a Facebook business page can easily pull up that data, and I guarantee you it shows that it is males 26 and up, and like women also. Right, that data exists.

Half a percent, it would be like 18 to like 21, you know what I'm saying? And then, you know, what's even crazier is, Palmer, you love fucking peanut butter whiskey. I mean, that's a 21 year old, you gotta be 21 year old to get that product, there's vanilla vodkas, there's ice cream flavored bloke, all that shit, the whole principle is vodka wine. " You know what I mean?

So why the fuck are they coming after you? So yeah, why is the cigars all of a sudden the bad thing? Right. Why are they coming after you?

Right. I don't know. All right. Me neither.

No clue, man. I saw the response, you know, it was actually like my lawyer messaged me, he's like, uh, cause he follows me. He's like, what is this article they're writing about? He was like, I haven't seen it yet.

And I looked at it and he's like, well, we have to respond to this because you're being targeted for selling to kids. Right. You know, it is, you know, I mean, my press release I sent was on the very bottom of what he wrote. Right, yeah.

He did send it out. Oh, well, I mean, everyone that shared it, you know, I'm a business guy, dude. Bad news and good news is still media, you know. Right.

I have brands that shared it that I would never reach. Right. No news is good news. They're customer base.

Whatever. Right. You know, so I looked at it as a positive thing. I mean, am I getting targeted on it?

Probably. That I get a shit ton of reach and, you know, calls of companies trying to buy it and asking was ready. Yeah. Right.

You know, I looked at it as a good thing. I'm writing down people that want to buy it versus people that didn't want to kick my brand out, you know? Right. And like some people were just unkind on the comments and shit on the half-wheel post, and I saw someone teeing off on you, I'm like, damn, like that's so, like, what the fuck?

I mean, that's been going on for a while. People hate me for whatever reason they hate me for. Why? You're a nice guy.

I don't know. I mean... I've never been like, yeah, fuck Rista, you know? I guess, I mean, I don't get it.

I mean, they didn't include that, you know, in the press release, I was telling them that I'm donating, uh, It's like 10% of my buddy who passed away to his kids to continue on like their baseball and like their summer activities, you know? So you're even doing something good with it? Right. Yeah, I have all good intentions of this cigar.

Charlie didn't put that part in. He didn't put that part in? No, Charlie didn't put that part in. That wasn't part of the half part?

No, no one did. Only two people released it, you know, but it is what it is, you know? And then, you know, my lawyer put in, I'll donate another 5% to another organization that, you know, It helps kids with, you know, whatever reasons, you know, but I can't donate from my tobacco company to anything like that. It would be a personal donation.

Right. Right. Yeah. They won't.

I just, yeah, I personally is the fact of the matter is we can't as an industry operate in fear of anything. Right. And we need, and we need to be on the offense, not on the defense. If I did that, I wouldn't be here talking to you because I would have, I would have took someone's fear that in 2015, oh, don't go into cigar industry because the FDA is coming.

Well, I released my cigars and six months later, they're talking about the FDA. " That's true. It's true. Don't do it in the nighttime.

No. No, just when the sun's out. Well, but if there's a good moon, you could probably grow like a harvest moon. Oh, that's when you harvest, not grow.

Oh, yeah. " Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not grow moon. You're very wise, Mike.

You know, he's also coming out with a Crunch Berry cereal. You might really like that. Who's that? Risteas.

That's also on the line? Yeah, I'm gonna Baskin-Robin this whole fucking thing, man, I got... Banana Cream Foster, Crunchberry, Nutella, he's got all sorts of things planned. I got Banana Cream Foster, Crunchberry Cereal, Nutella, Double Dush Chocolate, Cafe Cream, Blueberry Waffles, like I...

I'm doing something, trust me, when all this comes out, like I'll send you a bag, you smoke it live, if you want to trash it, trash it, if you like it, like it, you know. it you know okay we will fucking do that oh we would love we would do that a hundred percent you i mean so we review cigars on our patreon where we give a hundred percent our honest opinion so um that's all i look for i sent it to two people in the industry one guy was messing smoking it right now before you called me he's like i love everything about this cigar and the other dude's like you legit blew my mind i've been smoking cigars for 20 fucking years i hate flavored cigars he goes i'm trying to figure out why i shouldn't smoke five of these a day listen I mean, whatever Ronnie says, you can't believe him, okay? It wasn't right. He's just fucking with you.

You know, he's just, he's all, that guy's all over the place. I love you today, I fucking hate you tomorrow, without question. I'm like, well, you know what, fuck this day. So.

Ronnie's good, good people, man. He is a great guy. He is a great guy. I know him outside of business.

Yeah, no, he is a, he's a good dude for sure. I mean, but to be honest, I could say that about a lot of people in this industry, you know? Yeah. A lot of people, and I still feel the same way about Charlie.

I just think that, I don't know, it could have gone about this a different way, you know, I wish that he did, I understand his point, and I understand what he's trying to say, I just don't think that it conveyed well, you know, so. I mean, oh, well, I mean, I guess my press release, right, some for my banana screen fosters would probably do the same thing. Or not publish it, I don't know. Right.

Well, you know, if you want to send the... People are telling me I should apologize to the industry for doing this. I don't, no, do not, you do not apologize. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I mean, I mean, obviously you've talked to me, known me for some time, you know, you know, that's not gonna happen. Right. You know, so it's like, whatever. A hundred percent.

Well, if you want to give them a press release to Mike and Mike Productions when they come out, well, that way we'll be more than happy to, we always talk about the news, and if it's not gonna, it's not coming out to anybody else, then we'll have to, you know, we'll have to cover it. We need to get an exclusive. Right. We have an exclusive.

I'll add you to the list. Text me or email address, I'll add you to my distribution list. Absolutely. Absolutely, man.

So, I mean... But yeah, send me your address, too. I'll ship you it back today. All right.

Sounds good, brother. We appreciate that. Well, I don't want to keep you any longer, you know, I like, you know, I respect you. I like what you're trying to do.

I don't think that you're doing anything wrong. I don't think that you're marketing to kids in any fashion. And I think that, again, the industry needs to fucking step up and push back harder on FDA instead of cowering down and hiding when somebody does something that's off, you know, that's not your standard kind of form It's a formidable fucking cigar, so. No, I agree.

You know, and if it goes that route, which it probably will, I mean, I'm telling you, it probably will go that route. It ain't gonna happen for another two, three years. Mm-hmm, right. You know, nothing signed the next day, nothing signed the next day goes into effect.

But if anything, I mean, I hope that it's kind of a wake-up call where everybody says, "Hey, we really need to get our shit together and kind of fucking handle this," you know? Yeah. 'Cause that's the one thing about this industry is it's a complete mess. It's a complete mess.

It's a joke. There's a lot of people in this industry, if they got in one room together, there's a lot of resources that can be pulled in a lot of different areas to come together as one. Right, but you got to get all those dudes to check their fucking egos. I think you say all the egos is...

Yeah, that doesn't happen because one guy walks in and he's richer than the other guy and expects his shit should go his way versus the other guy. Right, right. It is what it is. I'm stating, that's just how it is.

You know what I'm saying? I don't, I don't, I don't give a shit. You ask me a question, I'll tell you how it is. You ask me my opinion, I'll tell you how it is.

If I can help you, I'll help you. If I can't, I'll tell you. You know? Absolutely.

You know, I've been doing my own FDA paperwork since the beginning, you know, so. Right. Kind of have a knowledge of how it goes, but oh well. Right.

" You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Oh, I smoked my CBD cigar, now I'm hungry. Right.

Oh, I knew what you had a munchie. And surprisingly, when I trademarked it, I was surprised no one owned it in the tobacco industry. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, I was surprised someone else would have had the word munchies already used.

The word munchies already used, you know? Whoa, whoa, whoa, cease and desist, I'm going to need you to stop right now. No, that's providence, they like the cease and desist. You haven't made it in this industry until you get a cease and desist lawyer from somebody, until you get sued.

Yeah, well, they can call my lawyer, his information is on the post. If you have any questions, send them to. Please contact. All right, brother, well, we'll let you get back to your grocery shopping.

Thanks, man. Yeah, we literally just parked like in a parking lot because that's the best reception record. Awesome. Oh, perfect, thank you very much.

No, I appreciate you for having me on the show, you know what I'm saying? Of course, man, 100%. We're here for you any way we can be. Cool, text me your info and I'll get something out for you.

You got it, brother. I appreciate it. Thanks for your stay. You guys enjoy the rest of your day.

Thanks, man. You too, buddy. All right, bye-bye. I almost turned it off like we were done.

We're going to stay. Just some crowd right there. Boom. Thank you to his lovely wife who just pulled over so we could talk in the phone.

" Get some of this ash off of my table here. All right. I mean, well, let's cover the rest of the news. You got any?

Well, I didn't, I didn't pull. You didn't print anything out. Because I, well, we're going to do a second, uh, phone call too, but it, it just wouldn't work with the show. So it doesn't fit.

Sorry, Abe, we'll give you a call next week, Abe. Keep pushing this guy back. He got bumped again, huh? Well, he bumped us last week, to be fair.

Did he? Oh yeah, he did. Cause we wanted him last week. Yeah.

All right. Well, uh, Jessum Kroll plans to do two exclusives for Ristafaria 2022. Right. There are two exclusive cigars that Jessum Kroll will be bringing the The annual Rustafarian event at the Golden Leaf in Hobart, Indiana, both ascension to existing lines.

One is a special version of the tyrannical, tyrannical, tyrannical buck. Oh, it says butt. Typo there, Charlie. Tyrannical buck blend, another- The tyrannical butt.

But, tyrannical butts, what is it? The tyrannical glue. Another barber pole version that will be, barber poles are very big right now. Barber poles are very big.

Well, if you do them right, I mean, there's a real, you can really add complexity to the cigar. This year, a 5x50 Robusto that Jessam Corral has been aging for two years, uses a Connecticut Broadleaf and Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrappers over a Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. Mm-hmm. Exotic Pennsylvania.

Exotic. It will have an MSRP of $12 per cigar, as limited to 500 cigars. Last year, he released a tyrannical Buck Barberpole Toro during the Rastafarian event. Oh, there's a Buck on that one.

0, specifically a Connecticut version. A. in Nicaragua, Ristafaria takes place March 12th at the Golden Leaf. There you go.

And then we have, we don't have a florist store, but I thought it was interesting, it says, Americans seem to love the British accent according to a recent study. So now we have to talk in just a British accent. Hello. Hello.

Good day. You know what's funny is... The study reports more than half the respondents said they liked the accent and also topping the list of sexiest and most trustworthy accents, according to the American respondents. So elegant.

It's important to note that the United Kingdom is some of the most accent diversity in the English-speaking world. Hello, Governor. Let's see. Surveyed 1,754 people and asked their feelings on the following accents.

British, French, Canadian, German, Australian, Chinese... Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, Indian, Italian, Greek, Irish, Korea, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, South African, Scottish, and Welsh. The website said 54% of respondents identified as male, 1% - I'm from England - non-binary - get some tea and coffee. Welsh accents, on the other hand, were voted as the worst accent and the least sexiest in the world.

Oh, which one? Welsh. Welsh. Welsh.

I think that's either Scottish or really, really heavy English. I'm not exactly sure where Welsh is, but Scottish people can't understand when they don't. Oh! Have you ever heard them talking to each other?

I heard the one in Braveheart. It's my island. He was Irish, Michael. Not Scottish.

He was Irish. You sure? Yes, he was Irish. I have no idea.

They were all from Scotland. They were Scottish. He was Irish. So they were fine.

I understood Mel. Mel was fine. Mel Gibson was Australian. He's Australian?

Yes. Man, so confused. So confused. It was a good movie, though.

It was better than The Batman. I can tell you that much. Yes. I felt for the freedom of Braveheart.

I did not feel for the freedom of the Batman. You did not. You did not. No.

All right. I tell you, we got a listener of the week, Michael? No. Neither do I.

We have nothing. I was just excited about getting Rhys Day. Right. It is an exclusive so far.

Exclusive? Nobody else has it, man. We should have told him. That's because we are the number one podcast on Podbean.

Number one podcast on Podbean. All right. We'll wrap this up. Get on the Patreon.

We're in 50 minutes. Pedro will be okay. It's Pedro time. All right, guys.

Thank you very much. It was Cigar Hustler Podcast with the Jess McCraw Exclusive. Da-da-da! All right, guys, we're going to go.

Bye-bye. The Cigar Hustlers Podcast, its owners and its sponsors take no responsibility for the opinions or statements made by the talk show host or their guest. Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike and Mike Productions or the podcast providers, and opinions between talk show hosts may differ. It is not our intention to libel, incite, or hurt anyone's feelings.

We invite you to write the show's host, Mike Szczepankewicz, with any feedback or suggestions that you have for their shows. These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience. This has been a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, a Mike and Mike production. m.

for all new episodes. Hi, I'm doing, I'm Husto-I-Raw. Yeah, we just don't have to do a single, uh, single podcast ever again. Perfect.

I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing? The Hojo D. Hojo!

It's the Hojo! You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way. I gotta get past Hojo! I don't even have to try anything.

He's not even gonna try. We're gonna cover a lot of ground here, Mike. All right. Try to keep up.

That's a sign of a good podcast. It'd be like four cigars when I walked in a door. All right, end this.

Show Notes

This week we talk to Riste from JSK cigars in regards to the Halfwheel Article (exclusive)