Cigar Hustlers Podcast 220 Please Be Seated

Episode Summary

Episode 220 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast opens with studio housekeeping — the show has expanded to a three-camera shoot — and a custom Tampa Buccaneers ashtray Mike picked up from Instagram maker "Ash With Class," complete with felt bottom and welding good enough to impress the shop crew. From there it turns into an extended travel rant: the hosts recap a New York/New Jersey trip that included an event at Cigar Den (hosted by Nick) and family visits, followed by a genuinely cursed trip home — a badly delayed Newark flight, an hour on the tarmac with a screaming two-year-old, a confrontation with a passenger who tried to push past the row on deplaning, a car that wouldn't start in the airport lot and a toll-booth E-Pass fiasco.

The cigar-media portion covers Developing Palates' video review of the War Bear, which the hosts say was rough on them personally. Mike argues the box-pressed War Bear is the best version of the blend he's smoked, and the guys debate trying to get John or Aaron from Developing Palates on the show to talk it out. There's also talk of shout-outs from the Cigar Den event, the Cigar Noise crossover episode that didn't land with some listeners, and confirmation that the crew will be attending Lazonapalooza on Friday.

The news segment runs through several industry stories: Senators Tim Kaine and Mitch McConnell writing the new FDA commissioner about the agency's failure to enforce the federal Tobacco 21 minimum age law; Denmark's proposal (echoing New Zealand's) to ban tobacco sales to anyone born after 2010; the Cigar Association of America's report of a record 456.3 million premium cigars imported into the U.S. in 2021, up roughly 25% over 2020 but with a clear Q4 slowdown; a 4-3 smoking ban vote in New Iberia, Louisiana that exempts tobacco retailers, cigar bars and hookah bars; and the announced dates for Pro Cigar 2023 in the Dominican Republic (February 19–24), which overlap with TPE 2023.

The show closes with a pair of wild Florida news stories from a Miami Beach Starbucks and the naming of Adam Acri as Listener of the Week, plus plans to hang out with him and his wife during their visit.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Three-Camera Studio Upgrade and a Custom Buccaneers Ashtray
   The hosts show off their new third camera and a custom Tampa Bay Buccaneers ashtray from Instagram maker Ash With Class, praising the welding, felt bottom and fair price.
2. 02
   The Newark Trip From Hell
   A full recap of flying with three young kids: delays, an hour on the tarmac, a screaming toddler and a hostile passenger who tried to jump the deplaning line.
3. 03
   Cigar Den Event and East Coast Shout-Outs
   Mike recaps his event at Cigar Den in New Jersey, thanking host Nick and the shop's regulars while razzing the friends who didn't show.
4. 04
   Developing Palates' War Bear Review
   The guys react to a video review of the War Bear that criticized them, and debate which version of the blend — including the box-pressed — is actually best.
5. 05
   FDA Inaction on Tobacco 21
   Senators Tim Kaine and Mitch McConnell send a letter to the new FDA commissioner over the lack of enforcement and rulemaking around the federal 21+ tobacco purchase age.
6. 06
   Denmark's Generational Tobacco Ban Proposal
   Denmark's health minister floats banning tobacco and nicotine sales to anyone born after 2010, mirroring a similar New Zealand plan targeting births after 2007.
7. 07
   Record 2021 Premium Cigar Imports
   The Cigar Association of America reports a record 456.3 million premium cigars imported in 2021 — a 25% jump over 2020 — though December and Q4 showed a clear slowdown.
8. 08
   Smoking Bans, Pro Cigar 2023 and Listener of the Week
   New Iberia, Louisiana passes a smoking ban with cigar shop exemptions, Pro Cigar 2023 dates collide with TPE, and Adam Acri is named Listener of the Week.

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 220 of the Cigar Hustler Podcast. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Your ghost is, uh, too, too much in front of you. Where do you want it?

I don't care. Um, well, it's either that camera, that camera, that camera is like, so. You too can be part of our podcast family and invest in our show. Put your products in front of thousands of listeners every episode.

We're heard on 13 different podcast providers weekly all around the world. com. And remember to please rate, comment, and subscribe on Edge, whichever of our many, many, loyal and distinguished podcast distributors and video distributors that we happen to use. So, we've added another camera.

We have. So now we are a three camera shoot. Yes. Which just means more work for me.

More work for you. I like that. I like more work. Yes, more work.

I got a little thingy here, and my ashtray came in. You want to click on me real quick? I already did. Check out this.

Will you look where the red light is? Glaglao. Glaglao, he says. Glaglao.

It's a Tempe Buccaneer. Buccaneers ashtray. Would you like to plug the person who made it? Yes, I do.

I don't, hold on, I don't want to mess this up. It is, go check them out on Instagram, it is ashwithclass_kh9. Oh. So, yeah, I'm very excited about this ashtray.

train very nice i think uh eric ea mitch my boy mitch ea mitch yeah he i saw a post i think for like a raiders one or something like hey can you do the bucks and he's like yeah sure i'm sure they get it done boom oh terribly expensive few weeks later no reasonably reason for what it is i mean fair price very very fair price you know i'm not for um it it looks like i don't want it to be cheap you know no no no you don't want it inexpensive by any means yeah it looks like four stools around I want to feel like this is what I paid for, this is the value that I get, and I feel that way about this, so I'm very excited about it. It's very nice. It's very nice. I don't know where I'm gonna put it.

I like how they added the felt to the bottom so it doesn't scratch anything. Yeah, it's very well thought out. Yes, nice little touches here and there. It's nice welding, too.

Yes, yes, Greg was very surprised at the welding. Yes, he was. Oh, it's very nice welding. So yeah, very excited.

We need 12 more. We'll take 12. We will take 12. We'll take 12.

But the cigar has our logo. Oh, God, what a day already, man. Yeah, where are you late, run? Long day at the gym?

No, no, it's the average day at the gym. I actually kind of went kind of fast at the gym. Yesterday, well, we got back from New York, New Jersey, our New York, New Jersey trip yesterday. And like, holy shit, man, everything went wrong that could go wrong on this trip.

Right. As far as flying home. Oh. So, we get there nice and early, we want to make sure there's no problems at the airport, and I feel like this is me and you think, maybe we should be in the middle.

Oh, I'm going back to the other game. I guess that's much better. By the way, these aren't, did you watch the last episode that we used the two cameras? Yes.

Okay, did you see the hard cut between cameras? Yeah. We don't do that now. Now we have a nice little dissolve.

Oh, that's lovely. A little fade. Oh, a little fade in. I like the hardcore cut.

Oh, no. Man, I'm low on fuel. So we got there nice and early because, well, first of all, I mean, before I even get into all that, Traveling with three kids, eight and under, a two-year-old, a six-year-old, a eight-year-old. Oh, did you do the thing where you bring the little packs of, like, little candies and earplugs and apologize for your daughter screaming at everybody?

No, no, no, no, no. It seemed like a Brittany thing. Yeah, we probably should have done that for the flight home, because shit got sideways, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Oh, sorry.

It's like fucking traveling Oregon Trail. I mean, it is not easy, especially when you go to Newark, New Jersey, the airport, like the escalators, none of them fucking work. So I'm lugging my fucking, I mean, this thing was, it was bad. It was bad.

You know, we went, we opted out for the stroller. We said no stroller because we'd only use it at the airport. Right. You know, so we're carrying baby.

We carry the baby teddy. They don't have like a little luggage cart or something? No, no, no. That's close now.

Nope. You seen the rolling suitcases the kids can sit on? Maybe you should do that. Yeah, we tried to put her on the, well, actually my wife recommended putting her on the suitcase at the end.

And I said, it's probably not going to work. That's a bad idea. And then we see kids going on suitcases too. See, look, it worked.

" I mean, you know, she's not, she was not feeling it. Carrie, Carrie. She was not feeling it. Carrie, my daddy.

Yeah. Big muscle daddy, Carrie. So we got into town and, you know, I went to Cigar Den, had an awesome event. Yes.

Fucking awesome regulars. Really cool place. Right. Very well done.

Nick is a very, was a very gracious host. I had a good time. And then we hung out with the grandparents. Which went very well, you know, got to meet Baby Teddy and the whole shebang, and then we hung out with Anne-Marie and John, my angry accountant, they're avid watchers, Anne-Marie's a fan, she comments every week on the video, thank you, hello Anne-Marie, we never make her Listener of the Week though, we should make her Listener of the Week, but we can't do it for this whole month, she can be Shop of the Week, wait, is it going to be the month of April?

Is it the month of April that we need to make the special Listener of the Week? I don't know. Because we are one week into, we have a week left of March. Let me see, this is my birthday week, so I'd like to be the first four-time Listener of the Week.

So for the next three, next four weeks. But Palmer has to announce it lovingly and enthusiastically, since I am a member of Team Angry King. I don't know if it's gonna be lovingly. Yes, it must be lovingly.

Anyway, please proceed. So yeah, I hung out with the angry accountant. His name is Angry Accountant. We call him the Angry Accountant.

The last email that I got from him, all caps. He was very upset. Wow. Very upset.

I don't know how anybody's an accountant. Let's be honest. I mean, it sucks. It's gotta be a shitty job.

Oh, I know. If you're, you know, like, I mean, I'm not working on this at all. I guess I need to be getting our stuff. Together.

Yeah. Yeah, that whole thing. He already said where is it? No, no, he already filed an extension!

Oh, good! Oh, thank God. Yeah, he knows who he's dealing with at this point, unfortunately. So we have till August.

Yeah, yeah, well, we'll probably get it done before then. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, we had a lovely time with them. Yes.

We go to fly home. Yes. Okay. Is it a late flight?

It was like a five o'clock flight. that it worked it would have been perfect you know like you get home around eight yeah you know teddy would have just kind of been she's had a long day so you planned on her sleeping on the plane maybe maybe crashing for an hour on the plane maybe a little bit in the car bathing her and then being done right so we get there nice and early drop off the rental the whole shebang eat right no pressure you know again oregon trail too many kids for travel right so we go and There's a delay. Fucking plane's 45 minutes late, an hour late. I'm like, okay.

So now, as we're kind of waiting, just killing time, we're walking around doing whatever, the plane winds up being a little bit later. So it's like about an hour and a half late, an hour and a half late at this point. No connection though, right, because you don't do connection. No, well, if I try to avoid it, yeah, this is hub to hub, right?

Okay, well, now we're losing Teddy. She's getting pissed, you know? He's like, dah! I'm yelling and screaming and shit.

You're getting bored, you're getting tired. Yeah, I'm like, okay. Finally get on this fucking plane, right? And we wind up sitting on a tarmac for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Oof. So you're an hour and a half late, now you're another hour late, Teddy starts having a meltdown. So it's three hours. So you're at about eight o'clock.

Yeah, well, yeah, we're already past seven. I know that we're past seven at this point. Screaming out of her fucking mind, angry, 'cause she's tired. She's tired.

You know, things have gone awry, she's pissed off, they're trying to calm her down, Brittany finally picks her up, takes her to the bathroom, because she likes to wash her hands, Tay loves to wash her hands, she's trying to do something to get her, you know, to chill, finally convinces her to stop, lay down, boom, she's done. So it was about, I don't know, maybe 15 minutes of us sitting on the tarmac with the screaming. Right. And then we finally eventually take off, right?

So we take off, and you know, all's well, whatever, everything's fine, we go on land, and now, there should be a thing called airline etiquette, if it doesn't exist, I'm putting it into existence right now, right, there's this thing called airline etiquette, like gym etiquette, you fucking be courteous of everybody else around you, right, like the gym, you don't walk in front of the mirror when they're working out, like that's a dick move, you don't do, you wait, right, till they're done with their set, then you go pick up the weights if it's in front of you, whatever. In the airline, if the plane lands and it's time for everybody to get up, you wait until the people in front of you get the fuck up and go, right? I mean, how many times have I blocked when we go to get, or you block or whatever, whenever we travel, like, fuck that, and they're not getting up. They're not getting behind us, right?

The people behind us are not going to cram themselves. Right, yeah. Oh, there's free space only before. Right, and then make a shit show over the whole thing, right?

Okay. So I get up and tell my wife, hey, I'm going to get up and make sure that nobody else gets behind. You know, there's no, you shall not pass. There will be no passage.

There shall be no passage. So this guy comes up to me and he's like on me. He's like standing on me. And his bag is over here and he's trying to grab his bag from me.

Like he's reaching around or whatever. I grab his bag of Hanatone. and he continues to stand on me as I'm blocking the fucking path and passway. And he says, excuse me, I'd like to advance.

Oh, and I said, I bet you would. Oh, nice. I bet you would like to advance, but there's this fucking thing called manners and you're not going to be advancing. Oh yeah.

So then he says to me, Oh, manners like cursing and manners like your, your son screaming at the beginning of the flight? And I said, oh, okay. I don't even remember what I said at that point. I was like, yeah, something like that.

You're not fucking getting past me, was my response, right? So, I mean, everybody else is kind of getting tense around us. It's like I see on TV. Get your phone out.

Get your phone out. We're going to see this. This one guy's going to get his ass kicked by the guy with the mohawk. people were like, oh, you know, then people started to chime in with the comments of, you know, you know, I would understand if he had to be somewhere or if he had to make a connecting flight or something like that.

And I was like, yeah, maybe. But the fact of the matter is that we're all late at this point. Right. And we all want to get off the plane.

Right. He can fucking wait like everybody else. Right. So I fucking stood there.

I fucking stood there the whole time. The guy just, you know, obviously didn't try anything, but he wanted me to obviously have some kind of physical fucking response to him because he's trying to egg me on, right? I mean, how do you bring in a two year old, how do you bring a two year old into the fucking conversation? Oh, like your kid screamed.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, a two year old kid screamed. And what's funny was my wife, Brittany, heard me kind of get fucking uppity with this guy. And then once he made the comment about fucking Teddy, which he thought was a boy, she didn't say shit. He's like, "Oh, okay, go ahead and fuck it.

Yeah, you go right ahead and break his fucking job. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, you ought to get fucking out. You know what?

I was trying to slow him down, but you know what? " So, um, I fucking waited. I let everybody up. Uh, there's people right to the right of me.

I said, "You know what? " I was like, "No, no, really. " I'm like, "No, no, absolutely. " So I fucking removed their armrest for them.

I go, "Please go right ahead. " You know, whatever. Fuck it. There's more details, I'm sure, to that, but we got them, you know, everybody got the plane.

Yeah, Brittany would like to call in next week with the actual, uh, give you the whole deets. The whole deets on the, uh, on the story, that would be wonderful. That would be wonderful. Yes, we would all, we would all enjoy that.

Like, I don't understand why people become fucking complete assholes, like the, you know, for one, like the airline wants to be late. Like, they're like, like, that's not their intention, shit goes sideways. No, right, things happen. Right?

Right. Okay. Yeah, do you want them to fly when the plane, the red light's coming on on the dashboard? Or if something's delayed because of the weather.

Yeah, weather delayed. Like, oh, let's yell fucking at everybody. That makes complete sense. Somebody's not making the connection.

You know, if you were the guy not making the connection, you didn't want them to wait. Right. Oh, let's take it out on the flight attendant, you know, because fuck them, right? I mean, I just don't.

Because they have all the control. Yeah, so this guy was a complete asshole coming on. You could tell. The way he threw his bag up there, you know.

Yeah, I mean, he was just a complete ass. I don't want to go into too many other details about the guy. But, um, he was just a complete fucker. Well, uh, okay, well, I have him on the line right now.

Caller, would you like to, uh, uh, but you know, he was convinced that he was in the right. Oh, sure he was. Yeah. Like, it's okay for, I am okay to do this.

Like, this is, uh, this is, like, it is, it is my noble right, like fucking prima nocte or some shit. Prima nocte? Yeah. I will do a prima nocte.

It is my noble right to layeth upon all of you in front of me. Welcome for the airline. Well, not today, motherfucker. You're going to be sitting back there and you're going to wait.

God damn it. So, that was my fun... Okay, so now we're fucking... We're late.

Right. It's like 10 something at night. Right. Okay.

So we get to the car. Okay. And getting to the car is a process because boys got to pee, girls got to pee. Everybody got to pee.

There's a lot of pee. Well, actually, Teddy winds up peeing later. So, all right. Get to the car.

Go to turn the car on, the fucking car doesn't start, and it's, you know, 10 something at night, and it's been a fucking day, and I almost just killed somebody. So I'm like, holy shit, man. So we step out of the car, the battery's kind of fucked up, or whatever, and then by the grace of God, I don't know what the fuck happened, but I gave it one more go, and it goes, and boom, it fucking kicked on, I was like, holy shit. Mike, everybody in the car, we got to go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Do not turn off this car, do not turn off this car until we get home, goddammit. Right. So, yeah, it was, uh. Doesn't the airport have people for that though?

Yeah, but we're in the Hilton area, in the hotel area, you know how we park? Right, right, right. And there was no one around. No, but they've got to have, they've got to have somebody there.

Like a jump or something? Yeah, yeah. I'm sure they do. It's got to be a regular thing.

I'm sure they do, but man, I did not want. Yeah, you know, who knows where you, I guess you walk out to the toll booth lady. " She's not wearing diapers no more? No, we went rogue.

Oh. Took a gamble. That's a problem. So she just peed in pants?

No. I made her, we went down to a hotel up the street when she held it. Oh, good for her. Mm-hmm.

It all worked out. The guy waited patiently. The guy waited patiently. the car started we made it home was it five hours later yes but whatever yeah no shit went a long day holy moly well but now i had this beautiful ashtray but that kind of fucking parlayed into me being messed up today oh because you get home late it's like okay well you don't want to force the kids out the door at you know school time because they're fucking exhausted and they can go so we get we gave them time to get up oh when they woke up then we went to you know then i dropped them off, you know.

Then I had to get gas. I had no gas. Like, there was just one thing after the other. But we're there now.

We made it. Yes. Survived. Here we are.

And you made it. Say, we survived, here we are, to that camera. We survived, and here we are. Excellent.

He survived, here we are. So, Developing Palace just released a review on the War Bear. Today, I didn't see it. Yeah, shout out to Stephen Wells, he released that, he showed me it.

I worked today, because I was coming for Steve. Oh, you're still punched in? I'm still punched in. I finally get paid to do the show.

I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna, you know, that was the first actual review I listened or watched on Developing Palettes. Oh. Now I have questions. Now I have so many questions, I want, I'm gonna go start doing some fucking analytical research.

You know, I'm gonna break the whole thing. Oh, they did a video, not just the written thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I might have to watch it.

It was a little aggressive. Why don't we arrange to get one of them on the show for next week? Was it John McTavish? He was there.

He pooped on me. Yeah, there's a... How many guys pooped on you? All four of them.

What kind of pooped on me? I don't know who the four guys are. Aaron's on there. Aaron?

Aaron. He spoke? And then two... Yeah, he spoke.

He spoke. He got my last name. He nailed it. Oh!

Yeah, it was very impressive. Nice, nice, nice. And then the other two guys, I have no idea who the fuck they are. Oh, I thought you were going to say his name was Tupac.

And then Tupac. And they're an Asian gentleman? There is? Yeah, I don't know his name either.

I don't know who he is. I don't know who he is. And then there's somebody else? Yes.

Oh, I have no idea who that is. I don't know who they are. Oh, well, maybe we can get John or Aaron on the show for next week. I don't know them.

Well, if you're going to- I've tried getting John on before, and he thought there was some shenanigans involved, and he was afraid to come on. Oh, like, we're trying to fuck with him? Right. Well, like, I want, I mean, I got to go back now.

I want to go and look. Oh, I have to go and watch this. I have to develop, I need to develop data on the Developing Palettes review. Oh.

Because, I mean, I got pooped on a little bit. Wow. I got pooped on a little. Who was harder without seeing it?

Was it Aaron or John? Hmm. I would say John. I think John was harder.

All right, let's get John. I'll see if I can get John after next week. Yeah, don't fuck up my relationship with Aaron. I like Aaron.

I like Aaron, too. He's a good guy. Oh, you don't like John, though? I have mixed feelings about John after his review.

No, I don't care. He's Canadian. He's fucking Canadians. I mean, they're just out of control.

you know, with their regulations and their overpriced cigars. Right. You know, it was interesting. It was very interesting.

It was very interesting. Here's my camera. And this is so hard to do. I recommend listening to it.

You know, what's really funny is for me, the War Bear, the Box Press War Bear, I feel like that was the best fucking War Bear I've had. Yeah, so do I. But no, not from them, huh? Not from them.

Wow. Not from them. Did they say one of the others were better? They did.

Which one? Well, one said the Robusto was better, but there was no Robusto. There was never a Robusto. Maybe you meant the perfection?

Well, I'm not a fucking fact check, I mean. I mean, we don't fact check. We're not a perfect. But we admit that we're not.

Yeah, we're not a professional show. Yeah, we're not fucking. We're just winging. We might just call Abe.

Woo! Yeah. " And he sent me back. Baha.

Baha. Baha. Baha. Ha.

I like that we just wing shit. It looks, I mean, fuck, man, we have so much great raw content. It seems to work for us, so who cares? It's fucking amazing.

I don't know if I like the three cameras. This is too much work. I think this is fantastic for me. I mean, this is glorious.

I love three cameras. It is so much. Mixing up the view. So yeah, I mean.

I haven't heard half you said, because I'm over here hitting buttons. I gotta tell you, shout out to, for one, my boy, Nick Sagrammon, Nick Ruggiero, for showing up to Sagar. He brought you a lovely looking cookie. It was, no, no, it's called something else.

It's like a cannoli. Oh, no, a cannoli is long and skinny. Yeah, but it's got a donut. It's like a donut cannoli.

Look at the camera. It's like a donut cannoli. Shit. Maybe we, what we need to do, obviously.

Somebody said what they were called. Wait, we need to set your camera up over here. Yeah. Shooting that way.

Oh. And my camera should be that one, shooting this way. Very nice. I don't know what it's called.

A Zeppeli? Is it a Zeppeli? A Zeppelin? A Zeppeli.

What's a Zeppeli? This just popped in my head. It could be. That sounds very.

I believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, maybe. I have no fucking idea.

But it was amazing. And then also Tatlap Moe. Tatlap Moe. Oh.

You know Tatlap Moe? I know the name. I've never met him, I don't believe. Oh man, what is a sweetheart of a guy.

Yes. He showed up to say hi. Did I miss your yoga light? No, he did not.

No, his wife had a back issue. We'll give him a pass. All right. You know, the whole, you know, with the exception of Nick.

Yes. a couple guys blew me off you know Ray 1-2 no Ray 1-2 no Ray 1-2 no Antony no Antony no Antony he said he had to work late I don't care was Ray 3-4 there? " I was in full beast mode, it was amazing. It all wound up in the sugar, from the Zeppelin.

From the Zeppeli, or if that's what it's called, we don't even know. From the Zeppelin, we don't even know. So how was your week? I didn't do anything, my wife went to Tampa for the weekend to go see, well, no, Friday night, I had birthday dinner with mommy.

Oh yeah! It was her birthday. You had a little cupcake. Well, the kitchen staff got her a cupcake.

Oh, very nice. At her club. Okay. That's cool.

It was her first, you know, birthday without dad. So, in the last couple of years, she hadn't been able to celebrate at all because he didn't remember, she didn't want to bring it up because he didn't feel bad. So, that's her first birthday in three years, apparently. So does it count as the one that we missed?

Like, the first two that we missed? Are we still at that age? No, she said this is her last one. " Oh man, just coming out, coming in fucking aggressive.

Holy shit. What does that mean? Because, you know, the only way you stop having these is if you're no longer here. Yeah.

She said, "That's not what I mean. " What does it mean? What does that mean? She don't want to celebrate them, I think is what I meant.

Oh. She's 80. She turned 80. She doesn't want to...

I don't get it. Something happens when people get old. They get so curmudgeon-y. Don't know.

Don't know at all. You know? Yeah. What is that all about?

I don't know, but since I'll get there before you, I'll explain it to you when I get there. Okay. Can you break it down at some point? That'd be great.

I would really appreciate that. Our race team is off and racing. I saw some photos today. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I hope we did well. I haven't seen the results. Jason's out and about. We did the Cigar Noise, boys.

That was a fucking, woo. Yeah, I've had people say they didn't like it at all. That was tough. That was a rough show.

You gotta work on that, guys. You got a little form to your show or something. Yeah, I mean... I don't even know what to say.

Who told you it was rough? Uh, the Morrises. Oh, tough critics. Yeah, they didn't, they didn't enjoy it at all.

Yikes. So. Yeah, I thought for sure it was gonna be different. You know?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't. I don't know.

I mean. I don't even know where to start. Tyler was kind of like laying down on a blanket. He had a blankie.

No. Comfy? I mean, he could have got away with it. There's no video, apparently, which I was all set up for video, so.

So was I. Right. Well, you had your standard. My standard, yeah.

I ran hostage. My terrorist. Your terrorist hostage proof of life video that you do every time. What the fuck?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, Tyler just laying around with his blankie, and then once Skip started texting him, we lost him completely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God, Skip's texting him. Skip's texting him and doing it every show.

He's like, fucking, you know, go back and listen to that, like the last 10 minutes of that podcast. He's not on. You could just feel him swooning in the fucking background. Oh, he's dead.

Oh, Skip, Skip, Skip, Skip. Skip wants the video. Can I Face, I'm gonna FaceTime, Skip. See, this isn't on the Patreon, Tyler, so fuck you.

Right. All right, should we just move on to the news? Yeah, let's let it happen, man. I'm just glad to be back.

25 minutes. I had a great time, and it's good to be home. Getting kind of back. Oh, we got Lazonapalooza.

Yes. We're going to Lazonapalooza. One more time on that one. We're going to Lazonapalooza.

We will be there Friday. Friday. Friday. Friday's the day we'll be there.

Not Saturday, not Sunday. We'll be there Friday. And not Thursday either. Thursday, I feel like if you get there Thursday.

Is there a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? It's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday thing. Oh, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah.

So that's good. So, we're going right in the middle. Yeah. It's like they're going to prep and prepare for us for an entire day.

Right. And then we show up. We there. Right.

We leave. And then they can clean up. Are we staying at a hotel? Thursday night, we'll stay at a hotel.

Okay. Just kidding, just kidding. Thursday night, we'll crash at a hotel. Okay.

Then Friday. Friday, and then we'll just... We go. Right.

Unless you want to stay at one of my friend's house or something. No, I don't want to stay at your friend's house. Why not? Because I don't know your friends.

I have friends. Want to stay at Jason Taylor's house? Go back to this one. Do you want to stay at Jason Taylor's house?

I'm not friends with Jason Taylor. I could probably stay at Daniel's house. Who's Daniel? The guy who won't smoke on the water with Jason.

Oh. We could stay at Jason Taylor's in-laws house. Oh, you have that connect? Yeah.

Hey, so what are you doing? We'd have to take him with us to Lizana. That would be fair. That would be fair, we'd have to take him with us.

And then Boots will wet himself. It's always complicated. Oh, we could take pictures with Jason Taylor and send them to Boots. We'll take Jason Taylor with us.

We'll take Jason Taylor with Lozano Palooza. He probably don't need to dig it. I mean, Alfredo's there all the time. Jason Taylor's got to know what Espinosa product is at this point.

You would think. I'm going to tell you right now, if Jason Taylor doesn't know fucking verbatim exactly what the Espinosa catalog is, Alfredo's just a failed person. I mean, he devotes every day there. Well, Jason's not there every day.

Yeah, but you figure just the overall seepage. Like, you know, he would, he's kind of entrenched, you know, when Jason gets there, Alfredo's there. They should carry everything. Yeah.

And he's already, he's got to be claiming the fucking Espinosa, you know what I mean? Right. Might just be all knuckle sandwiches there. All knuckle sandwich.

Have you had a knuckle sandwich? Knuckle sandwich. Yeah. It's Jason's favorite.

You know, I found there, where were we at? We were somewhere in the land, on the way to the land, there is a store, it's an old gas station turned into a restaurant called The Knuckle Sandwich. Interesting. Yes.

I feel like we should tell Guy about this. Cease and desist. Well, I don't know. Do you think he is a copyrighted than Knuckles Sandwich?

Do you think it's not trademarked? It's fucking A. Well, yeah, but it's trademarked for cigars. It's not trademarked for...

That's his thing. Knuckles Sandwich? Yeah. I don't know.

It's been around. The restaurant might have been around before. It's a gas station that turned into a restaurant. I doubt they're crushing it.

Can I get fucking, you know, 20 on pump two while I'm there? No, no, no. There's no gas, but like the outdoor seating where the gas pumps used to be, and then the garage is the kitchen it looked like, and then the little couple of tables on the inside. Did you eat there?

No, I drove by it. Does it still say Shell or something? No. No, I don't think it was a Shell station.

Not a big station. A little station. What are the old, like Sitco? Is that a Sitco?

No. Shell. Probably old Shell station. You think it was a Shell?

Maybe. Could be. Maybe the green one, Hess. Ooh, Hess.

Maybe it was a Hess. Were there trucks there? No, just the one. All right, we're going to get started.

Let's go. Let's roll. Now you're just being silly. Now I'm just being silly?

From the four quarters of the world, all the cigar industry news you could possibly need. The Cigar Hustler Podcast Report with Mike Toon. Last week, Michael, Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia and Mitch McConnell from Kentucky sent a letter to Robert Caldwell. We need more ink.

Robert. It could be Caldwell. S. Food and Drug Administration complaining about the lack of action regarding the relatively new federal minimum aged by tobacco products and the lack of communication regarding the inaction and asking commissioner's plans regarding the future.

Regarding the future. Basically, the problem was there's no enforcing of the 21H. There is no tobacco. Without those steps, FDA is limited to its ability to punish retailers for potentially violating the new standard.

The letter notes that, per the new law, FDA could be conducting undercover inspections to see if retailers ask for identification for potential tobacco buyers 30 or younger, up from the 27 and under approach previously, which, creating a final rule, FDA is still operating under the old standards. Many states and local governments have already passed legislation increasing the minimum age to purchase tobacco products 21 prior to December 2019, and many more have followed through since then. Since then, by changing state and local laws, it allows the state and local law enforcement to issue warnings and citations to those caught selling tobacco products to people under the age of 21 years old. Okay, so wait a second.

" Two senators wrote a letter to the FDA. Okay. You have said these... Oh, hold on.

See, there's so much fucking work now. Yeah. We need a guy. We should just stick boots in here.

He's just boop, boop, boop. Make him push the buttons. He's just be jumping around. Yeah.

I don't trust him. Me neither, but we gotta take the plunge. I trust Chet. But he's part of the company now.

That's true. Oh yeah, part of the company. Where are we at? " Right.

But you're not doing anything to enforce that to be 21. You assholes. Why are they assholes? Why are they, fuck, first of all, they already deemed the fact that if it's, you know, as far as cigar stores are concerned.

Right. So no one under the age of 21 is really pressing hard to smoke cigars, right? Correct. I mean, yeah, back in the day...

Some states have changed it to 21, they're saying, and those states are enforcing the law. Okay. But the FDA is not saying, like, if you get caught, here's what the punishment is. Okay, so state senators are asking for federal regulation on tobacco.

I think it's more of a, why are you wasting our time with this when you're not gonna back it up anyway? They should just go away and let us handle it at state level, which we are doing anyway. Okay, that's, that's, that makes sense. That's, I didn't read the entire article on the air.

That was their approach. That's, that's more the approach they're taking. You're making all these laws, but you're not enforcing any of them. So why don't you just back off?

Okay, maybe. All right, Denmark's considering banning tobacco sales to anyone born after 2020-10. What? Yes.

Where is Denmark? Europe. Oh. So you can't buy anything if you were born?

Can't buy tobacco if you were born after 2010. They're just trying to eradicate tobacco. Right. I have it, actually.

I think I figured out where it would be. Anyway, in the last week, health officials in two European countries, it's in Europe, announced the possibility of aggressively increasing the minimum age to purchase tobacco purchased in their countries. The most aggressive, we need more ink, Aggressive option was introduced today by Magnus Horndungel, the Master of Health for Denmark. He suggested the country could ban the sale of tobacco nicotine products to anyone born after 2010.

Right now, there are 12-year-olds that are very upset in Denmark. No, but what will happen is, eventually, you will not be able, when all the older people die off... Yeah, I get it. there will be no more tobacco sales.

Mm-hmm. That's where they're going. That's the plan. Yes.

Currently the Denmark's minimum age purchase tobacco is 18 years old, the proposal similar to that has been advanced in New Zealand, which would ban anyone born after 2007. You people suck. For purchasing tobacco products. While New Zealand's plan is further along, the Denmark has now enacted an actual law saying as such.

This is just terrible. It's losing your rights. Come to America. It's free.

Come to the land of the free. Well, we have to pay for the tobacco. You have to pay for the tobacco. Right.

With taxes. Taxes. More taxes. More weight, more taxes.

All right, now we hit this button. Okay. S. in 2010, according to the Cigar Association of America.

2010 or 2020? 2021, sorry. Yeah. 2010 was the other story.

Okay. 2021, according to the Cigar Association of America, the staggering number is the highest number of imports the CAA has recorded in the history of its estimated data, The data, which dates back to 1977. Yeah, well, it's slowing down now. And then there's a graph.

Given the preliminary data from the CAA through the year, it's no surprise that the final number was more than 400 million. We have a chart here. Yes, there's a chart here. Through the fact that it reached as high as it did, but surprising.

4 million premium cigars imported in last year. Oh. Meaning that there was a 25% increase. Thank you for doing the math, CA.

Yeah, it was very nice of you. While the increase over 2020 was substantial, it could be noted that December showed clear signs of a slowdown. That's what you just said, Mike. Well, who knew?

7% drop. Yeah, because we already got a bunch of cigars down here. The EBITDA. It's all about the EBITDA.

8% decreased. Decreased. Decreased. A lot of graphs.

CA reported makes the downturn clear showing a chart of the imported versus a rolling average. I'm not going to know any more of these charts. There was a lot of cigars last year until you got the end of the year. It didn't sort of slow down.

Yeah. Basically, it's what they're saying. Fair enough. But it was the biggest year to date since 1977.

I prefer, you know, thank you very much for putting that into crude diamonds terms for me. You're welcome. Yeah. That's why I'm here.

Help you with the big words. Yeah. That's very nice of you. You know?

Well, I have some bad news. Uh-oh. New Iberia, Louisiana passes a smoking ban. Oh.

No, it's not entirely bad. Unless you have cigar shops and a bar, 'cause then you can smoke there. There's not, you know, hey, whatever. That's cool.

Uh, the New Iberia City Council passed an ordinance by a four to three vote. Very close. Very close. Uh, that will ban smoking in a number of public places, including bars, restaurants, gambling facilities, private clubs, pool halls, and more.

Private clubs too, huh? Oh, shit. Yeah, she's a private club. Oh, shooty.

You can't tell me what to do when it's private. However, retail tobacco businesses and cigar bars, as well as a hookah bar, were granted exemptions from the ban. Okay, so it's a little fucked up, but not entirely fucked up. Not entirely.

" Yeah, you can't smoke in the restaurant, which I can, it's reasonable, who wants to eat when the guy next to you is smoking? " I mean, what? Yeah. Exactly.

All right, we have the dates, Mike, for the 2023 Pro Cigar. Oh. We should go. You think so?

I've never been. Is that the way they have the white party? That is the white party. I don't like the racist thing.

I don't want to go. Oh, you talked about that before. Yes. I don't, um, I don't, I, there was a big breath there for the Morris's big nostril.

Oh, I heard that. It's terrible. She doesn't like that stuff. I don't.

And she won't cut her hair. I don't. It's become a thing. Um, I don't know.

I don't really care to go. You can go. I don't want to go. But it's February 19th to the 24th.

All right. Pro Cigar 2023 Festival, the Dominican Republic Cigar Festival, will take place February 19th to the 24th. These dates are a little surprised as the event historically has held the week following Valentine's Day. Oh.

Oh. It still is. What? Following Valentine's Day.

There's one intriguing bit to the dates and the announcement it confirms that the event will return to its normal format. An optional start at La Romana on Sunday before the main festival kicks off in the San Diego de los Caballeros. are you busy? I'm listening.

You're busy? I'm very excited. You're sending emoticons. Yes.

These dates overlap the TPE 2023, an industry trade show. Oh, did they? 22nd to 24th. They overlap.

By a couple of days, you're going to have to choose, I guess, which one you're going to. You must choose. Well, that means Abe can do his in March, though. Why are you yawning all of a sudden?

Oh, excuse me. Did he do his in March this year? Yeah, right? Right, yeah, but remember, he told us he was waiting to get the dates to see when he was going to live.

Yeah, he usually does it in February, I believe. No, March. He did it in March this year. I think it was always like the weekend after Valentine's Day is usually when he did it.

Oh, well, now he has to do it the first week of April, March, first week of March. Now you want to call him again? I bet he answers. No, I bet he does too.

Officials have told Half-Will they are trying to move TPE to an alternate date. It has a number of reasons, including, oh, also overlaps the TPE 2023. They're just going for them. Right, everybody, I guess the pro cigar.

It's a war. The festival follows attendees, intimate access, oh, allows. What is going on with you today? I don't know, I was fine until a second ago.

Get it together. There's no oxygen in this room. The festival allows attendees intimate access to Dominican cigar companies and direct access to the country's most The most prominent cigar makers. Oh.

Wow, the news really looks like it was going to fill more time. All right, we have two Florida stories. Oh. They are related stories, and then we have a...

Listener of the month. Listener of the month, apparently. Enthusiastically. Apparently.

Apparently. Florida man busted after masturbating inside of Miami Beach Starbucks. Now, I saw this headline last week, but because of what was going on, we weren't able to talk about it last week. So I had to Google it.

And as I Googled it, I found a related story. So first this story, then the other story. Oh, okay. So the guy thought that Starbucks was a masturbatory.

Self-proclaimed homeless male model. Oh, self-proclaimed homeless male model. So it's like Zoolander. He kind of looked like Zoolander a little bit.

There was a photo. Was arrested for masturbating in front of people in a Starbucks in Miami Beach on Friday, according to the report. Blake Rain, that's his name. That's a great model name.

It is. R-E-I-G-N. Whoa. m.

on Friday. Excellent. So if you go to that one, don't ask for the extra cream. I wonder what possessed him to do the...

Let's read on it. Yeah, let's continue. I'm intrigued. Witnesses, Alyssa DiMaria, said she was in the shop when she used her phone to record him.

That's just kind of weird. Yeah, it's over. You want to get that on video? Rub one out there.

You guys are just so, you know, you guys are just so quick with the phones these days. Oh, let me get that. Oh, everybody's good at this, let's see. Tag this out, those guys.

Blake Raines rubbing one out again. What are you, they bleeped it, but what are you fucking doing? Get the, get the fuck out. It's disgusting.

She yells at him in the video obtained by Local 10 News. With the camera? Right. She's recording.

Stop that right now. You're gross. Oh, my goodness. Can someone get a light?

You all masturbating. I need more lighting. Rain, wearing a white shirt, underpants, and white socks, clearly unbothered, does this gross deed in front of an American flag in the coffee shop while looking around at patrons. Oh, my goodness.

America. I gotta pass out. Please, stop. Dean Marie said he did it for about 10 minutes before officers finally arrived at the point Rain took off running, according to the arrest report.

Didn't make a good noise. And then the fucker took off. Rain deliberately refused to comply with the cops, ordering them, uh, order, uh, cops orders, and they shot him with a dart firing stun gun. Oh, shit.

That's when, that's when he got to yanking again. Oh, I really liked that. Oh, turn him on. Turn him on a little bit.

This time, pulling the dart out of his body and running off again. Woo hoo, can't get you. I don't think those things are easy to pull out. No, they're barbed.

Yeah. Yeah, they had to hurt. In the bizarre chase, police shot Rain roughly eight times. Eight times.

Eight times. God damn. You guys might want to check the batteries in your taser guns, maybe. The dude, police used closed fist distraction blows.

I'm not exactly sure what that is. And kicked him in the lower back area as well. Well, we know what happened. Closed fist distraction blows?

You guys are not supposed to do this anymore. That's why they call them closed fist distraction blows. According to the arrest report, one of the officers was injured after he slipped and fouled during the foot chase. Oh my God.

We didn't step in something. Oh. Burn those shoes, buddy. Whammy Fire Rescue Personnel took rain to Mount Sinai Medical Center.

He is charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, disorderly conduct, and estimated in an establishment, and resisting an officer without violence. His bond was set at $700. He can't cover that. $70.

He's only got to come by. It's 10%, right? It might always been $70,000 for him. That's true.

We should, we should bond them out. Bail them out. Bail them out. What are you doing?

I'm going to look. It's just recording me while I'm talking. Oh, it's back to the two shot. Yeah.

Uh, record show rain was at the Turner Guilford Knight Corrections Center on Sunday, Lucien, uh, local 10 reported. Huh. Okay. Now this is the related story.

Okay. We get more information. Tell me. A woman is recalling her Miami vacation from hell and the story is so wild, it's almost unbelievable.

Uh huh. After news went viral that the Florida man was busted for pleasuring himself on Miami Beach Starbucks, Haley Magook took to TikTok to explain what really happened. Haley Magook. She saw it.

She put it on TikTok. Oh. Okay. In the viral TikTok, Haley explained she and a group of gals descended on Miami on Thursday, had a good night, woke up a smidge hungover and decided to mobile order some coffee.

Okay. That's when her seemingly normal morning went awry. After the woman arrived at Starbucks, the man followed him behind them and stood there and started to jerk himself off in the middle of the store. Wow.

Now, there were pictures of these young ladies, very attractive blondes. Uh-huh. So, I'm thinking this is what got them a little worked out. This is what triggered Blake.

Right. Yeah, Blake, Rain, Mr. Rain. Mr.

Rain. Uh, Haley and her friends grabbed their drinks and beelined for the door. The man wasn't finished though, so he followed them out the store while continuing to touch himself. Hey, slow down, I'm not done yet.

Wow. I don't know. Can you stop someone that can be heard pleading in the clip before Haley and her pals start walking away as fast as possible with the guys still hot on their tails? It's a trail, but it says tails.

Eventually, police were called and the man was tased and eight times, apparently. Wow. And apprehended. But that's not the end of Haley's bad day.

Oh, no. It's worse for Haley. What else happened, Haley? Putting the traumatic experience behind her, the ladies decided to go out and have a good evening, the next morning hoping to avoid the Starbucks yet, we're not going there again.

I don't blame them. Where she was sexually assaulted, in parentheses, Haley and her friends chose to go to a cute cafe instead. Oh, shit. I already read this, it was making me laugh already.

Would they have like a special perfume on or something that triggers men? I can see where this is going. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you have no idea. No?

Oh, okay. No, no, no, no. Okay. It was after she ordered her food that another horrifying incident occurred.

A man collapsed and dies in front of her. Oh my God. Fully dies and put in a body bag she had, showing a video of the man's body being carried away. Unspennoned to her at the time, news of the man being arrested for pleasuring himself on Starbucks had made headlines with a reporter eventually reaching out to Haley and asking if she wanted to be on the news.

" And appeared on the evening news. After the news debuted, Haley explained she and her friends got on the next flight out of Miami. She left. All I have to say is I have never in my life been so happy to be back in New York City.

They're from New York. They're from New York and the worst thing I ever said was in Miami. That's some complete horse shit though, let me tell you. " Wow, I gotta tell you, I watched the news for about 10 minutes about New York and it was stab, murder, someone died, I mean, like, there's all types of crazy shit going on in New York, don't tell me that Miami is worse.

Not even close. Yes, but it's never been in front of her. Yeah, because she probably goes home and hides in her apartment. She goes to her yoga classes and then she goes back home.

Maybe she doesn't live in there. Maybe she's a college student. She never leaves campus or something. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. It's a scary world out there, Haley. Haley. Haley.

Maybe Haley will call in next week. This is Haley. Hello, this is Haley. I'm only calling into your state.

I'm all traumatized. A mess. Oh my God, there's a man, you're going to have right here. I told you not to wear the perfume again, Betty.

So who do we have for, what else are we doing? We got a listener of the week? I guess. Yeah, we got one.

Michael. Hold on, I got to set it up. Michael, I want to hear some enthusiastic. No, no.

No, that's not that. He didn't poop. Michael Joseph. No.

Burn you with my smoke. Burn you with my smokes. All right. All right.

Whatever. Turn my camera on. You better be nice because he'll be here this weekend. Is he coming?

Yeah. Really? When's he going to be here? He'll be here Thursday.

We won't be here. We'll see him this weekend. Oh, is he going down there? No.

Oh. We'll see him this weekend. How are we going to see him this weekend? We'll hang out with him.

We're going to be down there. Thursday, Friday. On Sunday, we're going to Universal. Oh, we are?

You said we were. Well, on Saturday, we hang out with Adam. Oh. Listener of the week is Adam Acri.

Hey! My TikTok friend. Your TikTok friend. And his wife.

They both do their own TikToks. Mm-hmm. Him and his wife are coming to town. Oh.

To hang out with you. No, no, hang out with you. To catch up. Hang out with you.

No, hang out with you. You're bringing all the children's? No children's. Oh!

Nice. Adulting. Adult weekend. Adulting?

I want to be in one of his TikToks. There you go. Now's your time to shine. Now's my chance.

Yeah. I'll have to come up with one that we can do. There you go. Hey, you got anything?

Shop of the Week? Yeah. Shop of the Week? Adam Acree!

Adam Acree! Shop of the Week! Look at that. Cigar store owner.

Cigar store owner, flatbed, big trucker or something. Something like that somewhere. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. All right. I guess we're going to wrap it up here. That's it.

In 50 minutes. That's fine. So if you're on an airline, don't run in front of people. Don't do it.

You may run into me. You're not going anywhere. You should do your own camera for that one. You may run into me.

And you're not going anywhere. You're going to wait your turn like everybody else. And you could even insult me. And it's still not going to move.

I promise you. Alright, this has been episode 220, still the number one cigar show on Podbean, Cigar Hustler Podcast. We're not doing a Patreon today, so we can't tell you what it's gonna be, 'cause we're late. Alright guys, we gotta go, we'll talk to you later, 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 & 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 Szczevankevic, 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 & Mike production. m. for all new episodes.

Hi, I'm doing, I'm Husto-E-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, the... Hojo! It's the Hojo!

De Madre. You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way. I can't get past Hojo! I don't even have to try to hit the record.

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

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

Show Notes

Mikey gets in a fight on a plane.....industry news......and more