Cigar Hustlers Podcast 260 Black Adam
Episode Summary
Episode 260 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is the crew's annual walk through the Cigar Aficionado Top 25 list, with host Mike Szczepankiewicz, producer Mike "BDP" Palmer and cameraman Phil — who gets drafted into reading the cigar names (and mangling most of the Spanish). Before the list, the guys spend a long, loose opening on holiday plans, the Bucks game and the elaborate CBS vs. ESPN sideline camera rigs, a live on-air phone call about what size brisket to buy, and a public apology to Bear for a birthday video that got cut.
The main segment works backward from No. 25, with the hosts weighing in on whether each stick actually belongs. Highlights include the Plasencia Reserva Original Corona (they think it deserves better than 25), La Gloria Cubana Classic, the Espinosa/Guy Fieri Knuckle Sandwich Habano (which scored well on their own Patreon blind panel), Tatuaje Cojonu, the Illusione-connected Allegria, Casa Magna Colorado, San Cristóbal Clásico, Brick House Churchill, two Cuban entries (Cohiba 55 Aniversario and Romeo y Julieta Línea de Oro), La Palina Goldie, New World Dorado, Joya de Nicaragua Antaño 1970, La Flor Dominicana, E.P. Carrillo Pledge Apogee, the Arturo Fuente Rare Pink Vintage 1960 "Sophisticated Hooker," Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua, Padrón 1964 Anniversary Príncipe, My Father, Alec Bradley Black Market, Oliva Serie V, Davidoff and Rocky Patel.
Running through it all is the crew's skepticism about how the list gets built: they argue it rewards magazine advertisers and "cool kid" industry relationships, that value cigars and Cubans don't belong on a list of readily available premiums, and that boutiques like RoMa Craft and Fratello-tier brands will never crack it. They also call out the annual social media outrage cycle around the list as pointless. Along the way they smoke a Fratello Florida sent by Brett Frye of the Tobacology podcast, praise the Padrón 50th Anniversary Toro Maduro, and tease a listener-participation segment for the final show of the year: everyone's top three cigars (no RoMa Craft allowed). The episode closes with an off-the-rails movie debate about Black Adam, The Rock's acting range, and Poker Face.
In This Episode
- 01Cold open, sponsor read and podcast housekeepingA Rack Above ad read plus good-natured shots at Phil for having no cutter, no ashtray and a phone linked to the Rodecaster.
- 02Media drama and apologiesShoutouts to Brett Frye of Tobacology, the Smoke Show Christmas special with Jay Davis, and a public apology to Bear for a birthday video that never aired.
- 03Weekend recap: Bucks game, Gaylord Palms and customer appreciationSideline camera rigs at the stadium, ICE at Gaylord Palms, a live phone call about brisket size, and how loyalty-program data shaped the shop's customer appreciation invite list.
- 04Cigar Aficionado Top 25: numbers 25–16Plasencia Reserva Original, La Gloria Cubana Classic, Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich Habano, Tatuaje Cojonu, Allegria, Casa Magna Colorado, San Cristóbal Clásico, Brick House Churchill and two Cuban entries get graded.
- 05Cigar Aficionado Top 25: numbers 15–6La Palina Goldie, New World Dorado, Joya de Nicaragua Antaño 1970, La Flor Dominicana, E.P. Carrillo Pledge Apogee, Arturo Fuente Rare Pink Vintage, Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real and Padrón 1964 Príncipe.
- 06Is the list pay-to-play?The hosts argue the rankings favor advertisers and industry insiders, and that boutiques like RoMa Craft and Pastaña-style small brands will never make it.
- 07Listener challenge: top three cigarsThe crew sets up next week's year-end show — everyone picks their top three cigars, with RoMa Craft off the table for one host.
- 08Off the rails: Black Adam, The Rock and movie talkA spirited argument over Black Adam, Henry Cavill's Superman cameo, Tulsa King cigar spotting and the Russell Crowe film Poker Face.
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
One, two, three, two, and one. Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, episode 260 with your host, Michael the King, Steponkiewicz, and his producer, Mike BDP Palmer. And me, I'm Phil your cameraman. I've been told it's impossible to underestimate me.
They're getting harder and harder to find an intel to find. The holidays are upon us. Where are your decorations at, Michael? In the attic?
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No, you didn't. With just a wrench, that's right, you heard me right, Michael, just one wrench. I feel like I should buy one of these things. This year, buy yourself and the wife the gift of a lifetime, Michael.
com, all one word. Nice. Nice. I feel like I should buy one of these.
Maybe you can just get one. No, I've got to support my friend. Oh, maybe you can get a discount. A lot easier to talk about it, Michael, if you have one.
Let's talk, but I do want to talk about something real quick before we kind of get into this. Okay. Because Brett Fry said that I gave you a pass, and I'm going to fix that right now. Give me a pass.
No, not you. Oh. Well, I mean, kind of you two, but more a friend over here. More Phil?
Yeah, more Phil. So Phil, before we started this podcast, he did this whole fucking thing with us. He's like, you guys have your ashtrays, you guys have your lighters, you have your colors. Oh, you mean today.
Do you have gas for all of this? Yes. Yes. And, you know, he handed me an ashtray.
Thank you very much, fellas. Very nice of you. And then as soon as we fuckin' hit record, his fuckin' phone is linked to the Rodecaster Pro and he gets a phone call. He didn't have his headphones on either.
He had to take those off the camera rack. I mean, he gives us his whole fuckin' speech. Like, do you guys have all your shit together? So how did you get my pass last week?
What happened? So Brett brought to my attention... From the Tobacology podcast that doesn't happen. Who actually gave us the Fratello.
Oh, the Fratello, yes. The Florida Fratello today. But you're right, he did, he did threaten to do a podcast. Yes.
And now he has not. No. He was pretty sauced up too on Instagram this, this week. Oh.
You have to, it's, I'm going to tell you, I saw this post. Yes. It just warmed my heart. It was amazing.
He was, he was a little, you know, it's, it was one of those opportunities where you really shouldn't have been recording, but he did. Uh huh. And it just came out so. Was he live or something?
No, no, he just didn't record. Oh, he just didn't? He takes a swig of the booze, and I think he was drinking a bottle of bourbon, some Woodford Reserve or something, and you could tell that he was lit up. Oh, nice.
I was like, yeah, this is fantastic. So you got to check out Tobacology's post. I have to go look. It's fucking, it was amazing.
But I had given Cliff and the Black Star Line squad a hard time for not having cutters. And I was like, you're in the fucking industry. Right, you should always have your shit together, right? And he said that I gave Phil He's like you didn't give Phil a hard time Whenever he doesn't have a lighter cut Well technically he's not in the industry But you are part of a production company I am So he should always have his camera and microphone Well I mean he should definitely be ready when we're ready And he shouldn't fucking He should check to see if his fucking phone Is linked up to the roadcast I thought it was me I looked at mine I'm like oh no it's not my ringtone Well we all looked at our phones Because we didn't know who No, I heard your shit go, I, like yours is distinct.
Yeah, the top gun thing. Oh my god, I'm getting the chills. I love the fact that you're, wait, oh, that is Navy, that's right, it's not Air Force, I'll shut up. Yeah, because he's part of the Navy.
O. Fumar. O. So.
Yeah, whatever. Yeah, whatever. Whatever it is. I did, I did the Christmas special.
Yeah? I haven't watched it yet. I forgot. You didn't remind me you were on, and I saw it at 11:30 last night, and then by then it was well into it, I assumed.
You know, it was really fucking cool. I got kind of a new respect for Jay Davis when he was talking and stuff, because I don't really know the guy. Like, you know, I know him. Right, know who he is.
Yeah, but we didn't, we've never had like conversation. Not friendly. Yeah, and that was kind of how this, that all played out between Garrett and, you know, Bear, Jay and myself. - Where was Matthew?
- I don't know, I don't think he was invited. - Oh, I understand that. - I don't think he was invited. - Yeah, it was just Garrett.
- Oh. - So, you know, you always go to the stronger of the two. - The Hector Alfonso of the, how about that cigar? - Yeah, you go, you know, you go to the powerhouse.
- Right. - Right. - And that's what Bear did, he capitalized on that. - I understand.
- So, you gotta respect him for doing that. - I don't know why he picked the wrong one on our show, but you know, whatever, it's fine. - I feel like he picked the right one. - Well, he's mad at me because, apparently, I need to apologize.
I must have lost that bear somewhere, I'm very sorry, because it got pushed back a week, at least, if not two, because we had something else going on or something, and I apologize. Well, we got to kind of elaborate. So you had everybody send in videos for you for your birthday. Yeah, I had a bunch of guys from the media send me a birthday message to put on the podcast.
I forget why we had to push it back a week, something happened or something in the news or something. He just felt like he's like, he felt that his fell on the cutting room floor is exactly what he said. He's like, I guess, mine didn't make it, so just make sure you give him a hard time. He was, he's not mad.
Right. No, no, no, no. I would have been disappointed if I'd gone to the trouble. Motherfucker, I recorded this shit.
Because you know what, I think his came back first, if I remember correctly. Yeah. Like, right away. And then everybody else sort of dragged out a little bit.
Right. So probably by the time I was actually cutting it together, I had forgotten about his, and I apologize. So you did get it? I would imagine I probably did.
I vaguely remember seeing it. " Yeah. Because then he came back right away. It was my mistake.
I'm very sorry, Bear. Of all the guys. If you'd like to have me on your show, just briefly, I'll make a public apology, and then you can just hang up on me. If that will make you happy.
Because I don't want to burn bridges, just cigars. What are you talking about? We're all about burning bridges, bro. We burn bridges around here every day.
I don't... He wasn't mad, though. We're gonna burn 25 bridges today. The dude is pretty remarkable when it comes to...
I mean, it's fucking... I think I said the week before, you said you were going to be on his show. I don't mean to interrupt you, sorry. I like his show.
I enjoy his show. It's long like everybody else's, but it's not as dry, let's say, as I light the fires behind me. There isn't dead portions of it where you're like, okay, let's move on. And there's not a whole lot of this question brought to you by blah, blah, blah.
But he's got his fair share. I mean, look, we're the only show that's not sponsored by his cigar place. They all gotta make money, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're the only idiots that fucking... Yeah, that won't take cigar mats.
We don't take the cash. We don't take the cash. We don't take cigars. No, I'd much rather...
Drew State's offered last year, like, how much? Yeah, where's the line? How much? I would've loved to pull the Ben Affleck on that one.
Retainer. How much? Retainer. Even there's a...
Howard G. just did a show, Pipes and something, I guess it's up in Daytona somewhere. Oh, yeah? They had a big Corona drop behind them, a big piece of fabric with Corona all over them.
It's all about the ad space. It's funny, because it wasn't too long ago, a lot of guys were talking a lot of shit about that stuff, like, "We wouldn't pay for the ad space," and now they're all... Well, it's the only place cigars can advertise. It's true.
And now we're going to smoke the Fratella, Florida. Yes, today's Patreon will be the Fratella, Florida, a 5x50-something from Tobacology. Brett Frye. The specialty store that...
Oh, apparently my ringer's on, though. So everybody's fucking up today. I'd like to have this conversation as well with you, Michael. I don't know what's going on with the talent that's on this show, but I clearly understand why Bear invited solely me.
Oh, yeah, like your phone never rings, you never get text messages. My phone just rang. Did you know? Your wife's gonna call any minute now.
If my wife calls, I'll stop everything. I understand. Well, that was my son. I just hung right up on him.
Yeah, he's not that important. He's not important. He is to me. He's just okay.
He's fine. You know, you got to give the kids the tough love, right? You got to give the wife all the love, right? That's how that works.
Is that the way it works? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. We ain't raising pussies here, Michael.
He's already raised. I don't raise them. Nah, nah, nah. They're never always fully raised.
Nah, that's true. That's true. There's still so many fucking trials and tribulations that they're going to go through. I'm still dealing with you.
Me and your mother deal with you every day. It's such a hard thing. And I got to tell you, God bless you for dealing with me. Thanks for adopting me and putting up with me.
You're fine. Even Adrian called you her son on Friday night. I know, that was nice. I felt kind of warm and fuzzy when you said it.
" Who was mad about the cutter thing? And I got some competition, too, 'cause there's four of 'em. Right. And I'm the favorite.
You're the favorite. I'm number five. You're definitely the biggest. Yeah, that's true.
I am the biggest. Yeah, you're the biggest. I think Jake's taller, but you're bigger. Yeah.
Wasn't somebody mad about the cutter thing? Or is that you? Does he not listen? That's the whole thing we're just talking about?
I apologize, but I knew that cutter. And this is fine. You can use the cutter for not having a cutter. Here's a different cutter because that one's gone.
Just use this. Did it slide behind the thing? Yeah, it's gone. I'll have to get that.
You know, because technically you're not in the industry, but you are part of this production. You're a part of this podcast. Maybe you should have some gear just kind of set up on your table for you that always stays there. You know what I mean?
I have in my pocket, but I rush in here because I feel like every time this, the show is going to start without me. He's so afraid the show moves on without him. And no ashtray. And I like the fact, I like that you live in that world of fear, I'm not gonna lie.
Isn't there a glass one there somewhere? It's a good feeling for us that you have that concern. Now where are you going? He's moving the camera to three.
So the guy that gave us a speech, does everybody have their ashtrays? His phone is linked to the Bluetooth. He has no fucking cutter, he has no fucking ashtray. All right, nothing, nothing.
All right, there you go, Brett, that's fucking, I'm 100% in now. I'm just trying to taste this delicious Fratello. Through that small little hole we allow on your mask for air. It's turning yellow and brown already.
Oh. Well, Christmas is almost over. Yeah. Right, and we go to the Baby New Year mask.
I'm sweating. There's a lot of options, I just looked real quick. All right, should we say what we're doing today? Yeah, you know, we are, we can do this.
We can, we can do this. We can do this. We do this every year. But we gotta, I feel like, go ahead, tell them what we're doing.
All right, we're going over the Cigar Internet, or the, what, Cigar International. We're going over the Cigar Aficionado Top 25, like we do every year, and say if we do, you think it deserves to be on the list, if we've tried it or not, if it's where it should be. We're going to have Phil read the names this year. Mr.
Funti Funti, one is not available. He's very busy. Yeah. And two, his Spanish has gotten way too good.
Yeah. So, you know... All right. So, before we kind of go down this rabbit hole, I do want to elaborate on one thing.
Yes. That, for whatever reason, I'm just like... It just kind of irked me a little bit. The repetitiveness of the Facebook outrage every single year from people...
Oh, for the list? about the top 25 list. Yes. You know?
Yeah. The top cigar always... Not only that, just in general, you know, a lot of people, they're always upset. You're always fucking at it.
Just, dude, who gives a fuck? Just have some fun with it. There's no reason to get so- Right, you don't need to get mad. You don't have to smoke them if you don't want to.
Listen, go rub one out or something. I don't understand why everybody gets so fucking triggered all the fucking time about all this mindless, meaningless bullshit. Who cares what they fucking say? Right.
It doesn't really matter. And I know I'm not perfect. I'm sure things trigger me too all the time. I mean, I feel like I'm a pretty passive individual.
But for whatever reason, I don't understand. I just don't get it. I don't understand why we're on camera too as I'm just talking slowly about myself either. But now, you know, Phil's lighting us.
Oh, here we are. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I just don't get it. I've talked to Phil about his camera work.
If he would watch the show on the screen instead of over here. Yeah. Because there is a slight delay. I think he'd be back at camera two now that you're talking.
Right, there is a delay, but no, it's three, I'm talking and it's on you, so that makes no sense at all. Yeah, this is perfect. There's a delay with the system, which if you're looking at it, right, it gives you time to switch cameras before, oh no, it's still not on mine, it's still over there. Oh, is it on him?
No, no, it's on film? Oh, where'd it go? Oh, fuck. So, when I run the cameras for a different show and they're in the big room, I watch it, I've had my back to them, I watch it on the screen.
Yeah. And even then, if you're not, if you're doing something on your phone, you're still going to miss something. So I try not to do, but just watch. Just focus.
Focus and watch that. Because then as they talk, you cut and you have a second. Right. Or actually, I think it's a three second delay.
So you have three seconds to cut and then they're talking. Yeah. So, you know, and we're not a long show. We're only an hour.
It's only an hour, right? Yeah. The other show, they're only in hours too. So.
Yeah. It's not like it's a tremendous amount of time. Yeah. It's not like it's a ton of.
Right. I do enjoy when they're in the front room and there's only one camera because I don't get to fuck with that at all. You just hit the button. I just hit the button and watch, make sure everything runs.
I love it. I love hitting the button. Yeah, I love hitting the button. It's a lot easier.
So, you know, speaking of cameras, this was really kind of funny, you know, I know we'll get into this in a second, but we've still got a little bit of catching up to do because I had a fun weekend and I want to talk about that briefly as well. Oh. For one, I went to the Bucks game last night and that was fucking sad. The first half was, they looked good.
Oh yeah, there was some big deal that he lost or something. Oh, it was terrible. I mean, they just completely, the wheels fell right off that motherfucker. They were up, you know, 10-0 or 13-0, then all of a sudden, since he drove down the field at the half, and that was a wrap, they got three points there, and then all of a sudden the Bucks were like, you know what, we don't really feel like playing.
Yeah, we're just done now. We're retired. So I've gone to these, I've been a season ticket holder for six years, and I've gone to these games, right? Right.
And for whatever reason, I've never noticed this before, but there's always, there's these cameras that float around in front of you, like it's a dude. dude now on espn and like prime time it's two guys in this fucking and they have chairs that are almost like there's nothing behind these chairs and it's up in the air and it rolls around and shit and you know it goes to wherever the line or the chair there's two chairs with cameras and there's a dude on the bottom he's running the whole fucking thing and there's two guys up here for espn and this is elaborate fucking setup it's like like a golf cart kind of thing yeah it's gigantic i mean and you got people fucking you know they're ushering people out of the way on They're like, hey, we're coming through, like, the whole thing, it's a big process, and if they park in front of you, it's kind of depressing for the player, you're like, fuck, you know, you gotta kinda, yeah, you gotta move around and shit, but whatever, you know what I mean, it's part of the game, it's not world ending, you know, but ESPN's is super elaborate, this game was CBS, it's a four o'clock, it's the one, it's this, and instead of this whole big thing with two chairs, and they're like, they got, like, this ball, And it's a round base, and there's a camera, and the guy fucking stands there, and he has to stand there the entire game, and one guy pushes the thing around. Oh. So it's half the, like, the equipment.
Which places have, like, the rope that goes across? They all have that, too. Oh, this is just a different angle. Oh, okay.
It's another angle, it's from the sidelines. It's in addition to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's pretty funny.
I'm thinking, so now I start breaking all this shit down. I'm like, okay. So the CBS guys stand in there for the entire game. And then the ESPN guys, there's two of them, and they're sitting the whole time, like, and they got better equipment.
Union. Who do you think is getting paid more, is really what I want to know, because the CBS guys definitely working harder. The ESPN guys, they're unionized. You think so?
You think so? Yeah, there's two of them. Well, they're both unionized, but... Because ESPN's Disney, and I don't know, man, I've heard some stories.
I've heard some stories about Disney. Well, they got, I mean, you're right, their little contraption that they're on is definitely elaborate. Way more elaborate than CBS, and you know what's funny is, I'm looking at the fucking notes, like, so there's a, like the wires run up the pole and they come out, right, and it says primary line has been changed to red, like they've redone, like where wires have been fucking broken, they've, you know, they have fixed things just to make it work, you know. It's like Palmer, like, to put it in perspective, it looks like a mini fire truck, is what the ESPN thing looks like, with a bucket at the top.
Super elaborate. Dudes running around holding the lines and shit. The CBS guy, you know what, I wouldn't have been shocked if the CBS guy was fucking smoking a pack of Marble Reds just sitting up there, not giving a fuck, you know. Been here before.
Yeah, like, another fucking Sunday, four o'clock. Who does Monday Night Football? Is that CBS? Monday Night Football is ESPN.
Oh, ESPN? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Or is it TNT? Monday does ESPN.
I think Thursday is Amazon. Maybe Fox. Yeah, Thursday is Amazon. No, Sunday Night Football is Channel 2, or is NBC.
I bet ESPN pays better. You think ESPN pays better? They got better equipment. Well, and I think that the Thursday night game was the same, was Amazon was the same as ESPN gear.
It looked identical. Yeah, Amazon. See, now he's been watching us. The camera's been on you the entire time all three of us have been talking.
Well, he's been talking about football. Yeah. Yes, but you chimed in. If I switch it, if I switch it too much, then you guys don't like that.
If you chime in, you move it to you. If I talk, you move it to me. No, you're 100% correct. As he interacts with us and speaks with us, he needs to be just be constantly staring at the screen.
Right. Totally. I totally agree with that. Oh no, who's on your phone?
Who's on my phone, but I'm still talking, handling my shit, and it didn't interrupt the podcast. And I'm dealing with business. It interrupted the podcast. Where was the stutter?
I didn't say there was a stutter. I wasn't talking when my phone rang. No, but your phone interrupted the whole podcast. It just handled my business.
One of us is more efficient than the rest of us, is all I'm saying. You guys need to fucking raise your bar. You need to be a little better. All right, Michael.
All right? All right. Listen, we can't all be as successful as you, Michael. That's true.
That is so true, Michael. What else did you do besides go to the Bucks game? Well, thank you. I went to the Bucks game.
Oh, my wife is calling me. You want me to answer it? Oh, I don't know. Are you going to answer it?
Yeah, I'm going to answer it. We're going to answer it on the podcast. Sure, put it on the air. We'll be right back.
Hi, you're on the podcast. No, don't turn it off. For fuck's sake, she says. She's not on speaker.
I'm going to put you on speaker. We can't hear. Yeah, we can't hear. Hold on, hold on.
We can't hear. I don't need to be on speaker. Oh no, it's too late. Too late.
You're on speaker. Go ahead. What you got? How big a brisket does she want to get for the holidays?
I don't know. What you got? What are my options? That sounds definitely like a podcast question.
Yeah. I don't think we need 19 pounds. Oh, your weight. Your weight.
What are your prices? If you have a suggestion for the size brisket Brittany should buy, please comment on the video on YouTube and let us know what size brisket is. He gets very hungry, very hungry. I'll take the 14 pounder.
This should be big. Even though we're going with 14 pounds, we'd still like to have your input, please. Yeah, that's perfect. And I'd like to take this moment to hope that Mr.
Yugerleit is over his COVID. I love you. Perhaps by now I've not heard from him in the last couple of days. What about sides?
So you comment sides? Yes, and sides. Sides, I should go with that. We'd like that too, please, your input.
That would be very nice. Thank you, listeners. And viewers. I can't say that I'm going to stop the fucking podcast for the phone call if my wife calls and then not answer the phone call.
Like, nah. Right. That defeats the purpose. Well, she calls almost every week, so.
It's like she knows when we're podcasting. Right. I mean, it's usually the same time every Monday for five years. It's not like it varies.
Well, this is actually earlier than what we normally do. Well, okay, that's true. Yeah. But we have tried to switch to earlier.
Yeah. But we'll have to do the Patreon after or another day. Something like that. Because it's not gonna have time.
One way or the other. We'll get it done. Is that why you asked if we had more of these in anticipation of it not making the cut today? Maybe.
Ah, I see. So, yeah. Gotcha. Hey, Ray, we're down to 30 minutes.
We're gonna have to jump into this or just go, but I have nothing else prepared for today. Okay. No, we're good. All right.
So, I want to roll into, I want to talk about other things. I want to talk about other things. What other things you want to talk about? This is not what I've prepared for the show.
I went to Gaylord Palms. We always talk about what we did. Yes, but we're 30 minutes into what we did. Isn't this great?
So I went to Gaylord Palms. I did like the ice thing. You did the ice thing? Yeah, I didn't do the actual ice thing.
I did the other stuff. What is the other stuff? We're both talking. Yeah, he doesn't pick this.
Thank you. What is the other stuff? I went to the ice many years ago when I first started doing it. So they have like a snow sled thing that you can do, like a tubing thing.
Oh, it's not inside the ice place? It's not inside the ice exhibit, or whatever it is. The ice exhibit was booked. And they do like a scavenger hunt throughout the hotel that you have to do.
We did that. Yeah. And what else did we do? They have like a snowball build and throw thing that you can do.
It's cool. It's very Christmassy. Did you wear the big blue jackets? No, no, we weren't.
We didn't go into the ice thing. Oh, so how do you build the snowmen? Or the snowballs? They're on the outside.
What's up on the outside? They melt quickly? This is Florida. It's still pretty cold in there.
Oh. A little chilly. I've been in there. I've stayed there.
At the Gaylord Pole? Yes. I think we were contemplating, like, staying there next year. Yeah.
Like, getting around, doing the whole Christmas thing. Right. But that shit is expensive as hell. Yeah, like I said, it was years ago when we went.
Yeah. I'm sure it's way more expensive now. And then, I heard that Boots, Phil could probably attest to this, but I heard that Boots went to the SeaWorld Christmas thing. Yeah, I heard Boots went.
Oh, he did, yeah. Did you get an invite to that? No. It was very fun.
I was told if I came to his house I had to leave. Oh, beforehand? Yeah, we're leaving at 4:00 if you want to come over. Oh, for the pierogi making?
No, no, actually, you know, that was a Greg thing with his mother that did not involve Boots. Boots was not present for the pierogies. Was Boots not present for that? He wasn't present.
Greg told me he was there for at least an hour and a half before he even saw Boots. Boots had a lacrosse game. Remember with his son? Oh yeah, Boots had to go to Lacrosse with his son, that's right.
Okay. I did go over to Boots' house briefly Sunday for a couple hours. Oh yeah, they did, yeah. That's what Boots told me.
That's where I found out about the new business. Ah, gotcha. And we had an amazing customer appreciation that night. Right.
It was great. It's over now, so. Oh, now we can talk about it? I thought maybe we just don't talk about it.
Okay. There's somebody that should have been invited. I didn't get invited. Sometimes we fuck that up.
Yeah, sometimes. I had a guy I'm like he's like this is great like yeah we've done it every year he's like well this is the first time I was invited I'm like fuck well what do you want me to tell you you know this is the first year we did it no I flat out said I go look first time we did it this big I'm going to tell you the big the thing that was the most beneficial for that was that our loyal zoo process oh that's why you guys went through the point thing yeah you can look at you can look at the data and kind of review and be like okay oh okay yeah this guy should come nice yeah oh this guy should not come because there are some people that come in that they're, you know... They don't spend a lot of money. No, they come in...
They don't spend any money at all. We don't like them here. Nope, it's not that either. They're real annoying, but they do spend money.
That's why we invited them anyway. Nope, not that. Oh, okay. Please, you go ahead.
They come in, they buy what they need to buy, and then they leave. Oh, they don't hang out. Yeah, you have minimal interaction with them. So you don't know who it is.
Yeah. Yeah, like it says Phil, and you're like, which Phil? Who the fuck is this guy? Who is this guy?
Yeah. There's only one. There's only one Phil. No, there's more Phil.
Do you guys have a customer name, Phil? I'm sure. He's dead. He died.
What was the old man's name? I was trying to tell that story. Old man Dennis? Dennis.
I couldn't think of Dennis' name. How do you forget old man Dennis? I didn't forget him. I forgot his name.
I'm terrible with names. Old man Dennis. There was a guy named Jerry. That was before your time.
Yeah, Jerry's before my time. He was a good dude. Jerry was dead before I got here. He was a good dude.
And then, now I'm the cop. What was his name? Dave. Dave the cop.
How can you forget Dave's name? I'm terrible with names. Oh, okay. Got it.
You know, I always thought, uh, Jimmy Knuckles was dead, but he's not. He pops in every once in a while. No, he's not. I invited him too.
Did you? Yeah. Okay. Well, all right, I asked on the thing for you.
Sure. I said, hold him away. Get him an answer. What about, what about you, Palmer?
How was your weekend? Uh, I didn't do, uh, didn't do, what'd I do Saturday? Oh, I went and got the tattoo with the city commissioner on Saturday. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then, uh, then I came here, did a little work, and then I had a cigar with the commissioner, and then, uh, I went home. What tattoo did you get? You know what tattoo I got? The one Boots wouldn't get, because he's a little girl.
Yeah, but... Because he's a little girl. Yeah, but the viewers don't know. Uh, it was all over social media.
Yeah, he did his post. Oh, okay. I did my post, she did her post, she tagged all of us, she tagged Boots so that he would know that he did not get one. Sometimes I ask Boots what happens on social media, but Phil is not on social media.
Oh, maybe Phil should be. No. No. Phil could take pictures during the show.
Yeah, that'd be amazing. Mike and Mike Production, Phil. No, no, I give those ones to you. You post them on the Facebook thing.
No, we don't. You post them on the Facebook. You never take pictures of yourself. If you would, I'll post them.
Of you guys. Oh, I don't post those. He takes pictures all the time of the different shows and stuff, Boots does, and Phil, and he sends them to me like, okay, these are nice, and I don't know what to do with them. What do we do with this?
All right, let's get going here. All right, you got to do it. We do it backwards. So you got to do it.
So 25 first. Yeah, 25 first. Okay. Yeah.
Sorry. Just knock all that ash off that paper. Just so you guys know, I screwed up and printed two in color, one in black and white, so of course, I have the black and white. I didn't want you guys to fight over who got the black and white.
No, no. You want the color? No, no. I don't need the color.
I forgot to hit the little button that said no color. Okay. All right. When I printed the first one, I printed all 11 sheets.
" All right, let's go. I haven't really looked at this. I've heard like the top three or whatever. All right, at number 25.
Number 25. Yeah. Plasencia Reserva Original Corona. Uh-huh.
Okay, apparently he can't read these. Okay, yeah. He's going to read these. He's going to.
I've had it. It's a good cigar. It actually is a good cigar. Maybe a little higher than 25, though.
Yeah, it doesn't belong that low. Actually, I just had it the other day. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that this is on here. I'm like, alright, yeah, no shit, this is a good stick.
Right. Belongs on there. Doesn't belong at 25. No, maybe a little higher.
Probably in the top 10. Oh, I don't know about top 10, but in the teens, definitely in the teens, though. Okay. Alright, number 24, LaGloria Cubana Classic Glorious.
Oh, he switched to himself when he read it, that was nice. That's what you wanted me to do, right? Yes, yes it is. Classic, glorious, glorious.
I don't know if I've had that one or not, but I have had others of that line. Yeah. I don't know if it's list-y worthy though, so. I don't think so.
No. All right, number 23, the Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich, the Habano Corona Gorda R. We've all had that one. We have.
Yes. It should probably be higher on the list too, I think. Yeah, this is a cigar that clocked in high for us when we did the Patreon. Right, scored well.
And it's the Nunu. So this is like the, you know... No, not the Nunu. So it's, so this is like the honest attempt of, hey, we're, we're, we, yeah, no, we're hip, it's like the fucking...
Yeah, we're hip, we have picked one that everybody likes. Well, they have two here, out of, out of three. What was the fucking Dr. Evil?
I'm hip, I'm cool. Oh, yeah. He does the fucking Macarena. Yeah, and I think the Knuckles Sandwich qualifies.
Sure. Is it gone with the broadleaf? Maybe. Oh, I prefer the Habano.
Do you? Yes. I think they're both really good. Yeah, I do too.
And didn't they do a third one? The Chef Special. Chef Special. Yeah.
But I think it came out too late to make the list. Probably. Yeah. So, okay, well, now, do they really think these are good cigars, or are they just trying to get nods from Placencia and from Guy Fieri?
Guy Fieri. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. That way he talks about the magazine. We are on the aficionado.
Yes, we have put you on the list. You did not go very high, we clocked in at 23. So where do you guys think it should be? You are very new, very new.
Where do I think this, I mean, I would just kind of, I mean, honestly, I would surmise things in like, this is my top 10 new ones that I like this year. You know what I mean? And I would, I would put both of those on there and say these were both really good cigars. Right.
That's what I was saying. Does it ever happen where there's two different blends of the same cigar on the list? That probably doesn't usually happen. Probably not.
But, you know, they blind. Please do these. Give me a fucking break. No bands or anything.
I don't know. Not based on ad dollars or all. None of those rumors are true. None of that allegedly happens.
Yeah. Because they didn't. They didn't take an ad out. There's no way they took an ad out.
No. No. All right. Next one.
All right. And number 22. The Tatawahe Kappa Especial. Tatawahe.
Cohita. It's an Indian. I don't know if that's the right word. Cohete.
Cohete. Cojita. Cojita. Cochita.
Cojita. Tatuaje Cojita. What you got? I don't know if I've had this one or not.
I've never smoked it. I mean, I've had Cabo Specials in the past. Yeah, I've had Cabo Specials. And I think the Cabo Special is clocked in on the top 25 before.
You know, they should put that on there. Where it was last year? Or if it made it before, like 2003 rated. This is your quintessential, you know, we hang out with cool people.
But we don't want them to grow too much. We'll give them the top five. Bottom five. All right, next one.
All right, number 21. The Allegra Robusto. Allegria. That's all I got, yeah.
Allegra Robusto. Robusto. Robusto. Robusto.
You know, I think I've had this one. Have you? I've never seen that. I don't remember sticking out, though.
This is a Fred Ruiz cigar. Oh. This is an allusion. Oh, it doesn't say that on there.
It's again, it qualifies in the cool kids fucking... Right, a nod to Mr. Rui. Oh, well, I mean, not Mr.
Rui, but Dion. Oh, sure, Fred's in, oh, Dion's a bigger deal than Fred Rui? Dion's a big deal. Does Fred know that Dion's a bigger deal than him?
I believe that Dion writes Fred's checks. That doesn't mean it's a bigger deal. If you wrote my checks, you'd be a bigger deal. I gave you a check last week.
There you go. Oh, big deal. Need I say more. Big deal alert.
Need I say more, Michael? Big Deal Palmer. Big Deal Palmer. Big Deal Palmer.
See, BDP can stand for a whole bunch of different things. Yeah, yeah, Burndown Podcast. Burndown Podcast. Fucking angry motherfuckers.
Pretentious sons of bitches. God damn it. Learn to speak English. Oh, don't be angry with them.
The king's English, learn to speak English. Listen, listen, listen, don't be angry with them. I'm not angry, okay? He apologizes.
It's all in good fun. Sure it is, and so is it saying they can't speak correctly? Sometimes people don't understand, you know, It's okay. They don't know who I am?
Oh. Don't worry, Ronnie took care of that. Yeah, I saw that. He actually wanted to call in today.
Oh. Eh. We don't care. That's fine.
We'll be on the next 25 minutes we got left for the show. But he's so funny. He is funny, and he's all wound up, and he didn't even buy the cigar, he sent him back. I love that.
I fucking love that. It's actually a cute story how he got the name, and it has nothing to do with Schmeckle. Dude, when I saw, when I saw the Burndown Podcast, like I was just kind of rivalling through Instagram, right and i stopped for whatever reason because sometimes they do funny shit on their on their instagram and i'm like oh let me see what this is about and then they started saying you're not gonna believe this i'm like oh my god they're gonna mention bdp they're totally they're totally going there and they mentioned bdp cigar right and i was like you know i had a fucking uh a whole bunch of emotions at first i was mad for a second then i laughed it off i'm like this is fucking hilarious and i was like i know exactly what to do and i just tagged ronnie and fucking let it go it's like it's it's like opening the door and letting the line out like here you go bro here's something here's some entertainment for you and he's just like and he just went right fucking in right for him it was so fucking funny dude um why did they bleep dick i don't know who can't say dick it's a guy's name yeah big beep palmer and they put the eggplant in anybody eggplant in so So you'd know they said dick. It was so funny.
Oh, fuck it. It was fucking hilarious, dude. And you know, look, kudos to them. I know they're working hard.
They're trying to do some stuff. They're trying to build their brand or whatever the case may be. Right. I think that they do some better video footage than us anyways, because we don't know how to fucking do what they do on Instagram.
What do they do on Instagram? They do like the back and forth. Like their cameras are there. Well, there's only two of them.
We can do two people with the back and forth. I'll show you. I'll show you their video footage and you can compare. Okay.
They're doing some good things. I just need a better cameraman. I can't get you that. I can't get you that, but you know, I think our cameras are fine, so they're out, you know, it's, it's, I'm not here to shit on anybody, you know what I mean?
No, no, no, I mean, they have a show, I'm sure they have their own fans, and whatever, and they're, and they're doing their thing. Yeah, Blackbird make a cigar, that's fine, I don't care, but just, you know, I mean, if they say something else, they'll fucking, well, get Ronnie again. If we can speed this up, we want to get Ronnie on, we'd go to number one right now. It was so much fun, I, it was, you know.
Do you see Skip's comment? Ronnie never disappoints, no. Oh, hold on, I've got to find this real quick. Want to go to number 20 real quick?
Yeah, go to the next one, go to the next one, go to the next one. Lonnie never disappoints. Number 20, the Casa Magna Colorado Robusto. Yeah, so this was originally one of the cigars of the year, you know, probably 10 years ago or something.
Casa Magna Colorado Robusto. I have had that one. Colorado. It's not, it was never a bad cigar, it was a good price point.
No, right. It's, you know, again, this is like the, they regurgitate a lot of the same shit over and over again. It's the CAO Top Redundancy, the Redundancy Department, but whatever. All right, I have Skip's comment here.
Okay, go ahead. " That's an accurate statement. Thank you, Skip. Thank you, Skip.
Uncle Skip, I love you. Sorry about the rating last week on your cigar, I'm very sorry. You know, you never said anything. Maybe he hasn't listened.
Could be. You know, yeah, because he's traveling. Oh, that's right, he's in, I don't know, the Grand Hyatt, Castle Reserva, yada yada cigar place, yeah. Yeah, you know what they say, Skip, must be nice.
Yeah. That's something that, you know. Right, well, most people take their kids to see Santa. Yeah.
Santa comes to see his kids. Yeah, yeah. Santa shows up. Santa comes to the house.
Hey! Ho, ho, ho! Fiorella. Fiorella.
I have named one of my reindeer, Fiorella. We are going to have a 10th reindeer. Just name Fiorella. Would you like to name the 10th reindeer?
Yes, I would thank you very much. Yeah. All right, next one. Number 19, the San Cristobal Classico.
I don't even know why we're doing this. Yeah, yeah, it's San Cristobal. Because we do it every year. I don't know why that one's on the list.
We didn't do it last year. Yeah, we didn't. Then, wouldn't last year when Skip called in? Or not Skip, Mike Rosales?
Oh, maybe. Maybe. Last year, Jake did it and we're like, you can never do it again. Oh, I thought it was two years ago.
And who did it last year? I think we skipped it last year, dude. Maybe we didn't. Oh, maybe it's pandemic time.
Maybe they didn't do it last year. No, they didn't. Maybe we did. Look, Pepin Garcia has good cigars.
San Cristobal's a good cigar. You want to not finish it? I don't care. No, we're in it now.
We're committed. Yeah, it doesn't belong on the top. Many people didn't know what to buy last year. It doesn't belong on the top 25.
No, no, I wouldn't say it's right. No. All right, next. The number 18, Brickhouse Churchill.
I've not had it in that size, but it doesn't belong in the list. I haven't had that, and I haven't had, you know, the Maduro's pretty good. It's got an effort, especially for like a price point value cigar. But, you know, I'm not throwing a value cigar on a top 25.
Right, on the top 25. Number 17, the Cohiba 55 Anniversario Edición Limitada 2021. Yeah, he's getting the words all right, that's very disappointing. Is that a Cuban?
Is that a Cuban Cohiba? Of course. Yeah. I don't see why they put Cubans on the list.
It's supposed to be cigars that you can... That you can buy regularly, retail, you know. So, no, I've never had that cigar. I don't think I have it.
Nor do I ever intend to have that cigar. No, I'm not a big Cuban fan. Yeah. Same with the next one.
The number, what number is that? 16. My number came off, 16. It's on the next page.
The Romeo y Julieta Lina de Oro Nobles. Well, I'm glad that he fucked that one up. Right. Lina de Oro Nobles.
Uh oh. We're having technical difficulties. So it's like line of gold, line of noble gold or some shit like that. What camera is that?
Camera two. Oh, four is back on. Camera two is searching. It's the Wi-Fi.
Struggle is real. Oh, there it goes. Okay, we're back on. Just leave it on two.
Okay. So we don't have that problem again. Okay. Number 15.
On to the next one. Number 15. La Polina Goldie? Legito?
Legito? Legito. The Legito. The Legito.
You know, back in the day, the original La Polina Goldie was really good. Yeah. I don't even know they still fucking make this cigar. I wonder if it came with the coffee machine they've been giving away for three years.
I've seen it. It does, it comes with the coffee machine. You've seen the Goldie, you may not have seen this one. This is the number two.
Oh, no, yeah, I've seen the band before. Yeah, yeah. Well, we had them here briefly. Yeah.
Okay. Somebody had asked for them. No, that was the red label. Somebody asked for the Goldies, too.
We had those briefly. Back when we used to carry La Polina. Yeah. Number 14, the New World Dorado Robusto.
Is that the new Connecticut? Well, that's one of the new New Worlds, and it's definitely been popular. A lot of people have been smoking, a lot of people have said good things about it. I haven't smoked to myself personally.
I haven't had a New World in years. But then here and again, that's another value cigar. Oh, you're right. Yeah, it's a lower end.
So, I mean, you know, I don't know. Does it belong with the others, not with the others. Does it belong? I mean, if you look some of the ones around it, I mean, look up at number 10, it's not even in the same classification as 10.
Was it great enough to... I don't think so. But you know, it's a blind test, Michael. Oh, we're totally blind on this.
Totally blind, they don't know what anything is. Who's in New Cuba is number 3. Number 13, the Joya de Nicaragua, Intano, 1970 church. Are you purposely fucking these up now, or is that really you?
Joya. Is that messed up? Joya. The Joya de Nicaragua, Antaño, 1970 Churchill.
Should have put an H in it. Yeah, J is an H in Spanish. Oh, man. I thought it was silent.
No, no. It would be Oya. Oya de Nicaragua, Antaño, 1970 Churchill. All right, next one.
Number 12, the La Flor de Nicaragua. So that doesn't belong on there. No, it's another value cigar, isn't it? No, it's not.
It's probably, well, it depends on where you get it. You get it on CI, you'll probably get it for fucking like $3. You buy it at a regular retail store, you'll probably... Anything at CI should be off the list.
You're probably playing $13. Right. So. Nah.
Nah. No on the list. I haven't smoked really any of those. Dominicano.
Number 12. Oro Chisel. You had number 12. That's it.
You haven't had number 12? Nope. What you got? I don't smoke a lot of LFDs.
Yeah, I mean, I have no issue with this being on the list, to be honest. Is this one of the, is this, don't they have better ones though? I mean, in my personal opinion, yes. Yeah, I thought so too.
Yeah, but I think this is a good cigar. Yeah, it's a good cigar. Um, they came out with one that was expensive as fuck that I thought was really good. The big one.
Yeah, what the fuck was that? I don't remember, we smoked it though. Yeah. We hit it on the show.
Did we? Yeah, we did a Patreon. Did it rate well? Uh, I believe it did.
I think, I think we dinked it for price, but it's so big. Yeah, I think it's like the 25th anniversary or something. Something like that, yeah. That was good.
It's like a 6x60 or something. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
It's possible. Alright, next. Number 11. P.
Carrillo Pledge. Carrillo. Carrillo. P.
Carrillo. Apogee. Apogee. Apogee.
It's the Apogee. It's the Apogee. P. Carrillo Pledge.
I would just like to tell everyone that I Apogee for... Oh no, I got some Apogee on my face. Number... Don't worry, I'll get you a towel.
Thank you very much. Wow. I think it felt like it's dripping apogees over there. There's so many apogees.
I think it's starting to come apart, it keeps catching the microphone. It is, the mustache is coming up. You got apogees everywhere over there. Apogee falling everywhere.
So much apogees. Didn't that win last year or something, the year before? It wasn't that one exactly. Wasn't the apoge?
It wasn't that one exactly, but yeah, he, I think it was a pledge. Yeah, it was a pledge. Yeah. And it did.
Is there a Presidente or something? Is there a pledge presidente? I don't fucking know. What am I in the cigar industry?
I don't know. Well, Groover is toting around that it's on the list, so that's one of his. Yeah, but you know what? It doesn't...
Look, man. If your cigar isn't number one... Yeah, it doesn't matter. Nobody gives a fuck.
Except the sandwich guys, because they're very happy they made the list again. The sandwich guys? Michael Sandwich. Michael Sandwich.
Yeah, that's like a fucking... Chef Boyardee. Chef Boyardee made a list. Let's see your Cigar Aficionado little...
That's the gimme. That's the pat on the ass. Hey, come on, mention our magazine on your show. Aren't we cool?
Because now every show is going, hey, my cigar made number 27 on the top 25 from Cigar Aficionado. I was number 27. I was a 26 cigar on the top 25 on Cigar Aficionado. You didn't hear about it?
You didn't hear number 27? Oh, no. You gotta scroll all the way down. Hit the more button.
Yeah. It's at the bottom. Alright, next one there. No, it doesn't belong on the list, is what you're saying.
Correct? Yeah. No, no, it's okay with me. I mean, he's okay.
P. Carrillo? Well, he's nice, but I don't know. I don't know, man.
I don't know if it belongs on the list, bro. He's on the list every year in some way. It's like a standard. But it's the same thing.
Right. This is... Throw him on. This is their stick.
Right. It's the same people. Yeah. Yeah.
I think the Chosen Eggs were just for the name. They weren't the name. Number 10, the Arturo Fuente Rare Pink Vintage 1960 Series Sophisticated Hooker. They're on the list for the world's longest name.
The Funti Funti. The Funti Funti. I don't want to hear shit about anybody giving me a hard time about BDP. Sophisticated Hooker exists.
I don't want to fucking hear it. Hey, put a Sophisticated Hooker in your mouth? What? I am appalled.
I will not. I am a man of honor. I will not ever smoke something that says something hurtful. Sexual.
And meaningless. Doesn't one of the other ones have a sex name, too? I mean, there's a hooker, there's like the Tramp or something. I really wanna, you know what, I'm really, I'm fucking championing for the next one just called Sex.
Just call it Sex. Their Toro Fuente Rare Pink Vintage 1960 Series Sex Cigar. Sex. Sex Edition.
Get it out of the way. Sex Edition. Comes with batteries. Rare Pink, they can call it the vagina.
And contraceptives. Oh. It's in its entire box. Toro Fuente.
It's gonna be a Fuente Room 101 collab is what it is. Oh. Yeah. Oh, the Stinky Pinky.
Well, we call it the Sex. Oh, I like that Stinky Pinky. That's good. That's what Mr.
Booth calls his pink cigar. His yellow 13th anniversary. Oh. No, it's pink.
Which was a really good cigar. It was. Not on the list. No, man.
He's never gonna get fucking. Come on, dude. Are you kidding me? Come on.
He's a nice man. He's got a helicopter now and everything. He's definitely on the list. I don't know.
Is there any general product that's listed on here? No, of course not. Why would they put it on the list? I'm just curious.
Alec Bradley? Is that a general? I don't think so. I think you're right.
Can't believe those golden things there didn't make it on here either. The golden things? The NFTs? Yes.
Kind of released late. Yeah, they came out too late. And it's, you know, it has to be readily available like these Cubans in New York. Right.
Everybody has to be able to get it. Yeah. How could they possibly have tried it? Yeah, you're being ridiculous.
They didn't get these. All right, what's the next one? Number nine, the Romeo Giulietta Reserve Real Nicaragua Churchill. Real.
Real? Oh, it's not real? I would've said real, too. That's not real.
The real? It's the real Nicaraguan. I don't know what that's at all. I'm a big fan of the real Nicaragua Romeo and Julieta.
This is the non-Cuban. Burnin' on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on. Oh, sorry, people. It's even boring me doing this.
I don't, yeah. We're going as fast as we can. Yeah, we're going as fast. This will be the last year we do this.
We're never doing this. I think we should make our own. We need to just shit-can this. We all, I mean, look.
Top ten. We've had this argument. His are all Roma Craft from Post Office. Okay, yeah, first of all, yes, that's going to be the case.
Okay, we'll change his mind. That's going to be the case. Yeah, don't we change his mind. You know, and, yeah, first of all, that BA contempt, fucking money, that's definitely on that list, without question.
There's not even one of them on here. Roma Craft? No, it's never going to be. It's never going to be on there.
This is fucking cigar politics, bro. This is exactly what this is. This is the, not the cool kids. This is everything you can get on the cigar bed.
These aren't the cool kids, these are the old guys. Let's do this, and then move this. I don't know what's going on here. Yeah, mine go up.
Oh, now I can see you. Oh, you're so handsome. Such a handsome man. Look at you over there.
Hi. Wow, it's amazing. Hello. Hello, hi.
Hello, hi. Let's do that for the next 50 minutes. Hello, hi. More entertaining than missing.
The Reserva, Real Nicaragua. No, not on the list. Probably doesn't belong. No.
Overproduced. All right, next one. The Padrón's 64 Anniversary Series, Principe. Principe.
Principe. So, this is the, we gotta put a Padrón. Don't forget Padrón. Don't forget Padrón.
We don't have a Padrón on the wrist. We're getting close to the end. Padrón belongs on the fucking list. Yes, they do, certainly.
Certainly. But not that one. I mean, I wouldn't go 64 Principe. Yeah.
No, I wouldn't go 64 Principe. You know, I mean, I would go, I'll tell you what I've been smoking lately of Padrón. First of all, that 50th Toro Maduro is fuckin' money. I don't give a fuck.
It's amazing. It's a fuckin' great cigar. Phil thinks it's great. That shit is dope.
You're Phil. You mean Boots thinks it's great. No, no, no, no, no. Boots doesn't.
He doesn't have it. Oh, Boots. Yeah, he doesn't have that kind of money. Oh, oh, I gotcha.
Phil does. All that cameraman money. Yeah, Phil's got that. So, I mean, that's a fuckin' union money.
Like, that cigar, you know, if you put that at number one, I'd be like, alright, I respect your opinion. Right, yeah. Right, yeah. You know, they're a fucking, they're an elite squad part of the fucking cigar, are you okay?
Yeah, yeah. It's COVID back? No, no, actually, as I told Boots earlier when we were at our meeting, this is the first morning I have not choked on snot in the morning and thrown up in the sink. Oh, congratulations.
Thank you, yes. You know, I think that's what was causing the pain, all the vomiting in the morning. Yeah, the coughing and shit. The coughing and throwing up in the sink.
Yeah, that makes sense. anyway I don't know what the fuck were we just talking about number 7 my father that always clocks in number 6 Alec Bradley Black Market, Churchill that seems like a dry bag especially a number 5 I like the series V though I'll leave a series V but that's another one that always clocks in Yeah, C-R-V is a good cigar. I don't think it should be that high. Yeah, Hoyt and Monterey is Cuban, but Davidoff, Davidoff doesn't belong on the list, I'm sorry, I'm not a fan, I've never liked the cigar.
Me either. If you want to be a bust and fucking pay over price for the Davidoffs, then go ahead and do it. You know, get angry with me, I know that I have a couple of friends that smoke a ton of Davidoffs. Or Eshin on the table.
You know, my boy J-Dub has hooked me up with the whole, you know... I mean it's ashtray in the industry, Michael Stepankiewicz. Yep, thank you. But he gave me a whole fucking bunch of the Davidoffs, and I smoke some, I'm like, okay, these are all right.
But then if you think about the price points, I'm like, get the fuck out of here. This is ridiculous. You know? Right.
Rocky Patel. You got to tap Rocky Patel. Yep. Because Rocky Patel, blah, blah, blah.
And then there's a Cuban. Okay, done. We're moving on. So what is your top three cigars that are not Pustania?
Oh. Let me think about this shit. I mean, I could tell you. Wait, wait, when would you do that next week?
It's the last show of the year next week. So can we get some feedback from the listeners? Everybody pick their top three. All three of us.
Okay. And we'll discuss it. Well, we already know his top three. Top three non-post-anye cigars.
That you don't smoke now. No, top three non-post-anye cigars from everybody. Top three non-post-anye cigars. So I can still do Roma?
No, no Roma craft either. How the fuck? No, this is stupid. No, it's not.
Easy, brotherly kindness. No, I'm going to tell you right now. I have thought about this shit, okay? And this is what I don't fucking like.
Like, I, how can I, you want me to fucking not tell you the cigars that I fucking love, and then it's like, and then move on. We all know what cigars you love, because you smoke them every day. I don't give a fuck, I'm gonna tell them, tell you how I feel about them anyways, because they deserve the fucking nod. But everybody knows, because you nod them all the time.
I don't fucking care if they know, I'm still gonna fucking tell them. I'm surprised, how come these guys won't put one of Roma or a Pastaña on it? They'll never do it, it costs too much money. They've never reviewed either one and we can't afford to be on the list.
But look, dude, here's the fucking, look, here's the reality, the rumor is you pay to be on the list, that's the rumor. Oh, that's a rumor. That's the rumor allegedly. Like top five?
All of them. Top five. You think Guy Fieri? No, I think they want him to mention the magazine on the show.
Right, right. There are some that don't. So they slid that in? Right, slid that in.
You think Illusion? You gotta have a Rocky on there. Yeah. You gotta have a My Father.
You gotta have a Padrón. Yeah, we threw some five guys in that we want to work with. Yeah, there's five guys. So you dropped Illusion in there, who else did you drop in there?
You know what, maybe we can get Dion to buy some ad space next year. You dropped in Guy Fieri in there, who else did you drop in? Well, we're looking for people to take our ad space. Okay, they dropped in, okay, it has to be, you've totally just, wait, but you've totally just done the opposite of what this show is.
We purposely don't take the money so we can say whatever the fuck we want. Right, well I thought, I thought like, you would, somebody would do something where they would say, Hey, these cigars are actually good, but there's always a criteria. Whoever pays the most money. It's not price point, taste.
Allegedly. Supposedly, it's a blind taste where they get all these cigars together. They take the bands off. There's three of each or four of each, whatever.
They all smoke them and then they start rating the cigars. And who is they? Cigar aficionado. This is cigar aficionado.
We don't talk about they. They are a coincidence when they get together. That's it. Yeah, we don't know who they are.
I don't think they ever say who they are. Oh, it's like Fight Club. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I want to fucking get a, You know what? That's what should be on this top 25 list.
That would be funny as fuck. Like, the fucking people that judged it. Right. And then, like, an email address.
Right. Or a little description, you know? Like, a picture of you, Michael Stepankiewicz, owner of Cigar Hustler, from the Cigar Hustler podcast, Poshik Cigars, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, like, I mean, if I...
Fred Rui, Elugione, writes books, likes to do, likes to talk a lot. People listen to him. Right. Like, the judges of the UFC fights, when they make a fucking...
They had the light heavyweight championship last week or two weeks ago. Right. And they ended in a tie, one guy really fucked that up, his name is quite apparent, and I could be like, that guy is a fucking idiot, you know? It was his fault.
Yeah, he fucked it up. Right. This one guy, he probably saw his wife fucking the neighbor or something, whatever, you know what I mean? And he was just having a bad day, he's like, you know what, I'm gonna give the round to the other guy.
Fuck him. Yeah. And that ended, and unbeknownst to him, it ended up in a fucking tie. Right.
Now I got to deal with this. I was just hoping for a split decision, but now it's a fucking flat tie. And then he had such a horrible time, but made the right decision for the fight. Then he went and smoked to H.
Upman. " H. Upman. I really need that cigar.
A hundred percent. Maybe I'll go to the number five, I'm not sure. Yeah, well, number one's not available. When they show a picture of some sports guy or an athlete after he's won something, He's won something, and nobody's smoking.
Do you zoom in to see what it is? Sometimes, yeah. I mean, I have a horrible time. I'm fucking.
I always do. They just showed the guy from the World Cup, he was smoking a Monte Cristo number two. Yeah, so he was smoking a Cuban. Smoking a Cuban, yeah.
S. Right. Did it show him, like, sucking on the draw, like, was he struggling with it? Because that would have been fucking hilarious.
No, no, he was smiling, and he was sticking out of his teeth. But it was burning, but it was very long, so he didn't smoke them. I just want to see him go, and it be plugged, that'd be funny. Oh, that would be nice.
" Well, fucking Stallone's been smoking something in Tulsa King, and one time it was banded. I just got access to Paramount, so I just got watching Tulsa King. Is that Paramount or Amazon? It's Paramount.
It's Paramount. They probably said that he couldn't have it banded after that one time. No, that banded one was like four episodes in. It was four episodes in.
Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, maybe they'd record it out of order. Yeah, maybe.
But, like, I would fucking... That would drive me crazy if I'm doing a show like that and they go, okay... I don't know, I didn't... We're gonna shoot episode four, seven, and nine, and then go back and do two, three, four...
Right. I could never drive me crazy. But, like, if I'm Paramount Plus, I capitalize on that shit. I'm like, all right, I'll tell you what, we're gonna make sure that it's apparent that everybody sees that this is a cigar that you're smoking.
Who wants it? Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, you would think they would sell it, yeah.
A hundred percent, fucking, why do I keep saying a hundred percent, I don't know. " Right. " Oh, I watched Black Adam over the weekend, you said you liked Black Adam. I did like Black Adam.
It was terrible, it was terrible. Wow. The Rock cannot act, I'm sorry. He's a great man, and he's very big, and I'm sure he's all-natural.
Chicken and broccoli, sure, every day. It was a terrible movie. You didn't like the movie? It's not a terrible movie.
It's an outer space Shazam guy or something. I mean, when they show the Shazam wizards, I'm like, "Oh, that's it. I'm out. I'm out now.
" That's where they lost you. It's Shazam. It's the same movie, just a different guy, an Egyptian or whatever the fuck it was. No.
" He's got a very distinguished... So you had it all figured out. Well, I didn't know how that was going to play in later, but I'm like... Come on, man.
So you remember the old Shazam? Old Shazam was out two years ago. But yeah, I did see the... It's the same concept.
Come on, man. It's the same word. Dude. Dude.
Don't you dare. Don't you fucking dare. And the giant Adam guy? He was an idiot.
How did he get his superpowers? The guy that can make himself 60 times bigger than he is. The suit. Yeah, that's what he said.
His dad's Henry Winkler or something like that. So it's genetic? They can both do it? It's the suit.
The suit does it? Yeah. He told his son, he goes, "It's vintage. " Yeah, I don't know, man.
Stop. You need to just stop right now. I don't appreciate you talking about The Rock while you're talking about The Rock. He's the same guy in every movie.
So? He only has one level of acting. Who gives a fuck? That's not true.
That's not true. That's why I saw him play the fucking gay guy in Get Lost. Get Lost, yeah. That was, it was great.
He was a great actor. Get Lost, Shorty, in one of the Shorty movies? Yeah. He wasn't the gay guy.
The gay guy was the guy from The Sopranos. Okay, I'll tell you what. You go watch Get Lost and then you can tell me that you were fucking wrong. And that's Stallone with Travolta.
He's talking about the Kevin Hart one. No, Get Lost. Oh, where he's the FBI guy? No.
He was the fat guy in high school? Nope. I don't know what you're talking about then. That was Kevin Hart's thing.
Yeah, Kevin Hart. Go watch Get Lost. You did a great job. Is that the one with Sean William Scott?
I don't appreciate you talking about The Rock the way you're talking about The Rock. It's fucked up. He's about to get angry. Or passionate.
It was not passionate. You know what I did watch all weekend? The Rock's a billionaire. There's a show called The Roots.
He can act however the fuck he wants to act. He can be the same person over and over. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
That's right. I did read that he forced him to have Henry Cavill as Superman at the end of the movie. He did. Yeah.
And he was trying to bring him back. But now they're going to do like an origin story with Superman. Right, yeah. But they've signed him on for another one.
They did. Yeah, after. Good. I read that, though.
But did you hear how it happened? He's like, okay, so what's the name of the new Superman? And they start to talk. He goes, it doesn't matter what the name of the new Superman is!
Oh, really? That's what I read. That's good. That would have been funny.
Yeah. It doesn't matter. Yeah, did his line. Oh, would he?
Excuse me. Bless you. Thank you. Okay.
Oh, thank you. Thank you, Father. You're welcome. Yeah, you gotta practice.
Father BDP burned down the whatever fuck podcast. Yeah. Only a couple more months. Oh, wow.
Oh, super aggressive. What? Super aggressive. Okay, we're gonna be late for the meeting.
I can't believe that- Nobody's up there. Nobody's up there. Nobody's up there. Nobody's up there.
Nobody's there. Don't talk about the rock? It's not nice. I do like the girls in the movie.
Disrespect Dewey. You don't disrespect Dewey. Fucked up. Disrespect Dewey.
I was, I've never seen the, uh, okay, I'm familiar with Hawkman, obviously, but he was, but he was white, he was white in the comics. He was pretty cool. I liked the Nino Brown fucking sweatshirt they put him into. That was pretty cool.
Like a new Jack City, that bitch up. Why are all superheroes filthy rich? Because they're superheroes, man. So they stole them?
The Rock wasn't super rich. Yeah, but like, I mean, yeah, he was poor. Yeah, he was, but all the current ones. So like, uh, what's his name?
Who, the gold hat? They usually find an investor. I don't know. I mean, he's never seen him before.
It's, you know, it's... Yeah, they can see the future. Because they're the only people that have time to get things happening. I mean, Batman's rich, Hawkman is filthy rich.
Batman was born into it. Right. Batman's a superhero. He's not a superhero.
You know what? I was happy that DC finally figured out how to do special effects. Because the original Justice League movie was terrible special effects. Look, man.
I could do those effects. Look, man. What? It was a good movie.
No, it wasn't. You just let it happen. It wasn't good. It wasn't good.
It's not your fault. Did it make you cry? No, why would I cry? Were you moved at all?
You weren't moved? He didn't even die at the end. When his dad? The father?
This kid sacrificed his life for his father. So you thought it was The Rock the whole time he was a kid. No, no, I knew Rock was the father, but I didn't know how they were spinning it into the movie. I knew the kid was not.
Could you imagine your kid sacrificing his life for you? Sure. Oh, my God. You could?
Yeah. My kids, I could. Wow. Would you want that to happen?
Oh, of course not. Of course not. But I could see them doing it. Fuck that, bro.
That's crazy. My son does that every day. One of them, the old one, he runs into burning shit all the time. Not for you.
No, not for me. That's for a paycheck, bro. You say, could you see him do it? They don't get paid enough to run into burning buildings.
Of course they don't. I'm not saying they do. You say, could I see him doing it? Yes, I could see him running into a burning building to save me on top of somebody else before he'd run into a burning building to save somebody else.
But he would run in to save you, and him, and perfectly good, perfectly strange. You know, person has a fucking gun aimed at your chest and he steps in the way of it. Sure, I can see him doing it. Why?
I would not want him to. Yeah. Because he loves me. Yeah, no.
You can't let that happen. I'm not saying. Yes, I would cry about that. Wouldn't that move you a little?
Sure would. You didn't feel like a connection? No. No, because I was already disillusioned with the movie when they showed that scene.
Damn. Damn, Mike. What? Your heart.
Did you cry when you thought Rip was going to die? Who's going to die? Thought who was going to die? Rip.
When is Rip going to die? Last season. Remember when everybody thought he was going to die? I wouldn't have cried if Rip was going to die.
You're an emotional wreck is what's going on over here, bro. You guys need to watch this so we can talk about it because things happen. I'm going to tell you the hardest, like one of the most moving movies for me was Terminator 2. Oh my god, really?
At the end? Yeah. You guys ever seen Old Yeller when they had to kill the dog? Nah, fuck the dog.
It's not my dog. I'll tell you what I watched over the weekend. Your dog beat your wife. You need to do something about your dog.
I love my dog. You guys want to watch a good movie? It'll touch you? Tell me.
Poker Face, or Russell Crowe. Oh yeah, he talked about that. Russell Crowe, Poker Face? Yeah.
I haven't seen it, but I know what it's about. He poisons his friends. Okay, first, he is dying. Yeah.
And he doesn't tell his friends. So they come over and they play poker every week. Right. He's a super rich guy.
So he doesn't tell his friends and then he poisons him. He poisons him. But when he says poker... But each one has done something wrong.
One of them sleeping with somebody else's wife, one of them has stole a bunch of money, whatever. So they've all done something wrong. So he wants them all as a gift to understand what it is to feel like you're dying. Because it has changed his life or unburdened him or something because he knows he's dying.
So if they admit what they've done wrong, they get the antidote. Oh. It's sad. It sounds sad.
It sounds like I'm not going to be watching it. It's a really good movie, though. Okay. " Her and her friend watched it at 10 o'clock at night in the state room.
Bro, they got supercars in it. They got the ghost in it. The one that you like. We've been stuck on camera too for a while, and we've officially gone off the rails.
Well, that's because I'm not sure if the podcast is going to show up or not. Right, because we're having the Wi-Fi problems, so stick on one shot that we can keep. Gotcha. All right, well, hey.
We're over now. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you.
I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you.
I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you.
I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you.
I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you.
I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. I'll be right back to you. What are we saying?
Happy Holidays. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah.
Happy Hanukkah. Hang up. All right, we gotta go. Bye.
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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! He didn't even let him fuck it up all the way.
I gotta get past Hojo! I don't even have to try to hit the record. 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 could be like four cigars when I walked in a door. All right, end this.
Show Notes
Cigar Aficionado Top 25 taken apart cigar by cigar as per our annual tradition....then a review or fight over Black Adam!