Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 270 TPE Wrap Up
Episode Summary
Episode 270 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast is the crew's Total Product Expo (TPE) 2023 wrap-up. Michael "the King" Szczepankiewicz, producer Mike "BDP" Palmer, and cameraman Phil recount the trip to Las Vegas — the genuinely frightening turbulence on the flight out through Dallas, the unseasonable snow that greeted them in Vegas, TSA confiscating their lighters, and the older gentleman who collapsed outside the TPE industry pool party (with listener-of-the-week Brett Frye of Tobacology stepping up to help). They also spot a soaking-wet Jonathan Drew after he fell into the pool at the industry night party.
On the trade show itself, the hosts argue TPE could be condensed to two days, note that attendance peaked on day one while the "pillaging" of booth product happens on day three, and compare the cost of attending TPE (roughly $1,500) against PCA (closer to $3,500–$4,500 at the Venetian) — plus what a rumored PCA move to spring and New Orleans would mean for TPE's future. They list who showed and who didn't: Steve Saka taking orders long after the floor closed, Matt Booth at Room 101, Terrence Reilly, a low-key Fuente presence, and no Padrón. They tease next week's exclusive interview with Jack Torano and Hector Alfonso of Espinosa Cigars.
The news block covers Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust's price increase (about 5.3% on average, with the $100 Unicorn untouched and the Saka Kahn becoming Saka's first cigar over $20), Scandinavian Tobacco Group's acquisition of Alec Bradley Cigar Company for roughly $72.5 million USD and what that means for founder Alan Rubin's brand, Habanos S.A. reporting $545 million in 2022 revenue on just 2% growth (effectively a decline against inflation), West Tampa Tobacco Company's upcoming Red line and whether a San Andrés-wrapped blend can really taste different from the White, the debut of the Espinosa Wasabi Lancero (7.5 x 38, $9.50 each / $95 boxes of 10) at TPE, and General Cigar's new lawsuit against Cubatabaco over the U.S. Cohiba trademark.
Along the way: the Burn Cigars Not Bridges shirts, the Toy Story nicknames the crew assigned each other, a salmon-eating record at their favorite sushi spot, the Orlando Guardians and the XFL's crowd-engagement problems, and Caribbean Cigars as shop of the week. The Wasabi Lancero review itself moves over to the Patreon episode.
In This Episode
- 01Flight to Vegas and the Turbulence StorySevere turbulence into Dallas, a screaming passenger, and Michael's eye massager that got him through it all.
- 02Snow, TSA and Lighters at TPEUnseasonably cold Las Vegas weather, the wrong jackets, and getting searched and having lighters confiscated every trip through security.
- 03TPE 2023 Show Floor RecapAttendance peaking on day one, samples and orders, who exhibited and who skipped, and why the show could be done in two days.
- 04TPE vs. PCA Cost BreakdownWhat it actually costs to attend TPE versus PCA, and how a rumored PCA move to spring in New Orleans could undercut TPE.
- 05Industry Night: The Collapse and Jonathan Drew in the PoolA guest collapsing outside the pool party with Brett Frye ready to give CPR, plus a soaking-wet Jonathan Drew walking through the party.
- 06Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Price IncreaseRoughly 5.3% average increase, the Unicorn holding at $100, the Saka Kahn crossing $20, and how Nicaraguan labor costs drive pricing.
- 07STG Acquires Alec Bradley for $72.5 MillionScandinavian Tobacco Group buys Alan Rubin's Fort Lauderdale company, and the hosts debate whether $72.5M is actually a big number.
- 08News Roundup: Habanos, West Tampa Red and the Cohiba TrademarkHabanos S.A.'s $545M 2022 revenue, West Tampa's upcoming Red line, the Espinosa Wasabi Lancero debut, and General Cigar's new suit against Cubatabaco.
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
3, 2, 1. Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, episode 270, with your host, Michael the King, Stepon Kevich, and his producer, Mike BDP Palmer. This week's show, you bring, you bring to you, we bring to you, we bring to you, the TPE wrap up, and me, I'm Phil, your cameraman, I said hello to the darkness, my old friend, and it told me that it doesn't want to be my friend, square, square, square, better overhead garage storage with a rack above. Why must we damage our home just to gain overhead storage garage storage I'm sorry the rack above has challenged the status quo by creating a super freestanding overhead garage storage rack that will not harm your home's trusses or ceilings the rack above features a 48-inch shelf that has that spans the entire width of any garage and adjust to your height keeping items with within arm's reach and allowing you to ditch the ladder the rack above will fit any size garage the independent telescopic legs adjust to go up and down steps behind hot water heaters.
Around AC units, and between electrical boxes. Oh, wow. A rack above is the last overhead garage storage rack you will ever need to purchase. A rack above is easily disassembled and reassembled in any garage.
No matter where life takes you, a rack above will go with you. com. So... Nice.
I got my rack above installed. Yes, you have a rack above installed. I got my rack above installed. It looks amazing.
It looks marvelous. I'm going to, you're going to aggravate me today. I can already see that. I was saying it looked good.
I can already see that. Can you put a picture of it above you guys? I can already see that. Well, when I read it, you evidently don't watch the show that you're on.
Because when I read the thing, there's before and afters of people's garages scroll across the screen. No, I mean, yeah, but can you put his in it now? Oh, I don't. No, I don't want you.
No. You don't want people to know where he lives? I don't want people looking at my garage. It's weird.
It's clean. It is clean, but the floor is like, it needs to be painted. Well, maybe we could crop the photo to where we can see the floor. Ooh, maybe you could paint the floor for me on your Photoshop.
I'm painting it. Oh, on Photoshop, yeah. Yeah, no, I was gonna have you paint my floor. Oh, no, we're not doing that.
But I got my rack above. Yes. Yes. And it's fucking awesome.
And it's a rack above. I'm not gonna lie. It's fucking awesome. Unknown caller.
Thank God it wasn't me. Oh, my God. Sorry. Oh, my God.
I turned everything off. I don't know how that happened. Please continue. Please continue.
Turn everything off. Apparently not. So, I started to kind of clean out my garage beforehand, and then when he came in, and we installed this garage, the rack, what we did was we took all like the Christmas boxes and everything, and they're all, we have them all labeled and everything, and they're all up top there. Right.
So then I could take my other stuff, push it in the corner, and now my car is no longer in the center, it's to the side. Right. Which is fucking awesome. Right.
I have so much more space. I was surprised. I didn't think that I was gonna love this thing, how much I love this thing, but I really fucking love this thing. I didn't think I was gonna like it at all, but it was really nice.
No, I'm not saying that. I always thought that, hey, you know, okay, cool. Put my stuff up or whatever. But now that it's up, I'm fucking like, hell yeah, I'm glad that I have this.
Oh, is it full? It's full. Yeah, it's fucking, I'm like, let's, how much good shit can we put up there? How much weight can we do?
Can you reach? It can hold a lot. It can hold like 2,000 pounds. Can you reach this stuff without like a ladder?
Yeah. It's only four feet, 48 inches. Yes. It's easy peasy and you can walk under it no problem.
Oh, thank you, I'm back in the show. Well, he was just, okay, whatever. So I'm very excited. I'm very excited.
I'm very happy with my rack above. Excellent. I'm glad you're very happy. Yep.
Make sure you leave a review. Yeah, leave a Google and a Yelp review. I left a review. Just to review.
So, what do we got for the Patreon, Michael? I don't know. That's your job. We have the Wasabi Lancero.
We're going to smoke this and review it. And, and Michael, I don't know if I said this on the last show, but we're going to start giving exclusive deals. I think you only said it on the last episode. Oh yeah, because we're testing it out.
Because we did Jack and, not Jack, I'm sorry, we did Michael and Skip for two weeks in a row. Right. So we didn't technically do a show last week. We're going to have exclusive deals on our Patreon for our patrons of the Patreon.
Which now shows on the Patreon website. It does. Yes. Excellent.
So I'm very excited about this. We tested it on our last Patreon. It went very well. It was well received.
So we're going to do it again. We're going to do it again. So is it only going to be the cigars review or will there be other things that may randomly pop up? I think that it's going to be a little bit of both.
The both. Because I think what's going to happen is we're going to run into a Patreon where we're going to be doing something specifically that we don't have. Right. That's why I was asking, because it would be hard to do the review of only cigars that you have enough of to sell.
Yeah, so... Because sometimes we get them sent to us. Yeah, especially if it's something that's not out yet or whatever the case may be. So when something like that happens, we will aim at something else for the deal for the week or whatever the case may be.
Does that make sense? Yes. Does that make sense, Brittany? Brittany?
She didn't understand the deal She says, does that make sense to me? It drives me nuts It's a lovely shirt you're wearing Thank you, Burn Cigars Not Bridges Oh, yeah, we got the How About That Cigar Cheat Yeah, I put it on I put it on These are the same size Just for the record Oh, nice Yeah Is yours a little itchy? It is a little itchy I started to wear it because I took mine to the show Started to wear it one day on the show And I was like, oh, this is itchy So I washed it Yeah, you gotta wash it It's gotta be washed It's got all that Chinese fuck in it. It's got the asbestos?
Yes. Well, they might be trying to kill us off. They could be. Let's be honest.
Because we are the number one show stuff. We are number one. We are number one. We are the Chinese.
Do you think Matt did it or Garrett did it? Matt. Justin. You think Justin did it?
I think Justin did it. Justin probably did it. Justin did it. He's the best one.
He's the nicest. He kept telling you we had good conversations. I did too. I really like him.
Kill with a smile. I think it's just a matter of time before he takes over. How about that cigar? Yeah.
How about Justin's cigar? Justin Cigar? How about Justin Cigar? How about Justin Cigar?
How about Justin Cigar? I think that's a great idea. Maybe he'd do his own little segment, that'd be great. How about Justin Cigar?
How about Justin Cigar? You should pay on that. Write that down. They have a guest tonight on their show.
Yeah, we're not talking about that. Oh, we're going trolling, trolling. You can troll all you want. Right?
Yes. I'm kind of torn, because I also have to troll the show you're on tonight. Well, actually, it would have been last night. You shouldn't be torn.
I mean, that's a no-brainer. Why? Come troll with me. Come to daddy.
Come over here. You know, that is kind of funny. I thought Aaron and I got close at the TPE this year, but they didn't invite me once to be on the show, too. The burned cigars, not bridges.
I mean, I'm more of a fan of just burning the fuck out of the bridges. Oh, me, too. Yeah. Yeah, sure.
Just throw it over your head and just keep walking. Yeah, at the end of the day, I don't want to try and mend some shit that I don't need to mend. I hold a grudge. I've said that many times.
Yeah, why waste? I'm a grudger. For years. For years.
For years. I mean, if you're a dick, I'm not going to make it work. You're an asshole. I'm going to burn that fucking bridge and move on.
So should we talk about the TP? We should definitely talk about the TP. There's, I mean, there's only a couple of things, though, that we should probably leave for our next week interview with Jack and Hector from Espinosa Cigars. Oh, well, we won't talk about any of that.
Yeah, we don't need to mention. No, not any of that at all. Okay. But there's other things that happened.
I mean, we can say. Not as exciting. No, no, not a thing. nothing nothing nothing i mean are they doing anybody else's show this week it might be in rotation a little bit we might want to just just just say are they doing anybody else's show this week i don't think so we have a cigar hustler exclusive we're just letting go yeah it's good oh it's good it's good it's good the fucking the drama the cigar interview is fantastic yes it never gets old never gets tiring nope you know sometimes you got to try and beat up on Older gentleman, I guess.
Sometimes. But that's all I'm saying. 2 grams, by the way. 2.
Mr. Skip Martin, if you could send me maybe a little list of what is acceptable weights for the variable sizes, that would help make this a lot easier. He's not going to do that. Sure he will.
No, he won't. He's my friend. No, he won't do that. He did the way he was here on the one that we reviewed while he was here.
Yeah. So, I mean, why can't he just, you know. Because the way that he would look at it, you should be able to fucking do that yourself. But I'd have to go somewhere to find that information.
Yeah. That's what he's saying. I'm going to him. That's what he's saying.
No, I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you right now. All right. If you want to send it, you know what it is.
Listen, maybe he has a moment of weakness. Close mouth, don't get fed, Michael. I have a great book. Oh, does it say so?
Does it say so in your book on how to be a cigar smoker? No, no. From Brett Frye. Yeah, yeah.
Does it have the weight by the gram? Yes. I'll bring it. Okay.
Oh. See? Why don't you just write it down for me? I'll bring it.
Wow. Everybody's lazy. Lazy. Not lazy.
It's your job. Everybody's lazy. It's not my job. Who's that at the list?
Bathroom cleaner, floor sweeper. Show. There's toilet paper outside of the door, by the way. Is it really?
No. I hope he does, though. I know where to keep it, don't worry. Right.
We're good. I put it all away. Greg, where's the two-sided tape? We don't have any two-sided tape.
Come on, Greg. Come on. So nice shirts, fellas. So how about the fact that there's only two of them filled in the shirt.
He's still hurt over there. Hey, you got the shirt. I did get the shirt. You got the shirt, Mr.
Industry. You're fine. Brett Frye, man. He's a great guy.
He is a very nice man. I'm a size extra large. Just saying. Both of you are a size extra large.
Yeah, apparently we're both a size extra large. We're both extra large. is a little blousey. His is extremely tight.
So we're all good. We could share clothes. We could share clothes. That'd be so cute.
Oh, put this one on. No. No, that was even tight on me. He would tear it.
Yeah, I would rip that to shreds. He would rip it. He would tear it. So I thought the attendance was big the first day, and then I think nobody came back.
Let's talk about the snow. Can we start there? Oh, I mean, we're just talking about the show. How about we talk about the flight?
I mean, you guys bitched about the flight. Oh, you want to do everything. Let's cover the TPE. Yeah.
Let's cover the TPE. We're in the DP show. You're gonna wrap it up in 10 seconds. We have my news.
Yeah. No, let's talk about the flight. There must be some good stories on there for him to already be like, we got news. No, no, there's that one big one.
Can we talk about the flight? Let's talk about the flight. Where we almost died? Where you guys were fucking terrified and I slept like a fucking baby.
You slept through the whole thing. Well, some lady on the flight almost did die. Oh my God! Oh my God.
And then some kids cried because she scared the children. I wasn't scared until that lady screamed. I wasn't scared. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the lady's scream because she startled me.
You don't normally hear oh my god scream. I gripped a little bit. Yeah, I did. I gripped the armrest a little bit.
Did you? Yes. What would that do? It gave me something to hold on to.
I contemplated sending the honey I love you text. Really? Yes. Because then when the plane, before it crashes, you're going to get into Wi-Fi or get into cell zone and auto send before the plane crashes.
Oh. Right. Whoop. Or if you scream really loud, I love you, honey, they hear you on the black box.
I didn't think about that. That would be better. The passenger in 31G, who is that? Because he's yelling, I love my wife.
I love my wife. So it was pretty turbulent. It was, yes. I don't mind left and right or up and down, but when it goes left and right and up and down at the same time.
Left and right and up and down is where you draw the line. No, you just have to draw the line when it goes like this. If it's going straight down, that's when you're going to die. I did have that spare pilot next to me, And he kept doing one of these, like, what the fuck are they doing up there?
Like, he's looking over the seat, trying to see into the cockpit. How did you? Yeah, he was sitting next to you. Yeah, he was sitting next to me.
So that's, so that's how the scream went for me. I'm kind of like listening. I'm like, and I got scared when she screamed. But then when I saw the pilot next to you, I was like, well, this fucking guy ain't doing nothing.
Right. Fuck this lady. She's fucking screaming back there, alerting everybody. I must've pissed off so many people around me.
They're like, he's not even fucking moving. Well, you had it on headphones, your eye massager. Yeah, you could feel the fucking eye. I felt the whole thing.
I was like... You thought the eye massager was just really charged well. Yeah, that was... Yeah, 'cause...
Dude, I'm gonna tell you. Our family that was here has that. They were going on and on about this new eye thing that they just got. It's amazing.
I was like, "Oh, my friend's got one. " Fucking got airbags in it. Yeah, it's fucking amazing. Listen...
That's the first trip I noticed it moves on your face. It does. Yeah. It does.
I highly recommend anybody buying this. It wasn't anybody buying this. It was like the alien monster was sitting on your face with the hose down. com.
No, you can't. com. You should tell them here. You can just get it on Amazon.
Put a sticker on each one, CigarHustler, and tell them that way. There you go. Eyeball massager. Right.
And then people know you smoke cigars. It reduces... Oh, fuck. Of course this guy's gonna call.
It reduces the stress. Hello, you're on the air. Oh, it's Justin Andrews. He's calling back finally.
No, it's actually the Southern Wine Guy. Oh. Hey, Southern Wine Guy, you're on the air. We would like to dry wine just from the south, though.
So that was going into Dallas, and then taking off from Dallas, same thing. Same motion. Just no scream. Just no scream, yeah.
We didn't have the scream lady. Now, there were people on other airlines that were on our second flight with us that were talking about that one lady flew in from Jacksonville. She had the same problem. Of course.
There was somebody else, and then the lady who was sitting next to me on the flight out, Yeah. She was very chatty. She was like, I heard the flights on Wednesday come in and were very bad. I hope we don't have those again.
I'm like, yep, I was on one. I felt sick. I'm like, we're like legendary now. Did you?
You got sick? I felt sick. Phil was sick the entire weekend or week, whatever it was. Dude, my stomach was uneasy.
Dude, that plane ride was no fucking joke. He was like, is the elevator moving? No, the elevator's not shaking. I'm not going to lie.
It felt like a joke to me. It was fine. Because you're fucking over there with the bag things on your eyes. Because I'm good to go.
I'm just rolling. Maybe that's what I need. Like, man, we need fucking airbags. I'm gonna tell you, listen, that's what I was trying to say before you guys go, "Oh, this is our scar houses are coming by.
" Sounded just like what we said. If you have like some fucking, if you have anxiety or some shit, you know, and you're getting on these planes, I fucking highly recommend, I don't have anxiety, I just want to chill. Yeah, no, the flakes don't bother me. But I highly recommend it, because it'll fucking, you know, it'll chill you out a little bit.
Yeah. I have problems with screaming passengers. Yeah. It has music?
I have a problem with them. It has music in it, too, or no? It does, but I can't, you can't hear it. Oh, the speaker's in your eyeballs?
There are speakers there. It plays music, but. Palmer, didn't you say you had something? I usually have headphones on.
I wore that headband when I slept with the built-in headphones. Oh, yeah, the headband. That way, because you can't really sleep with the ear pods in because they fall out. Right.
So that was a headband with it in there for runners and stuff. Now, on the flight home, I didn't use the eyeball thing, but I could tell you. I figured it wasn't charged. Yeah, no, it was charged.
Oh. But I could tell you that if you wanted to fly home and be at complete ease, you should just fly like the way Pete Hernandez does. Yeah, right. Because that guy was high as fuck.
I'm like, "Hey, are you okay? " He had the samples in the back of the... He was testing the waters. He was just trying to do...
He was doing some R&D. Product testing. Research and development. You know?
Future customers. Yeah. Okay, so, then we all land. Yes.
And it's fucking freezing. It's very cold. Holy shit. It snowed!
Unseasonably cold for me. It fucking snowed on us. We got flurries at the hotel. Yes.
And then by the time we get to the trade show, it's out, it's just outright snowing at that point. We had no, we were not prepared. We were not prepared. We had no, we did not have the right jackets.
No, I downgraded my jacket because it was going to be 69. Yeah, you told me it was going to be a high of 68, and I'm like, oh, whatever. High 68, 69, low of 50, I was like, oh, well, I'll just not take that jacket, I'll take this one. I've, you know what, for whatever reason, I always listen to you, I need to stop this, this is just fucking ridiculous.
I brought two jackets. I believe you when you put me, when I'm getting the Hall of Fame awards, I believe you when Bang does it. I'm so believable. And then you tell me that the temperature is going to, I'm just, I just, I love you Michael, you're so, I'm just no longer going to believe anything that comes out of your mouth.
Oh, yes you will. You're going to, I'm going to say, hey Mike, hey Mike, how are you? It's not like I brought a parka and left you out of the cold. He was cold, he didn't, he didn't really have a liner in his jacket.
You weren't trying to sabotage me, but I just can't believe it. The liner had no, yeah, that had no liner in it. I just can't believe anything you say, that's all. Very sorry, Mike.
It's not anchored. You have to bring two jackets. Yeah. Shit.
All right, so now we, so we get to the TV. Oh, and then we got all of our liars jacked. Yeah, we got searched every time in TSA. It was ridiculous.
It was ridiculous. They had our pictures. They had to do a competition to find my lighter. Well, Matumbo was our TSA agent.
She was like, ah, ah, ah, if I could take this. She was new. Yeah, of course she was. You could tell it.
She was saving the world one lighter at a time. Fuck me, man. Holy shit. Hey, I had to take your lighter, but you can take your sharp scissors.
That's okay. There was no sharp blade on them. Well, I would have been so pissed if she took my fucking... I wouldn't cut the bones.
Open the cockpit right now or I'll chop the fingers. She loses a pinky! He won't be able to fly this plane with no fingers. Great, now you're in a list.
Uh oh. So... So TBE. So we lived it.
Yes. So you felt that the attendance was busy on the first one. We could have done it in two days. We could have done it in two days.
We could have went home Tuesday night. Tuesday night. Well, we pretty much did it in two days. Because the last day was pretty...
Well, since we weren't displaying, it's just walk around, hey, how you doing? How you doing? But the pillaging happens on day three. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. That was a good day. So maybe next year we go second and third day. Ooh, two, three?
Yeah, we skipped the first day completely. Okay. Yeah. Well, we have to fly in and get sushi.
First things first. I don't know. We can still do that. We can still have two days.
We just don't, you know, so we don't have a fancy dinner with somebody who we can't understand when they talk. Yeah, you know what? Like, Wow. That was a very nice meal.
Both meals were very nice. They were very friendly. I'm not pissing either one of those guys off. Wow.
Nah, because you'll be in a body bag. I'll be in the hole where they're digging for the new plumbing. Wow. You're incredible.
You're fucking incredible. It was funny. He's over there about to wet himself. Over there in the control room.
The meals were great. They were very delicious. They were good. It was good.
The food was delicious. But in case you don't understand what they're saying, though. You thought that was funny. It was a little rough.
That was funny, too. But I could take it. I could navigate. So Jack's had to go to like the bishop thing for his kids.
I saw the photos, yes. Yeah. You wore your cowboy boots. I did.
Yeah, I saw. Thank you for noticing. See, I like. Oh, look out.
But when you went to the big church at the end? Yeah. It was in Spanish and in English. Oh.
So like each sermon, they would switch. Oh. And if it was in English spoken, it would be in Spanish in your book. Oh.
So did he have to do a Spanish one? No, no. Oh. We sat there, but it's a good way to learn Spanish.
I guess. Yeah. Just go there. If that happens all the time, get the sermon.
So it's a double sermon? Well, it's three little things. It's the same stuff. Oh.
Gotcha. And then you went to an XFL game? I did. I did go to the XFL game.
Nice. Did they win? Nice. Did they win?
That's very sad. No, the Orlando Guardians are a fucking mess. Oh, they're tough. It's a rough season so far.
Dude, we are going to... But I got to meet the second-string quarterback. It's probably going to be the first-string quarterback. Yeah, the photo.
What, did you throw him your phone? Yeah. Did he take a picture? He goes, sure.
And I hand him my phone. Because he's not doing anything else. That was the end of the game. Oh, okay.
Yeah. He didn't want to leave? No. You know what?
I like what he... The XFL's a fucking mess. Right. You know, I'm going to tell you right now, there are a lot of things that aren't going on there as far as crowd engagement and all of these things that really need to be fucking fine-tuned and they need to be adjusted fast because what you're going to do is you're going to lose your audience quickly.
Right. Like the halftime show, it was like they were throwing things into a bin and they were at the end zone of one fucking end zone. I'm like, well, what about all the other people? What about the other 90 yards with the people?
Oh, I see. They only went into the field. yeah you should you know like this is not good you know there was no there wasn't a lot of engagement there wasn't a lot of things going on where where they should probably be exceeding in those things oh they should be throwing things out everywhere because it's not brand new but it's come back yeah so they're throwing they were they gave a couple shirts out and stuff like that and jack's made espn by that's what he said yeah i saw that which is awesome but i think that they need to tweak this. Whose phone's going off?
Is that you? That's you. No, it's not me. It's not me.
It's totally you. I can see your phone on. Something was vibrating. My phone doesn't vibrate.
So, so yeah, they got to work out some stuff and they got to get it together fast. If not, this fucking plane's going to crash hard. Oh, we don't want that. We don't want that lady screaming.
No, because I mean, I, oh my God. Dude, the way that we have this set up, like, my boy Eric is with us, you're with us, I mean, we could all go and have a really good time, you know what I mean? And there's this really large, funny fucking guy that's in our section, hilarious, dude. He was cheering for the shade, because the shade is on the other side, which is really sad, because then you see that everybody, I mean, it's just like, fuck, it's right there.
And then as the game goes on, it gets darker, so it doesn't fucking matter at that point. " We were all cheering for the shade. Yeah, that's a completely open... Is that a character or something, or you wanted the actual shade from the sun?
We wanted the sun to go down enough so that our side was dark like the other side that had nobody. They should switch the home, because they're probably sitting on the home squad's side. Actually, we were sitting on the visitor's side, which is even more fucked up. I think you'd be on the home side.
Yeah, no shit. Hmm. Ridiculous. Ridiculous.
Normally, you'd rather show the visitors with no fans. Right! Right! The fuckin' San Antonio Brahmas.
Oh, wow, a good name. They're the Bulls. Yeah, they're the Brahmas. Oh, that's the, uh...
We're the Orlando Guardians. The Rocks. That's probably the Rocks' favorite team. San Antonio Brahmas.
It's his team, it's workout guys. I feel like the Houston Roughnecks, it's already a wrap, they're gonna win this whole fuckin' thing. Yeah, they've scored a lot. So, we jumped off the teepee very quickly.
Yeah, I know. So I thought it was busy the first day and then I didn't think it was busy the second day, not as busy. Okay, well I did do some ordering at this show and I'll kind of get into that a little bit more on our Patreon as to what I bought and why I bought it there and those things. Oh nice, okay.
You know, it's definitely not incentivized to go as a cigar person. I mean, it isn't to incentivize as far as the TPE is concerned, like it's very cheap. Right, yeah. You know, you're in and out maybe 1500 bucks.
Oh, to be an exhibitor? No, like as a visitor. Let's say that you flew there, your airfare for, you know, is 500 bucks or whatever. And then your hotels, you got to deal on your hotel, you got to deal on getting in and shit.
I mean, with eating and stuff, it'll probably cost like 1500 bucks. Oh, wow. I would say. Versus PCA.
Yeah, what would PCA run you? Like double? Well, if you're going to stay at the Venetian, it's $200 a night. If not more, $250.
There's a deal, but we give you a deal, it'll be $250. It's three days, that's $750, $1,000. You've got to get in, that's $200. Only you did.
You're going to spend a lot more money at PCA than you are at TPE. Right. And then eating, and then your flight. I mean, it's just generally more money.
It's going to be at least $3,500, $4,500, I would say. I know. Just to go. That's not exhibiting.
It's just to go. Mm-hmm. Wow. Mm-hmm.
Well, that's why they're... So, what's really kind of fascinating is PCA is talking about moving to, like, March or April, I think. Right, yeah, that was the rumor. And if they do that, then there's no reason to go to TBE.
Next year, they're gonna scoot it to April. Yeah. And it's gonna be in a different place, right? Uh, yeah.
New Orleans. New Orleans. That'd be cool. We could drive.
We're not driving. What was that, 23 hours? To New Orleans? Yeah, it's like 23 hours.
No. No. There are other ones. You must have went the long way.
Mmm. Check it out. There's no way. I can get to Missouri in 17.
There's no way that it's 23 hours. Check it out. I'm gonna do it right now. He's doing it right now.
I'm gonna tell you how far it is to New Orleans. Now, Harlan. 536 miles. Nine hours, three minutes.
Oh, let's drive. Let's see, it's one day. Fuck that. I ain't driving.
It's not so much to drive there, it's to drive back. I see Danny's place. What's the name of that place? Smoke on the Water.
Is that what is named in New Orleans? Oh, yeah, we just visit stores all the way out. Yeah. All of that sounds miserable.
Save us a trip to the panhandle. No. I'm going to fly. We can take the RV, man.
Come on, man. Oh, we can take the RV. You guys drive. You guys drive.
Can I sit in the RV when you guys... We'll get like some big fat magnets. Do I get to sit in the RV when you're driving? You can, but it's very squishy.
It's squishy? Oh, because it's closed. Yeah. You can.
Oh. But you can't pee in there. Can I smoke in there? No, you can't smoke in there.
Look at that. Do you see the shift? That's not my rule. He wants to say yes, but he knows he can't.
Yeah. That's not my rule. Sokka was there. Matt Booth was there.
Terrence was there. Yep. All of them. Who wasn't there?
There was a lot of people that weren't there. Erlito wasn't there. Erlito wasn't there. Padrón and Cuente.
Cuente kind of slid in at the end. They didn't announce it, but they weren't selling anything. They were just there. They were just shaking hands, kissing babies.
But it was nice to see Mike again, though. Mm-hmm. We saw him day one. But he was all the way back there.
Yeah. So far. So far. It's really a blue, the blue carpet party.
It's really, it's really. It's still what it's. Those guys are having a great time. Oh, yeah.
They're back there partying and doing weed. Yeah. Popping pills, smoking... But I will tell you that I probably wouldn't have made the purchases that I made if I wasn't there.
Oh, yeah? Yeah, but I'll get more into that on the Patreon links. My strategy. Strategy?
As a successful retailer. Some people weren't giving out samples, some people weren't taking orders. It's kind of a weird vibe going on. Yeah.
You know, of course, Saka was giving out, taking orders way after closing. He put that post up. Hey, people are gone, cigar people are gone, I'm still here doing orders. Just out here crushing the streets.
Crushing the street. They didn't give us any samples. What did they have? They answered.
I know they did, but what did you want, the soccer, the whatever that? It's just like the courtesy thing. Oh. Just like the, the acknowledgement.
You could have asked Mr. Lafferty. Hey, but I don't want to ask. Oh.
You don't like that? Hey. I don't like to ask either. You can let me ask.
It's not like I'm some fucking dry beggar over here. Right. oh, you girls humbles? Can I have this ashtray?
Right. Yeah. Hey, you want a cigar? I only do that at Espinosa.
Yeah, you want a cigar? I'd be like, nah, I'm okay. You know what I mean? Can we have the chair?
We'd like the chair and this table. We like the table a lot. We like the table. Well, send me over.
Hey, the king would like a cigar. No, it's not the same. I want a decline. I want a decline.
I want a decline. Okay, then when he gives it to me, I bring it to you, you say, no, no, no, and then I throw it back. He doesn't want this one. Jerry does not like.
He said, - You got something else? - He said, what else you got? - BDP and the King request one. - I don't know, it's like the courtesy, like, you know, we're friends.
- We kept going over to Booth, you know, we didn't want to ask, but we wanted to be offered, like you said, a cigar at Room 101. - No, I don't know. - Oh, I fucking asked at the end. I said, I didn't fucking do it any longer.
- Well, he gave you the little penis or whatever it was. - The farce. - Oh, he gave you that one too. " You think Matt Booth would have bought us a sandwich or something?
Nothing, nothing. Hey, you wanna go have a sandwich? I don't, I don't know if he ever stopped to go eat. I'm sure that he did.
I saw food brought to him. For dinner. I'm sure he went. Oh, for dinner.
Oh, yeah. Probably to take people. With a really high-end, bougie people. Take people out for dinner, yeah.
Would you like to go to dinner? The problem is being friends with like a Matt Booth, now you're past that. " I don't have to take these guys to dinner. Fuck you, you're my friend.
I don't have to take you. But I like to go to dinner. There's schmoes here that I have to take that I don't see. But I'd much rather enjoy.
It would be more fun. I'd much rather have dinner with a like, you know, I don't know. I just think Skip needs to go to TB so we can have dinner with him all the time. Oh, that'd be good, yeah.
Because I'll tell you what, there hasn't been a dinner with Skip that I haven't fucking thoroughly enjoyed, whether it was the food, just the fucking camaraderie and the bullshit and all of that stuff, you know. So, I mean, the debate of how the nachos, how are they coming? Right. How many eggs are in the fucking...
How many eggs do I get? You know, all of that shit is just... Well, you get four halves, sir, so I'm only getting two eggs. So, two eggs.
So, it's $18 for two fucking eggs. He's got a point. He's got a fucking point. That's right.
What else you got with onions? What else you got with onions? I'm really feeling onion-y today. Oh, man.
Onion rings, onion fries, onion soup. Yeah. I don't think we've ever ate with Mabu. It's very, you know, we have, it's very taxid.
He doesn't eat. He does have a tight figure. Yeah. Oh, he was looking at his figure.
Very firm. Well, you know, primary. Very excited there, isn't he? All right, what time we had?
I, that's the only bad part about this. We didn't, I don't know what's going on. We didn't. Where are we at?
We didn't have lunch or anything. 30? We hit Costco. We hit Costco.
We brought, um, that one day we didn't even have breakfast. Snackies. Oh, I did get an Egg McMuffin when we got to Espinosa. They had egging over.
They asked me if I wanted it. I didn't have breakfast. No, that day you didn't. Day one?
You guys ate it? Oh, we ate it day one. Yeah, we had that $75 breakfast. I didn't have breakfast day two.
Where they had tails on his shrimp. Yeah, what the fuck? When did I have breakfast? I thought we all got...
Oh, that was at the airport. We all got breakfast sandwiches on the way home. Yeah, that was Saturday morning from flying. We got bagel sandwiches.
So, Wednesday we flew. We didn't have lunch that day, did we? on saturday didn't we no we just had the dinner no when i'm going i'm not fucking right i don't want to stop he stars us help us please he refuses to feed us i have nuts you would i like the nuts nuts and chocolate cake protein protein shake but the nuts in the protein you can do it that's it that's two meals i don't have that kind of time right there i don't have that kind of time but don't worry tonight we're going to dinner yeah spending lots of money so then we're just eating He's eating everything, because we're so hungry at that point. Is there more bread?
We'd like bread. We have to document what my record is for salmon. 60. This time around was 60.
I had way more last time. The time you and I just went. I think I hit 80. I think you did.
Because they stopped. " You guys hate you. You can't order more. You can't order more.
It's still on plate. What are you talking about? I'm going to eat this. I want more to come.
Yeah, but you eat first. But your turnaround time is atrocious. It's atrocious. It was very slow that night.
Do not feed list. You're on the do not feed list. Those guys were on point though. The sushi guys were on point delivering.
Oh, they were hustling. Oh, here it comes. Here's more. Well, maybe they've learned if we're doing all you can eat, we gotta get the turns.
We gotta get them in and out. I gotta tell you though, I ordered my sushi, my salmon, and then I ordered it again. Right. And then you could see that the guy went over to the corner talking to the chef and he was pointing at me.
Oh, I see. I didn't see that. I'm like, that's right. I'm here to crush schools of salmon.
Oh, we know him. I'm like, I'm like, I hit him. Take a picture. Look, it's the picture of the guy.
It's the guy for the photo. He shaved his head. Godzilla has come back. Godzilla!
Oh, I almost died at the Maggiano's or whatever it was. I didn't get to witness that. No, you were in the bathroom for 75 minutes. Yeah.
You had to take quite the poop. It was a spicy, those spicy potatoes, and as I took a bite, I inhaled, and the peppers went into my lungs, and I couldn't breathe. So who saved you? Did you?
Jerry Gruber. He did. Did he go to the chest or the waist? Penis.
That's what I figured. That's why I asked. Like it was a crank or something, he thought, I don't know, he just started turning it. Oh, yeah, like a jack-in-the-box.
Right. Pop, and then the food come back out. Oh, you know, we forgot to talk about the guy that almost died. Yeah, you were gonna kiss him.
Kiss him. You were going to give him the kiss of life. I was going to give him the kiss of life. Well, you and Brett were going to double team him with the kiss of life.
That's right. So we're sitting at the slots kind of just hanging out outside of the first... It was TPE industry. Opening night.
Yeah, whatever. The pool party in the snow. And this older gentleman comes out of the party and all of a sudden he just kind of leans to his side and collapses. Well, there was a ramp.
He's going down the ramp. He was past the ramp. Well, that's what I mean. He cleared the ramp.
And then he just collapsed. Right. Boop. And you saw it.
So we're hanging out. Yeah. So I caught the second half of the collapsing. So we're hanging out with Brett Frye in Tobacology.
Right. And Brad is his B&B distributor. His warehouse guy. Yeah.
Yeah. He owns the warehouse. And I'm like, fuck. I'm like, we're going to have to go revive this guy.
Because nobody from the casino was coming. Nobody was moving. No. Nobody was moving.
Small crowd. And I'm like... I saw a couple of employees walk by and like... Yeah.
I'll walk faster. Well, maybe there was somebody before that faked it. I think it's Sahara, Las Vegas, and they ain't moving fast for anybody. I think that's Sahara Fred, he probably does the dive once a week.
So we walk over there, and I'm like, okay, do I have to fucking pump this guy, or what? And then Brett's like, I know what I'm doing, I know how to give CPR. " And Brett said he had to do it in the military. Thank God, thank God.
They had a prisoner go down to something. So the guy starts breathing, he's breathing, we can see that he's breathing, and his eyes are kind of rolled a little bit. He's moving back and forth. I'm like, okay, well, he's breathing.
And then you're standing on his hands. No way, man. I'm doing CPR right now. No, this is my one chance.
Someone take his pants off. I hear that's how you have to get CPR. DPR. Go through his wallet.
I got to know his name first. Say what you're looking for. Say you're looking for ID. Give me that K.
Is there a minister in Parma? Come over here. Those rings look tight. Take those rings off his fingers.
So eventually, hotel security and stuff came by. Staff came by. Right. He was okay.
At least we think he's okay. We never saw him again. His wife looked really calm. She didn't get very upset at all.
Yeah. Maybe it's happened to him before. Maybe. This is it.
This is the cash cow. She yanked on his arms a couple times trying to get him up like, "You're embarrassing me. " You look stupid down there. Everybody's watching.
Everybody's watching. They're going to come over. We're going to get in trouble again. It's just so funny how people kind of surprise you.
Because, like, Brett would have fucking done it. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? He was getting ready to.
This would have been a better story if you wouldn't know. It was still a story like it did. So Brett walked over. And saved.
Checked the man's pulse. He goes, "He's not breathing. He's not breathing. " And then he started.
He broke three of his ribs. Yeah, we heard his ribs just cracking like toothpicks. Yeah, that was horrible. Infection.
Right. But then he put his mouth on. You don't have to do the mouth anymore. Wait, one more time.
I know you're not supposed to, but Brett's old school. Brett's old school. Right. I turned away because I didn't want to see it.
And their beards got tangled up, and then when Brett lifted his head up, The Old Man's Head moved too. And then Boots got, Boots got a, or wait, did Industry get it? Industry got, Industry got a lovely jersey from Brett. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah. That you're not wearing today. Because it's in the wash. So you're going to have to wear it next week.
Yeah. It will be a cornerstone of the show from now on. He could not make sure it was clean for today. It was, yeah, it was great, man.
Because Mrs. Industry did not prepare him properly. Damn it, Mrs. Industry.
It's terrible. All right, let's get on to some news then. We all survived TPE. tpe that's it what else you want to say i don't know guy almost died it fucking snowed we saw people we had food we couldn't understand what was being said i mean what i mean we covered a lot justin andrews not answering your call oh justin andrews did not answer my call or matt booth's at this point so he's just not taking phone calls i was standing right next to him he wouldn't answer my fucking call literally i want to find somebody at a level that calls him and he just answers right away yeah there's got to be something it was that guy at the table it used to be matt booth Right, until now they bought him, so now he's technically Matt's boss.
Yeah, so he didn't answer. Right, he doesn't answer. Yeah, yeah, last year he followed around taking pictures for him. Yeah.
Oh, yes, Mr. Booth, yes, Mr. Booth. Please don't leave me, Mr.
Booth. Oh, hey, camera, camera. He wanted to take pictures with them? Yeah.
Yeah. Maybe Alec Bradley? Maybe, you know. Alan Rubin?
Yeah, that guy. 5 million show? That's a top story, don't jump ahead. See, now we're converting.
Hit the button. Let's go to news. Well, I need the time. Uh, 37.
Uh oh. From the four quarters of the world, all the cigar industry news. Hold on, we have a phone call. What?
Yeah, that one. We're gonna be millionaires. This is it. Hello?
Don't joke around yet. It could be serious. I am podcasting. How are you?
No, I could, but I don't think they can, can, okay. All right, I love you, bye. Could you hear any of that? Yeah, we heard it all.
Yeah, wow. So she's naked right now, and you gotta go? Yeah, actually. See you guys later.
Enjoy the rest of your podcast. Now's the time, we're gonna have another baby, hurry up. She knows, every day, we do the podcast, every Monday, we do the podcast. I don't, I don't know.
For six years, every Monday, from three to four. It's not long enough. It is 337. You know, all right, smack in the middle.
Like, I don't know. From the four corners of the world, all the cigar industry news you could possibly need. The Cigar Hustler Podcast Report with Mike Toon. Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust announces a price increase.
I thought that was... It's just started today. Oh. For every cigar except the Unicorn.
That's still $100. No increase on it, wow. Not on that one. It's overpriced already.
Oh, that's why. Do you think it's $100 tobacco? He should have went 107, fuck it. 7% increase.
Keep himself honest. 3% on average throughout the everything. Okay. The Saka Khan is his first cigar over $20.
Listen, you know what, man? I don't think so much as the tobacco, from what I understand from having a conversation with Skip, I don't so much think tobacco costs more, but your labor is definitely costing more because their inflation is way worse than our inflation. Oh, sure. To kind of surmise things, really kind of, but the real question is, are the factories paying these people more, or do they just jack up their fucking prices?
I think they just jack up their prices. I think more often than not, they're a lot like the Chinese. More often than not, that's the case, but I know that Skip raises his payroll. Yeah, and he didn't do a price increase.
He did it on me? He did it on you. Well, I'm sure that he had, he's had some pricing. Babel has not announced he had a price increase.
But he's had, that's a big shocker. But he's had price increases throughout the years. Oh, has he had one lately, though? Uh, yeah, I think he did.
Not this year, though. I think the beginning of the year. He just doesn't announce it on media or anything like that. He's like, what the fucking...
Oh. Charlie, you need to check on that. Yeah. Oh, I talked to Charlie more this trip than I ever have talked to him again.
Really? Yeah. Well, we're the number one show now. Well, he ran away at the end.
He did. He started avoiding us on day three. You gotta send me the contract for ad space. I'm gonna email him.
To Charlie? Yeah. Let's see what he says. 5 million.
No way. 5 million. 5 million. S.
dollars. DKK, 500 DKK. Alec Bradley is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and has a portfolio of more than two dozen active cigar brands, as well as cigar accessories. Notably, the company does not own any factories.
Instead, it uses factories in Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic to produce the cigars. After selling his family's hardware business, Alan Rubin launched the company in 1996. In 2000, Ralph Monatero joined the company, giving the company someone with a background in the cigar industry following the cigar boom of the 1990s. Rubin named the company after his sons, Alec and Bradley, who have since gone on to work for the company.
I'm surprised that neither one of you knew that. I'm surprised that neither one of you knew that. No, I didn't know that. I thought that was his name.
No. They work for the company? They work for the company. Alec Bradley has not yet issued a statement about the deal.
SCG is the parent of General Cigar Company, Cigars International, Thompson, and others. It also owns a minority stake in the Plasencia cigar business, which is one of the main producers of Alec Bradley. Sadly, cigars. STG is also one of the few companies that have been consistently active in acquisitions since going public in 2016.
STG has acquired... Oh, then you can't see it because we're running out of ink in the printer. Is it in that big blank spot? I'm guessing that's yellow.
We're out of color. It's at the front door. The struggle is real here at Cigar Hustler Podcast. We're going to have to do a price increase to cover the rising cost of ink.
How do we raise zero? I don't know. People don't pay for the show anyway. Multiply it by 7.
A. generated $545 million in revenue in 2020. So that was it? 5 million?
Well, we can talk about it. I stopped. You didn't say anything, so I just kept rolling. I have a question if you guys don't have anything on it.
Please go ahead. Ah, you got one question. 5 million, does the prices of your cigars go up? No.
Maybe. I don't know. Well, why? Well, they want to increase revenue.
Right. 5 million. Well, you get money from the cigars they're already selling. They're already selling.
Well, or you cut costs like firing your entire sales staff. Right, you gotta fuel the growth. How the fuck do you sell? You just fuel the growth.
You fire Jack Taranio. That's always the first thing on everybody's list. Anytime you buy a company, you fire Jack Taranio. So if SDG acquires Erik Espinosa, the first thing that's gonna happen is Jack Taranio's gonna go out.
I don't remember that. " It'll be the third time that SDG has fired Jack Taranio. So yeah, Jack doesn't want that deal. Can we go to camera two?
I mean, I enjoy all the camera coverage, but... Oh, I'm sorry. We lost him because you asked the question. I know.
You want to ask the question. Well, you normally answer the question, so it should have been to you. Probably. But he was looking at me.
He was getting the camera boom. I keep telling him, he's got to watch the screen when he does the cameras, not watch the show. He's such a fanboy. He's excited.
But you guys bonded pretty well during the TV. Oh yeah, Buzz and Woody got along well. Yeah, you guys called yourselves Buzz and Woody, and that was Andy. You were Andy, 'cause the new toy shows up, you forget about Buzz.
Yeah, you forget about Buzz. Hey, maybe that's why Justin Andrews doesn't answer Matt Booth. Why? 'Cause he got a new toy.
He's got a new toy. Oh, he's got Alec Bradley now. Oh, that's right. " Right.
What the fuck? Damn, we just, we just built this. We just, we just worked this out. Yeah, he ruined it for us.
By the way, Chet is Mr. Potato Head. Perfect. I figured that fit perfectly.
Because you don't really play with him a lot, but he's still a toy. He couldn't be the T-Rex? He could be, but he looks more like Mr. Potato Head.
I think the Potato Head looks like more Potato Head. He's more curmudgeon-y. Oh, he's not curmudgeon-y. Chet's probably the happiest guy on the planet.
Well, then that would be the T-Rex. T-Rex is always happy. Yeah, but he's super scared of everything. Yeah, T-Rex has a lot of anxiety.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll tell him today when he shows up. Hey, Mr. Pateta, he won't get it, I'll have to explain it to him.
Okay, Havana, did you want to say anything else about Alec and Bradley? I guess that's not... Other than Justin Andrews' new toy, or you want to talk about all the stuff that Secreto explained to us how this exactly worked? I think, which is pretty remarkable.
And what you did wrong? I mean, I do a lot of things wrong in Ronnie's eyes. You know, I think that what's kind of amazing is that the tempo for TPE was... Wow.
I can't believe it sold for that much money. Right. 5 million. Is that because of the figure or because of the company?
I think because of both. In general. So what did you say Drew Estate sold for? I think it was like $150 million or something.
Something like that? Would they be considered a bigger acquisition? They're definitely a bigger acquisition. They have more SKUs and things.
Well, they have their own factories. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. And then when they purchase tobacco, they purchase by the crop. Oh.
Which makes their prices even lower. Right. But what's remarkable to me is that people felt that 72 - Why are we hearing water drip? I don't know, I'm a little nervous right now.
You just hear the big gurgle, like a water bottle, you know, where you hit it and - No, I didn't hear that. 5 million dollars is not a lot of money. No, not really. Not when Havana's SA is claiming they made 545 last year.
They made half a billion dollars. Right. That's grosser than that. Read the story.
Habana says it generated 545 million in revenue in 2022, which is claims with a 2% growth compared to 2021. 2%? Which would be... With inflation pricing?
That means that cigar sales have slowed. How much should it have been? It would be a 4% decrease for 2022. The largest markets in Spain, France, Germany, China, and Switzerland, they are five top countries in 2021, though China is listed second and France was listed in fourth.
Market wise, Europe continues to be the area through its percentage, the only one that decreased. I'm going to aim that mic more towards you, but we had to take it down again and put it back up. There's got to be fees involved. Yeah, it has to be a disappointment.
As for the market, I'll wait a minute. 7%. There's a lot more information. Oh, there we go.
Is your phone vibrating again? Now I do. West Tampa Cigar Company releases a red line in May. And in May, that's a particular reason why I pulled the circuit, I didn't understand it.
Okay. So, they have the white and the black. Yep. Now they're coming out with the red.
So, in June 2022, West Tampa Tobacco Company debuted with its black and white lines, and the company is preparing to release the third regular production line, which will be called Red. The blend features the same San Andreas wrapper that was used in the company's black and white, and then they're using the white binder and the filler also comes in. It's basically the same cigar as the white one. I'm sorry, back it up one more time, tell me exactly what the- They're using the same wrapper, binder, and filler that they put in the white cigar.
Okay. The only difference is the varietals, which is the variety of it. Well, that's probably the, you know, I mean, you have three major portions of leaves, right? Right.
So it's Nicaraguan something, but it's not the same Nicaraguan that was in the last one. Well, if you use like a, I always say Contega for whatever reason, but let's say you had The Lajero Condega, and you move that down to a seco. Right. And then you turn around and you use a Jalapa Fiso.
So it's just the same country blend, not the same tobacco blend. Right. I gotcha. But if your wrapper is the same quality, it can't be the variable of that cigar.
I mean, who knows? It's a Habano? No, it's a San Andreas. Mexican San Andreas.
It's gonna taste the same. It's gonna taste the same. It's gonna taste the same. I think maybe like they had a bad batch of cigars and they say, you know, we're not gonna We're not going to put the white band on these.
We're going to put a red band and call it a different cigar? Well, I think there's two reasons. I think there's two reasons for doing it. One is everybody will buy something that's new.
Right. You're taking the podcast by the video? You're looking dead in my eyes. Oh, hi.
And the other thing... And the other thing... What did I say? So people will always buy what's new.
The other thing is maybe they didn't have that tobacco again, right? Maybe they had different, you know, they had those same fillers, but maybe they were different leaves, right? From different portions of the plant. So, you know, they could have just lied and created something else.
But the problem is that if your San Andreas wrapper, your cigar doesn't stand out by its filler, it's going to taste like just a San Andreas. San Andreas is such a strong wrapper. It's a strong wrapper, right. Yeah, where it really takes a lot of ability to fucking beef it up Your fillers, and your internals, to make it taste unique.
It's very unique. Very unique. Two. Oh, one.
Oh, one. Espinosa Wasabi Lancero debuted at the TPE 2023. Oh, we're smoking that now. Yes, after about a month, but after about a month after news.
Okay, after about a month after news of the Espinosa Wasabi Lancero upcoming release, was announced the Cigar Minute debut at the 2023 Total Product Expo this past week. 50. While boxes of 10 cigars have an MSRP of $95, it will be an ongoing production, but limited to seasonal offerings. Production numbers for this batch have not been announced.
The Wasabi brand continues to grow. Oh, wait, you want to do Espinosa one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
The Wasabi brand continues to grow. Bro, the Wasabi brand continues to grow. It is consistently mentioned as one of the best Candela cigars in the market. Mentioned as one of the best Candela cigars in the market.
We are proud of how well it is done. We are very proud of how it was done. And always looking to come up with new experiences for our consumers. And bro, we want more things for our consumers, you know?
The blend remains undisclosed with the profile previously described by Erik Espinosa as being a spicy candela. It's a spicy candela. No, it's Erik Espinosa. Bro, it's very spicy.
It's a spicy candela. He was previously assured potential consumers that there was no wasabi flavoring in the cigar. Zero wasabi. Here, the next one's really long, I'll just let you read.
Oh, man, I can't read. That last, uh, second paragraph from the top. Second paragraph. I feel like I'm in the room with them.
Oh, man. I'm gonna fuck this up. I smoked a lot of Candela before working on the wasabi. It was a real challenge, you know, but I am proud to see that the brand continues to flourish.
Oh, that says Hector Alfonso. Oh, do that voice. It's the same voice. No way.
Do that voice. Not even remotely close. It started at the beginning, it didn't, it said Espinosa. Operations Director for Espinosa Premium Cigars via a press release.
Oh, that sounds like him. It sounded just like him. No, he sounds like this. " Hector, hello.
It's Hector's in the room. "This Lancero is special. Truly a format that we excel without us on the factory. " Alright, Michael, can we, two, one, three, he's on two, alright, what do you want?
No, no, that's fine, that's fine. General Cigar Company is filing a new lawsuit against Cuba in Cohiba Trademark. Oh, no, you, no, you. No, you.
No, we stole them fair and square. We stole it fair and square. It's mine. S.
Donde esta mi amigo, it's mine. Donde esta, where is my friend, it's mine? Yes. Perfect.
Perfect Spanish. Perfect Spanish. General Cigar Gumbach filed a lawsuit against Cuba, Cuba, Cuba, C-U-B-A-T-A-B-A-C-O, Cuban Tobacco? Cuba Tobacco?
Let me see. Yeah, highlight it for me. Thank you. Thank you.
That's a fine... Cubonicon? The fuck? Oh, that's a place.
Cuba Tobacco. Cuba Tobacco. But all one word. Yeah.
It's got to say fetch. Cuba Tobacco. Maybe it was a printer. Hello, the Cuban Tobacco Monopoly is part of the two companies for the 25 year dispute over who should own the Cohiba trademark in the USA.
General Cigar Company vs. S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia as a response to the cancelled General's two Cohiba trademarks in the USA, the new lawsuit calls for a De Nova Actual. Novo Action.
In an entirely new trial, a Dayton Novo Action is appropriate so that a court can reveal whether TTAB properly made its December ruling, something General Cigar Company says was done improperly. It was done improperly. Yes, it was. If we don't acknowledge, it's like, you know, it's just like Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.
We don't negotiate with terrorists. Hung up the phone. We don't acknowledge the trademarks that are made in Cuba. Five, four, 50.
Oh my God, I'm trying to do it. We got 10 minutes left. Who cares if we go past an hour? Yeah, we don't care.
Yeah, we don't care. Well, that was the last news story. Do you have a listener of the week? No, Florida story.
No, no. Somebody sent me one, but I can't find it. So I apologize, whoever that was. Oh, I have one.
Okay, why? Did you guys see Orlando suspended all the flights after we came in? No. No, did they really?
Because of the weather in other areas. They just said shut it down. Yep. Because of the weather.
So no planes. No planes were coming in. So all the flights that were going out couldn't go out. Oh, wow.
No, I didn't see that. I'm talking about lucky. I don't know. I'm very upset if we had to circle for four hours.
There was somebody in the air that couldn't land. I mean, I've landed and they wouldn't let us pull up to the thing because it was lightning, because those little gangways are all steel, apparently. They won't let you get off the plane. Yeah.
But, yeah, circle. Okay, we're gonna take you back to Vegas. I would have lost my shit if we were out there with turbulence for fuck. Thank God we left the early, took the early flight that morning.
Right. Yeah. Later in the day, you wouldn't have got in. We've been stuck.
With high Pete. No, that was on the way home. Well, that's what he's talking about. No, that's what I was talking about, when we came home.
When we came home. Oh, really? Yeah, thank God. I thought he was on the way out.
Huh. We forgot to say, we forgot to talk about Jonathan Drew falling in the pool. He did fall in the pool. He fell in the pool.
They have an industry night party the first night, out around the pool. And it was cold, so we did a lap, came inside, and that's where we saw the man fall down. And what did he tell you? But then we saw a soaking wet Jonathan Drew walk through.
Yeah, John doesn't say much to me. every tp sometimes i get a sup here he comes he's coming in right now yeah i tell you right now go hey i fell in the pool that's pretty much what he said oh what do you say about pockets like where you go oh my pockets are full of water they're all soppy and then he you know he scurried back and then scurried back again and then scurried across again so i don't i don't know why did he change i never saw him change no he didn't change i'm thinking maybe his key card got wet so you I know he scurried, and then couldn't get his room, come back. I don't think he was staying in Sahara. I don't think so.
But you think that he would have people. You know what I mean? Like, hey, hey so and so, listen, I just fell. I'm wet.
Hey, hey, I fell on the border. I'm wet. I'm wet. I need you to go.
I need you to go get me some clothes. Yeah, right now. Or a paint top. Yeah, there you go.
Go find some painters. Or some type of drop cloth. I need a drop cloth. And a belt.
I can make a nice outfit out of it. It'll look nice. $7,000. Don't say a word.
I'm kind of eclectic. Quick, give me back to my castle on the sales floor over there. I gotta get back up the stairs. To my castle.
Now bring me a sandwich. No cigars, I don't smoke. I didn't see any cigars in like the ad space for like the squares, the cubes and stuff. Not this time around.
Also, Timo wasn't there, so. No, but Room 101 did it, I think, a couple years ago. I've seen- Oh, up on the wall around the thing? As you walk in, there's usually display cases of cigars or something.
Oh, I didn't know that. It was all vape shit. Oh. More money.
I like this vape stuff. It's nice. Look at the girls wear the backpacks. They really should've got into that industry.
They should have. I mean, they're right on the edge. They're right there. They're right there.
They could've crushed. Yeah. All those guys that smoked the motorcycle cigars will be doing vape stuff. He's doing vapes now.
Yeah. Sucking battery dick. He's sucking his battery dick. It's really good.
I'm sopping wet. Help! That's what he said. Yes, I'm sopping wet.
I'm all soggy. Oh, there goes our big allocation. Oh, well. Cut out those hustler guys.
I don't like them. They make fun of me. I can't wait until I hear them for the first time. It doesn't sound like that.
" Brett Frye from Tobacology, Listener of the Week. He is truly our biggest fan, or one of at least. He's up there. He is up there.
He listens to every show. He's a great guy. And he's Phil's best friend. Yeah.
He loves Phil. He loves Phil. He's industry, sorry, no, industry's best friend. He does love Phil.
Yes. I feel like you love Phil a little bit more now. Still an extra large. Just saying, Brett.
No, I'm not. Oh, you're an extra large. I'm an extra large. No, not you, you're in dribbling.
You want a Golden Corral fuckin' hockey jersey? No. Something, I want one too. You know what?
Put Drew Estate on the sleeve, that'd be funny. But hold on, but listen, now I'm gonna put you guys on the spot a little bit, because this guy- You guys, I said nothing. Don't put me on the spot. I'm just being funny for the show, don't get me a shirt, I don't need another shirt.
Last thing I need is another shirt. The guy has sent us a bunch of cigars. Yeah. The guy has sent you a jersey.
The guy has made t-shirts for us. Yes, he's a very nice man. He's a very nice man. What have we done for Brett?
I put him on my Instagram. We talk about him all. You know what? " Yeah?
Always. " I mean, I turned the customer on to him last week, too. Well, there you go. But I don't feel like that's enough.
Two or three people. Actually, you know what? The Developing Palates guys asked me where they could get my cigars, 'cause they were dry begging. I was like, "Well, I've got BDPs.
" Well, I'm going to be on Developing Pallets. Well, I was already on Developing Pallets. You've already been on before. Oh yeah, before this comes out.
It was wonderful. It was a great experience, I'm sure. So go back and listen to it if you haven't listened to Developing Pallets. Yes.
Do you have a Shop of the Week? I could do Tobacology. I'm trying to think who else we met. Oh, I got one.
Ding. Shop of the Week. Caribbean Cigars, Mr. Schumer.
Oh, Alan. Because apparently, they talk about our podcast down there every week, too. Oh, Hector's the, yeah, I mean, you know. Somebody told me that he, like, quizzes people.
Does he? Sort of, type of thing, yeah. That's nice. Yeah, it is, it's very nice.
Hey, something I've been pondering real quick. Was the Miguel I played roulette with, was that the shingle one? No. No, he's a broker.
Okay. Oh, that was the one I thought that had shingles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the one we told you had shingles at the PCA that you wouldn't touch. He's the broker of the Northeast.
We bonded. Yeah. All right. All right.
All right. Let's get onto the Patreon. All right. Thank you very much for episode 270 of the Cigar Hustler Podcast.
Thank you for listening. Bye. We're going to the Patreon. Follow us.
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Hi, I'm Husto-E-Raw. Yeah, we just don't have to do a single podcast ever again. Perfect. I'm good, Mike and Mike.
How are you guys doing? The Hojo D. Hojo! It's the Hojo!
You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way. I couldn't get past Hojo! I don't even have to try it. He's not even gonna try it.
We're gonna cover a lot of ground here, Mike. All right. Try to keep up. That's a sign of a good podcast.
You could be like four cigars when I walked in a door. All right, end this.
Show Notes
Its Snowed...Mikey got mad..Palmer choked and almost died...Boots AKA Industry Loss big at the roulette table! Listen to the show for more details!