Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 294 - Premium Cigar Industry Triumphs: FDA Regulations Overturned!

Episode Summary

Episode 294 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast welcomes back Howard G of Howard G Cigars for his second appearance, this time to unveil The Perfect Round — his first Dominican-made line, blended with Chris at MJ Frias. The release is built as a paired, golf-themed concept: a "Front Nine" (Connecticut Shade) meant for an early tee time and a "Back Nine" (Habano/Sun Grown) with more intensity for the second half of the round. Howard explains why the first 400 boxes ship nine-and-nine in a single alternating box, why some retailers complained about the mixed packaging, and how future runs will move to 18-and-18. He also shares that over 350 boxes pre-sold at PCA, walks through the box art (crossed golf clubs, magnet closure, Howard G stamp), and previews what's next: Humi-Packs featuring Black Moses and Magic Stick, plus a "Five Rings" pack pairing three Little Searcy with two Ike Taylor Connecticuts — a nod to Leon Searcy's three national championships and Ike Taylor's two Super Bowls. A Perfect Round Humi-Pack is under consideration, along with a possible Cigar Hustler store-exclusive "Howard G Duck."

The news segment leads with the biggest industry story of the year: Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated the FDA's 2016 deeming regulations as applied to premium cigars, leaving cigars that meet the court's definition of "premium" unregulated. The hosts and Howard unpack what substantial equivalency would have meant in practice — impossible documentation requirements, expensive testing, small brands folding before the rules even took effect — and then take aim at the parade of press releases from trade groups and big brands all claiming credit for the win, arguing the people who actually did the work aren't asking for applause.

The second story covers Mickey Pegg being named president of sales at McLaughlin/McAuliffe Cigars while All Saints Cigars (which he co-owns) moves to that sales team, with both companies remaining separate entities — prompting an on-air (unanswered) phone call to Pegg. Between segments there's plenty of Cigar Hustlers-style tangents: NFL talk about the Bucs, Cowboys and Steelers, Howard's nosebleed seats at the Bucs–Steelers preseason game with Ike Taylor in the press box, stadium-etiquette rants, Phil's Fun Facts, Robert Graham shirts, the Morgan & Morgan billboards around Orlando, and Howard's upcoming 40th birthday.

In This Episode

1. 01
   RoMa Craft PCA Giveaway
   Contest rules and entry tiers for the Cigar Hustler RoMa Craft PCA sampler giveaway, with an August 31, 2023 deadline.
2. 02
   Howard G Returns
   Howard G's second visit to the show, his Robert Graham uniform, and the hustle of running a young brand on the road.
3. 03
   The Perfect Round Unboxing
   Howard reveals his first Dominican line — a paired Front Nine Connecticut Shade and Back Nine Habano/Sun Grown built around a round of golf.
4. 04
   Mixed Boxes and Retailer Complaints
   Why the first 400 boxes alternate nine and nine, why retailers pushed back, and the move to 18-and-18 boxes going forward.
5. 05
   Bucs, Steelers and Nosebleed Seats
   Howard's upper-deck adventure at the Bucs–Steelers preseason game, Ike Taylor in the press box, and a long stadium-etiquette rant.
6. 06
   FDA Deeming Regulations Vacated
   Judge Amit Mehta's ruling removes premium cigars from FDA regulation, and the hosts dissect substantial equivalency and who's claiming credit.
7. 07
   Mickey Pegg Joins McAuliffe
   All Saints Cigars sales move under the McAuliffe sales team as Pegg is named president of sales — followed by an on-air phone call.
8. 08
   What's Next: Humi-Packs and Blending
   Black Moses, Magic Stick and Five Rings Humi-Packs, working with Chris at MJ Frias, and how Howard uses honest feedback to vet a blend.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

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Transcript

Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, episode 294. Can you speak up? Yeah, if you could speak a little louder, please. See, I don't like your muffled.

Ray Mysterio didn't say shit for a reason. And me, I'm Phil. So grab your favorite smoke, sit back, and join us for another exciting episode of Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Hey!

Hey, there are your Phil fun facts on the bottom of that. I can see the stress on his face. Switch to one, please. This is like Pulp Fiction.

I'll switch one of the music, though. Go get the amp. I was going to go ahead and start. Oh, you're just going to cut the music?

Oh. That's the best part. Cigar Hustler is having an amazing contest. Romacraft PCA giveaway.

Someone is going to win a PCA sampler. Here's what the winner will receive. One Frenchie cigar. One Quin Guanganaro, three in Tempritz-Volsteads, here's how to enter and win.

Michael, are we bothering you? No, yeah. Hey. Hi.

Show. Howard's here. Tell me. Who?

Howard. We call him Howie. Oh, sorry. One entry if you subscribe to the email list.

Click the newsletter at the bottom of the page, all the way down at the bottom. Five entries if you purchase $50 in Roma Craft products in a single order. Done. 15 entries if you purchase $100 in Roma Craft products in a single order.

Done. And then 50 entries, which, as we mentioned, almost guarantees you could possibly win. Almost guarantees. That you could possibly.

Purchase $200 in Romacraft products in a single order. O. Horny Sampler does qualify. Nice.

Deadline to enter will be August 31st, 2023. You can enter as many times as you like. No purchase necessary to enter. com.

Thank you very much, Michael. You're welcome. That's very sweet of you. You're welcome.

Do you want to introduce our guest? Please, go right ahead. No, you want to introduce. No, no, you go ahead.

We have the infamous Howard G. in the house. From Howard G. Cigars?

Yeah, the guy. Hey, well, listen, this is my second time on the City of Hustlers podcast. Three more, you get steak knives. Okay.

Hey, let's put a new motion. Wait, who's paying for that? That's a five thing, yeah. Who's paying for that?

Who's paying for that? The Gurkha steak knives. The Gurkha steak knives. We just cross off like Mike and Mike on the handle.

They come in for free, yeah. If we only carried Gurkha, we don't carry that either. You buy a box of ghosts. And diesel, it'll be diesel steak knives.

It'll be fine. It'll be fine. You're not as loud as you normally are with the outfit today. Well, last time I was in the cowboy jersey.

Yeah, that's right. I'm just saying, like, when I have seen you, when you have been rolling, like when you're hitting your accounts and shit, for one, PCA, crushed on every single shirt. PCA attire. And then when you looped in here and you dropped off our order, pretty sure that that one was, and there's a name brand for all of these, I don't even know what that is.

I don't even know what that is. What is the brand? You know, what, Robert Graham? That's it.

Robert Graham. Thank you, thank you. That's my uniform, Robert Graham shirt. If not, I'm going to be in some type of Howard G.

A bougie motherfucker. Apparel. Nice, nice. I mean, I don't understand, why haven't you linked up with Robert Graham yet to make a cigar?

Like, how has that not happened? Whoa. So the way that system sets up is like, you have to have $50,000 in clothing. Oh, yeah?

And so I'm like, maybe like eight grand away. You're at like $48,999? Wow. Two more PCAs.

And then I can make my own design shirt. Oh, really? Oh. Yeah.

That's actually a thing. Oh, that'd be cool. What sucks is there used to be 25,000. " Oh, yeah, right.

" Yeah. You gotta get 100. Right. Eventually, yeah, eventually.

At that point, you just make your own clothes anyway. So we were at the Bucks game at the same time. Yeah, two different sections. Yes, two completely different sections.

Yes. I was so high up there, I literally was eye level to the clouds. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Yeah. He got to connect, he's got to hook up for those, because you know, there's... Well, he's really high though. Well, apparently he's not that good at that.

The Steelers are playing. Oh. Oh. Yeah.

He knows a guy. Yeah. That guy was in the press box. Oh, nice.

Yeah, with the GM and stuff. And he was like, "Bro, I got tickets, man. " So, the next morning, I had the tickets sent to me. I'm like, "All right, cool.

" Right, you didn't look to see where they were. Then when I get there, you're committed. And we're steady going up. You got the guy walking into your seat and he keeps going and going.

And then I get on another one. " And as I kept going up. See that goat, sir? You're up past the mountain goat?

And then when I literally got there, we were literally the seat prior to the last row. But you're still in the lower bowl. No, that was not. Upper bowl.

You were upper bowl? He was by the clouds. By the clouds. We affectionately call that section the nosebleeds.

Are you sure? With the club level? Were you at club level? No, no, no, no.

You weren't even club level. The nosebleeds. Above the club level. So I was eye level with the clouds.

Wow. You know where the stadium shakes? Right. Wow.

The good thing about it is at least I wasn't next to the cannon. Oh, yeah. That could have been worse. I had seats there one time.

That was horrible. No. I had seats there right under where the cannon was in the end zone. That was great seats.

They scored a lot that game. For the Cowboy game when we retired Tom Brady. Oh. Oh.

That was a bit more cool. Yeah, that was very cool. Literally. Dilemma.

That was a highlight, eh? That was a highlight of last year. That was what, I mean, 'cause then it was over after that 'cause, you know, like... Then we got smacked.

Yeah, he got the shit kicked out of you. Pretty much. But when the running back broke his leg, I knew it was over with. Are we concerned about Dak and his interception problems during OTAs?

We're concerned about Dak in general, period. I mean, I'm just gonna be honest with you. It's like, you know, we're gonna put all the weapons around you. There's no excuse this year, Dak.

You think so? I mean, listen, I saw what ESPN was bragging about for Dallas to acquire. Okay, so we got Brandon Cooks, right? Speed Demon.

Speed Demon. Okay. He's 110. Right.

Stretch the field. Ronald Jones. Didn't really do much in Tampa. Well, we just need...

Okay, so with Dallas, running the ball. And there was one other guy. Who was the third person you guys acquired? " Oh, the cornerback.

Oh, yeah. Stephon Gilmore. Yeah. So you put him on one side.

Also 110. He's not. Yeah, man. He's still a pro.

He's done. So you put him on one side with Diggs on the other side? Belichick knows when to get rid of him, bro. He was already in Carolina last year.

Come on, man. Belichick knows when to get rid of him? You sure? Oh, he wanted to get rid of Tom Brady.

What happened when Tom Brady got rid of him? Well, you know. He wanted Garoppolo over the GOAT. And we see where that went.

He was thinking long term. I'll tell you one thing, he's in the hot seat. You think so? Let him mess around and don't get over 500 this year.

Yeah. You think he's done? No, Mr. Craft.

Mr. Craft said. " Well, let's look at it. Okay.

Yeah, let's look at it. A little Belichick. Career records. You're doing your sports show?

Career record, right? Yeah, over here too. Okay. This is the new front.

You got three levels. This is the new perfect round, by the way. Ooh, look at that. Wait, wait, wait.

Go to this one. Which one? This one? Right here?

Mmm. Delicious. It's a rapper and a Cameroon, right? No.

No, what's the other one? Habano. Dominican Republic, Connecticut Shade, Dominican Republic, Sun Grown, Habana. I'm gonna smoke the Habano.

I just want you to know, I paid for these. Okay, good. Just so you know. Thank you.

I don't give a shit. You're very nice. Oh, he's such a good friend. He's a good friend.

I let Boots know that I get to smoke this. Yeah, let Boots know. Okay, so go ahead, continue quickly. We'll wrap up the sports section real fast.

So, all I'm saying is this. I mean, we beat the FDA, but we'll just go on with this. " That's a strong UBC label. The strongest UBC label on the plate.

Hold on, so you have, okay, so with this one you want to peel from here. Yeah. Ah. Yeah.

And then you have a front nine, so you know what, open one. Oh, there are different ones in here? Yeah, so I'll take a front nine so you can keep it even. You have a front and a back.

Even Steven? Oh, I didn't even notice then. So it's a mixed box. Yes.

box yes so it's so it's a front nine nine front nines and nine back nine the perfect round perfect round i will i will i will say this i will say this nobody else knows about this so this is first on the oh it's just a hustler for retailers i i do realize that it would be better for me to mix the switched boxes and so what we're going to do is um the next boxes that are going to come out So the first 400 is like this, but the next one will be 18 and 18. These retailers are fucking lazy. Yeah. All you gotta do is just buy two boxes and separate them if you really wanted to.

Yeah, that's true. What the fuck is a problem? People aren't gonna do that. When it's mixed up, and I did see that, you know, and what's the cool thing about it is we say, well, smoke the front nine and smoke the back nine, right?

They're twins, they're inseparable, smoke them together. Yeah. But then I really hear people saying, oh my God, I just love that front nine. Yeah.

And then I have guys like, man, oh my god, I just love that back line. Uh huh. So then, if it's in there together, sometimes they can probably grab more than one of that one and it doesn't keep it the way I wanted it, so. Okay.

Yeah. So, a public service announcement to any retailer that has complained to Howie about the fucking cigars being in the same box. Just open up two boxes and fucking separate them. I mean, what the fuck are we doing here?

I enjoy, I enjoy, I enjoy, I think it was cool, yeah, that's, I honestly, that's how, yeah, tell them to fuck themselves, cuz what's the count of it, two or three more years in this industry, you'll happily, look, man, I made it this way because I wanted to, fuck off, after he has his own shirt with Robert Graham, let's see, this is my own exclusive Robert Graham shirt, and I fucking do what I want, yeah, and you know, oh, you don't sell the Habano as well as you do the Connecticut, well, it sounds like a you problem, and a me problem, so who do I have to see, I like having a It's a box where you get two different cigars. I think it's cool. Something different. Yeah.

Palmer, have you smoked any of these yet? No, we just got them. So... I didn't go to the PCA.

I got to smoke both. Okay. It is a nice... Boots did.

Boots got to smoke both. Sorry. It is a nice set. You know, to smoke one in the morning, and he's obviously tailoring it around the golfer, right?

Oh, really? I didn't catch that. , you get the light cigar. And it does smoke for a while.

You guys know, I smoke cigars pretty quick, but it lasted a while for me, and then after that, you should be around hole nine, probably eight for me, but then you get that back one, and it's a little bit more intense. Is that Boots' breakdown? Yeah, that was Boots' breakdown. I'm going to tell you that Connecticut's pretty fucking good, man.

I had that. We'll have to review it on the Patreon. Which one is that? The front nine?

That's the front nine. Oh. This is the back nine. This is the back nine.

He moved to the front nine. Yes. Because I want to keep it even. He said he's going to keep it even, but I feel like he likes the front nine better than the back nine.

He likes both. Honestly. Because then he could have said, I'm going to join you guys and have a back nine. Yeah, he's like, yeah, I'm going to have one.

No, I want to keep it even the way I described it I wanted. Yeah, that's what he's saying. It says Phil has a front nine, and we're four people, it's like, we're going- Oh, so we can trade halfway through. Yeah.

Yeah. We'll just switch off. I'm switching with you, I mean. Oh, I want to switch with Phil, you don't know his band.

You gotta switch to Phil. Oh, man. Yeah. Me, you're Mr.

Cigar International. We don't know where it's been over there. Yeah. I mean, he did get caught in that whole Jeep thing.

Yeah. In the middle of the jungle. Oh, shit. With his Playboys and stuff.

Playgirls. Who knows how it went down. I was ready to get those gorillas off of him. Hater.

Hater. You know, if you don't blow the smoke right at the light over there, Phil, it won't get as smoky in your little corner over there. So you went to the game. I thought for sure we were gonna meet up, man.

And I was like, oh, you know, because when I go, like, the trip to Tampa is an entourage. It could be an hour and a half, or it could be three fucking hours. Exactly. Right?

So, of course, we were late to the game. I left at four, and we were late to the game. Me too. And I bring a shit ton of cigars.

So I'm like, oh, you know what, I'll probably run into Howie and, you know, run into Ike or whatever. Let me bring some shit. So I just, I carried some stuff, kept them in my pocket or whatever. Ike and him didn't sit together.

No, no. Ike was in the press box. But I thought, you know, at first, I thought that maybe I could be on the ground level, like on the field or whatever. Oh, because you're down.

" And then I would look awesome. Right. You know what I mean? It's no big deal.

Or you took the boys. No, and I brought somebody who's a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Ah. Oh.

Mr. Baldwin? No, Baldwin's not. Oh, he's a Bucs fan.

He's a Bucs fan. He's like my standard, I can bring him at any time. Right. It doesn't matter who they're playing, 'cause he's a Bucs guy.

Who's a Steelers fan that you know? A buddy of mine, his name's Patrick, so I brought him, and I was like, oh, you know what, I'll see my friend Ike, and he'll have him say hi. So the first half of the game, I didn't say any of that. No, no.

You don't do that. All right, you're with me. No, you don't do that because if it happens, you don't look as cool. Oh.

Right? Gotcha. You know what I mean? Oh, you're just going to walk by and Ike goes.

Oh, what's up, Ike? Yeah, yeah. Wait on Ike to say hi to you first. I mean, Ike would probably look at me and be like, I think I know who you are.

Grab himself. Hey, who doesn't know Cigar Hustler? Who doesn't know the muscle man? Right.

Yeah. It's a thing. The Polish White Hulk. Who doesn't know the Polish White Hulk?

Listen, man, I've never seen him without anything except a white tee. That's his, a new thing now. That's his. That is a new thing.

The only person who wore more white tees with him than him was Young Jeezy back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, Mike, I thought you were Young Jeezy, and you know, he's doing all right. Hey.

Talking about elevation. Yeah, yeah, he's- Super, super impressive. Yeah, he's doing well. I said he had to leave some people behind, and I agree with that statement.

Sometimes you gotta fucking, you know what? You know what, you know what? We'll miss your brother. It's called, you live, and you learn, and you grow, and you're mature.

That's it. And instead of spending all that extra money on chains and stuff, he started realizing he can buy up Atlanta and buy up all these properties. So you look at him now and the guy has over a hundred different properties in Atlanta, I think he sees it. Now he's traveling with his book that he came out with, it's called Adversities for Sale, it's a memoir.

No shit. And I turn on USA Today, I see him. I turn on the next thing, I see him. I'm like, I love it.

I gotta get the book. I didn't even know there was a book. I gotta get the book and I gotta get them to sign it. Yeah.

I gotta get them to sign it. I mean, you got some Atlanta hookups, right? Yeah. Well, you know, I met him.

He came to see me. How he knows everybody. Did he? The Snowman?

I'm not surprised. Well, no, mutual friend. You're like a fun guy who knows everybody. Nah, no, that was pretty dope, though, when he came to see me.

Yeah. Yeah. Talking about cigars, he smoked three of them cigars. Nice.

Oh, that's right. I remember that story. That's right. You know, definitely a big fan of The Snowman.

So when are you making a cigar for him? You know, Mike, it's so much things we have going on where we're just constantly trying to lay the proper foundation with the company. I got to take care of my, what we call day ones. That's that Leon.

I like how he broke that down. For the crude layman's white people term, you know, my day ones. Well, we all like Drake. That was for me, so I would understand.

By the way, Ike called me when I was on the way here, right? " I was like, "Bro, I don't know. " In the rain, you know? I didn't know.

" But when I told him where I was going, he was like, "Oh yeah, we gotta run that back, bro. " I said, yeah. I said, Mike's here, you can do whatever you want to do. We can do a private event, we can do however.

He's like, yeah, well, let's set it up. I said, well, we're gonna have to wait till the Skillers give you their schedule, and it's gonna be an away game, then we can do something, we'll set it up with Mike, and we'll do it here. He says, his favorite thing is, say less, say less. I said, alright, that's what he said.

So you gotta take care of your day ones. " I was like, ooh, yeah, you still gotta love your top to kids though, yeah, you know what I mean, but you don't love them as much as the ones that you made, but you don't tell them that, right? I mean, I say, you can say that, but you know, I'm not gonna tell them that, cause I got some other heavy hitters on the thing, I mean, like, you know, but I understand, I get it. I mean, you're doing a lot of things right, bro.

You know, you fucking work your ass off. It's not like you, you know, you have friends that are, you know, celebrities or football talent, and you're like, hey, we're just gonna coast off of your name, we're gonna sell a couple cigars, and that'll be it, right? No, I mean, you're grinding it out. You're doing all the shit that you gotta do in order to be successful in this industry, man.

And it's a lot. It is a fuckton. Listen, I know we were talking about that on the first show we did together, but boy, from that time to now, you're not lying, man, it is, and I gotta still crank it up another notch, so, but you know what, when I'm driving, you know, I was driving here, you know, and matter of fact, when I turned off on, off of Deltona, I turned off, I saw that it was raining, and I saw there's people standing in there. the rain trying to hold a sign up to tell you to wait real quick because they were doing some construction in the road yeah you know but i'm not standing in the rain yeah no shit right i'm not we're not digging ditches here hell no you know what i mean we're literally making money and we're smoking cigars and we're meeting people and we're talking shit and hanging out and creating more relationships yeah so that worked for me really is not really work because how many people do you know that just hangs out at the cigar bar for eight or nine hours and they're not making I mean, anybody in the actual industry, they just want the relationship, they want the camaraderie, and so...

A lot of those guys have more money than me anyways though, I mean, let's be honest, hang on, you know, I don't know. Honestly, a lot of them don't. That's true too. A lot of them don't, a lot of them just, it's kind of like, you know when you, I don't know if you played sports heavy, but when you played football, or you was a star, or you was well on the team, you always had people that didn't play, but they really wanted to just hang around You want to be around that crowd, be around the group, and it's the same thing in the cigar world.

You got guys that they just, man, they're like, we got something in common, we smoke cigars. They want to touch you a little bit. Yeah, so they want to hang around and stuff like that, and you know, yeah, they do want to, you know, they want to get close to you. Hey, what are you smoking?

I mean, what are you smelling? What are you wearing? That's when I know they're real close. Guess what kind of cologne you got on?

They're like, oh, man, bro. Oh, you smell nice. What is that? But no, it's just, it's just awesome man, and meeting great people across the country.

Been real fun for us. So this release is, I think has gone very, pretty well for you, right? Off the gate? Absolutely.

Pre-sold over 350 boxes at the show. That's great. Only created 400 of them for that particular run, and then now we're going to split them up that way and, you know, we're having a great time, man. Really, really having a great time.

The response, honestly, is what's really cool to me. Because I really wanted to get it out there to my guys that are really golfers. And you know where we live at here, how heavy golf is? But I mean, I got guys that, man, out of 365 days in a year, they play golf 180 to 200 days.

That, to me, is absolutely incredible. Do you think you're gonna make, like, Robustos and call them, like, the front drunk nine, and front drunk, like, you know, someone's fucking wasted, and they're like, ah. You know, they can't really, you know, they can't really finish the holes, but they want to smoke a cigar. Putting green.

Listen, we, I'm always open for suggestions because I, I think like that, like I like to, we like to build our own, uh, trajectory and, and do it our way that's exclusive to how we, we come out with things. But before we do that, we're supposed to do that, that mixed cigar together, that was, uh, when you sent me that duck. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The Howard G.

Duck. Yeah, that one, that still is like a limited edition or something like that will be super hot. Yeah, yeah, dude. I think that was cold.

Dude, let's do that. That picture, it reminded me. Store exclusive. Yeah, store exclusive.

Only sold at Hustler. Yeah. Store exclusive, sold at Hustler, right? You're gonna get an email about that one from somebody.

I just want you to know. All caps. No, no, no, no, no. As per my previous email.

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah you know when you're teeing off or something like you're approaching anyways i like the howard g one that was great yeah that'd be great okay so so what do you see moving into like the q4 because i mean you're you're obviously busy as shit these just dropped they just came out yeah you know we're gonna put them on the site asap uh what's what's next for you what are you thinking so now what we're working on now is for the next show okay because i mean it's gonna be short yeah Yeah, so now we're going to, since they're moving it up, you know, we're going to focus more on the PCA now, since there, it doesn't make logical sense for a month turnaround, you know, so we're doing that, but what we do have coming out now, for the beginning of the year will be the Humi Packs, so the way we're doing the Humi Packs is going to, we're going to have the Black Moses, so what we're going to put is just one of them in one of each one of the Black Moses in the Humi Packs, second of Overall, we're doing the same thing with the Magic Stick. Okay. And then we have one called the Five Rings that we're gonna do. And so the Five Rings is three of the Little Cerces and two of the Ike Taylor Connecticut's.

That's cool. Oh, nice. And then, so in the back of it, we're talking about Leon Cerce's three national championships and Ike's two Super Bowls. And so those will be our Humi Packs that we put out to start.

Right. After that, I'm thinking about, because of the success of this, it might be cool to do a perfect round Humi Pack. With, you know, two and two, or we can do three and three, whatever makes the most sense because there's a lot of stores like the ABC Liquors and the Total Wine and stuff like that that they have the cigar side to the store and when you walk in there if you notice most of those customers are looking for like value deals. Grab packs.

Grab packs and stuff like that. So, one of the things about that, once I realized, I had a conversation with some of the larger brands, and they told me the type of numbers that move throughout the country just off of HumiPacks, I was like, oh yeah, that is something that we need to step into for us. What do you call them? HowiePacks?

Well, a lot of people know more about the Black Moses line, the Magic Station, and all those as well. And so when you look at the Humi Pack, it's like they're getting a deal because if it's like four cigars in there, you're technically paying for three, or five is you're pretty much paying for four and stuff like that, and so people like that, that can at least get them to smoke the cigars. I like the six because then, you know, if you have, if you're playing with two other players, two other people playing golf, everybody's got two. Yeah, so with that one, we can do the perfect round.

We put it with six. Yeah. Three front nine and three back nines. Yeah.

That'll give him a chance to smoke it. And if you got somebody like smokes like Leon Searcy, he smokes like a, he has a Hoover vacuum cleaner throat. Yeah, I believe that. So then he just.

He's a big guy. You watch him smoke, bro. You watch it just. It burns up the state.

You just watch it. Yeah. So for him, this wouldn't work for two nines. He would probably need four.

Right. Yeah. He'll probably smoke two on the front nine and two on the back nine for him. He needs a lot of breath for that body.

Yeah. Dude, that dude is cool as fuck, man. He is. Yeah.

And he has the best stories in the world. Yeah. I'm gonna, we're, I'm gonna hit him up. I wanna go to a Jacksonville game.

I'm gonna-- I got you. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get a bunch of 'em. Yeah.

Um, we'll probably go, I'll probably get 10 tickets or so. I gotta see who the lineup is. Two, twelve. That'd be fucking awesome.

Yeah. We'll definitely do it. I gotta, it's gotta be when I'm not going to a Tampa game. That's the thing.

I got to work that out. Well, you're only going to the Tampa home games. Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to like half of them.

Well, yeah, because you got to sell the other half of them, it makes sense. Yeah. But then again, you don't have Tom Brady, so is it going to really be worth the sale? I mean, it's going to be a rough year.

That's what you're saying. That's totally different. Yeah. Now, you know, there are some...

But it's still Florida, though. I mean, there are still premier games, right? Like, Philly's coming to town. You're not going to want to go to that game?

I fucking hate Philly fans, bro. But you're in your stadium. It's totally different in Philly when they're in your stadium compared to going to Philly. But those tickets can sell.

I've been. I've been. I've been. To Philly?

I've been to play playoff games with Philly there. I've gone to those games. Oh, the one that y'all beat them? Yeah.

The first year they had Hertz? Yeah. I went to that one. And the fans were really, like, ridiculous?

No, I mean, you know, I think that the worst fans that I've experienced, to be honest, in that stadium, are the Saints fans. And I don't know if it's because it's division or what. Was it prior to Jameis or after Jameis? It was after Jameis.

And was Jameis on the Saints? No, there were times where he was on the Bucks and there were times when he was on the Saints. Oh, okay. So, you know, well, last year when Evans leveled Lattimore, I didn't bring my son to the next game.

and i was like you know listen i just don't want to bring you you know because i don't know how this is going to play out or whatever the case may be and i'm glad that i didn't because there are these extremely large fat dudes behind me and dude and they were nice and then just cut them right in yeah there is complete assholes they threw their box of popcorn at the guy right next to me and i'm like oh man it would have been even worse situation with a child there yeah yeah and So, like, here's an example of what happens at this game. So, you know, like kind of what I was saying upstairs, I'm a big believer in that, right? Like, I'll reprimand my kid. Don't worry, my kid's not getting off the hook for shit.

You don't get to reprimand my kid, right? So we sit down, and my son likes to stay in there in the game, the whole game. He's 10 years old, right? He's excited about the game.

He likes to try and get beads and whatever the case may be. We have great seats. We're in the front, right? Next to us is this family of Steelers fans, right?

And we're at like the 30, so the game is kind of down this way, right? And this lady doesn't want to stand up. So she looks at my son and she says, "Can you sit down? " So my son sits down.

" I said, "So stand up. So stand up too. " And I'm like, he can also stand up if he can't see in this section, right? So I looked at my son, I said, you go right ahead and you stand up, and he stood up the whole fucking time.

I was like, all right, cool. Now there's a guy right behind him, and he was an older dude, like he was an older guy. So he tapped me on the shoulder and said, hey, listen, can you do me a favor? Is it okay if your son sits down when they're just directly in front of me because, you know, I struggle to stand?

I said, absolutely, man. No problem. You know, happy to accommodate you. But if you're a lady or a kid or something and you don't want to fucking, and you're going to a sport game.

Exactly. Stand the fuck up. Stand up. Or watch it at home.

See, that's why I go to NBA games a lot. You sit down. You sit down? Yeah.

Sounds about standing in basketball. Yeah. Yeah, because there's like one breakaway crazy dunk or some shit. Oh, when they're coming down the lane and you see them high rising, you jump.

Right, you start to go a little nuts. Right. He kept the mask on. He put it back on.

It must be time for Phil's home. He's getting there. He's getting ready. He took it off to breathe a little bit, right?

Yeah, I have to breathe. No, Phil never removes a mask. So, yeah, no, Phil always, he keeps it on all the time. So, yeah, I mean, fuck that guy.

You know, like, and, you know, her husband was next to him. He didn't say shit to me. And so, as the game progresses, you know, Jax is, he has, it's an art form as far as acquiring shit from fucking the Bucs guys, so he's get beads, he gets shirts, he gets all this shit, right? Yes.

" and he looks at him, and you could tell that he didn't know how to respond. The kid didn't? Yeah. We're not supposed to like each other.

Yeah, and he's like... Yeah, I can't like you guys. So he stands around, like, I don't know if he was worried that his mom would get mad or some shit. And he goes, no, I don't want them.

Like you motherfucker, you know, you want these beads, you fucking dumb. Should have just held them out and just turned away. Like, you take them, I won't love it. Dude, like, get over it.

Stand the fuck, like, I have no problem with the conflict, you know what I mean? Like, I don't mind saying to you, dude, get your shit together, stand the fuck up. I'm not gonna sit here and, you know, gain some type of rage and be upset about it. Like, I'm moving the fuck on.

If you want to continue to be angry about it, you know, and your family wants to be mad because he's standing up, then all right, go right. But you just passed up on the things that you were trying to get, dummy, big dummy. And if you're mad that someone's standing in front of you, you should have bought those seats. Right?

Yeah. Sorry. Sorry about your luck. Yeah, exactly.

His teeth just hit the mic. His teeth hit the mic. That's fucking hilarious. Can we get this out of the way?

Yeah, well, we'll get into Phil's fun facts and then Howie will cover some of the news and get your opinions on some of these things. I think that'll be fun. I didn't really pull much news. I figured we'd be talking to Howie.

I've got two stories. That's it? That's it. And we'll talk more now.

All right. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers podcast feature, Phil's Fun Facts. Hello, peoples. All right, fellas.

You're rubbing on the microphone, Phil. I'm trying not to. All right, cigar smoking is the national pastime in Cuba. In Cuba, cigar smoking is a hotly debated topic.

A professional sport is dedicated to smoking cigars called La Fabrica de los Puros, the cigar trade. The country has three teams: Fuego Jumo, Tocina de Fumadores, Puroz, Howard G. And I guess the third one is probably the dominant team. That is probably the most popular team for sure.

Right. Yeah. Very nice. Thank you.

Oh, you sound so much better all of a sudden. So weird. He stretches that mouth when he's under the camera. It's weird.

Well, I mean, one of these things, these new things I want to talk about anyway, so. The big one. Yeah, yeah. All right.

Ooh. Four quarters of the world. All the cigar industry news you could possibly need. The Cigar Hustler Podcast report with Mike Toon.

The big story of the week, premium cigar industry beats FDA in court. Regulations are vacated. The premium cigar industry has won the lawsuit against the FDA. Judge Amit P.

S. S. Food and Drug Administration's deeming regulations for premium cigars. The ruling means that the deeming regulations introduced by the agency in 2016 do not apply to any cigar that meets the court's definition of premium cigars, meaning that those cigars are unregulated by the FDA.

That what you want to talk about, Michael? I do, yeah, yeah. Please. All I have now is what makes it a premium cigar, but we've been over that hundreds of times.

Well, I think it was kind of humorous to me about the whole thing. That's the original judge from 2016. Yeah. He's been sitting on this thing for, what, five years now?

Yeah. " You're right. So, now it's confirmed. Right.

Right. Everybody likes to take credit for this shit. Everybody. Everybody.

Hey. First headlines I saw was that the CRA did it. Yeah, we did it. " We did it.

" We did it. " Like, the real bad motherfuckers are the ones that actually contributed and focused on doing this shit They're doing this shit and ask for no fucking acknowledgement whatsoever. They're like, all right, cool. We got more shit to cover.

We got more grounds to fight. There's other things going on now. Let's move on. Let's celebrate.

You know, my boy, Jerry, Jerry Catrone, he did like, these are the top brands that you should be thankful for. Oh, I saw that. And I'm like, yo, what are you fucking waiting? I didn't read the article.

You fucking wake up angry. He's like, is this a thing now, you grumpy fuck? Oh, I saw that when you posted that. Yeah, like, I don't get it.

You know, like, I'm not bowing to anybody. I'm not, you know, like, fuck out of here. Well, everybody had a piece of it, so thank you everybody. You know, a lot of people contributed to it, and I'm sure a lot of people that contributed to it haven't even been mentioned.

No. Right? And they don't fucking care if they get mentioned or not. No.

Right? Mm-hmm. And none of these guys did it for me. No, they did it for them.

They did it for themselves. Right. They did it to protect themselves so that they can make-- Right. We didn't, I didn't do the, I did it for you.

you so that Rocky Patel can continue on his Learjet video that I saw with Kurt Kendall and on his boats with Abe and you know, you know, like, and I'm not, and I'm not shitting on the guy for, I mean, hell dude, if I had that much on the line, of course I would do the same thing. Right. Sure. But I'm also not saying, Hey, we should come up with a press release and we should say we did it.

Okay. We'd like to acknowledge all of our podcast would like all of you to thank us for getting this push through for the unconfirmed millions of dollars. In which we contributed. Yes, millions.

Unconfirmed. And personal meetings with Judge Mahatta. Yeah. So, I'm completely ignorant to this case.

Okay. So, what did it do? Well, the FDA has been trying to regulate premium cigars for- Since 2016. Yeah.

Is this the flavored thing, or this is- No, this is all of them. Everything. So, you know, they worked- Go ahead. They worked on these terms called substantial equivalency, stating that, you know, your cigar had to meet the requirements of any single cigar that was made from, I think it was like 2007 or something.

And you know, then they tried to make it so that, how would you break that down? How, you know, like how could you determine the exact- You didn't have soil samples from the factory, what kind of water did you use? Oh, you gotta spend more money. Yeah.

Well, not only that, but it's, it was, it's impossible to do. Okay. It's a third world country. Right.

They get the water from the creek out back. Right. We get it from the creek. With the buckets.

Right. With the buckets. With the buckets. Or, you know, bamboo.

What did it, here's what it would have eventually done. It was eventually done. What it eventually done was it resulted in like three or four guys making cigars for you. And then nobody else would have been able to compete.

You had to pay to have your cigar tested. So the little guys would die. A lot of little guys went out when they heard it was going to happen. Yeah, they packed it in.

They packed it in and said, nope, I'm done, I can't import this. Yeah, I'm not doing this. How do you feel about the FDA? What'd you got?

I mean, I agree with you. Howard had a lot to do with it. He helped out. He was a major contributor.

Major contributor to the cause. Thank you, Howard. Thank you. Thank you, Howard.

Thank you, Howard. Listen. Listen, I don't need any thanks. Okay.

We're just looking out for each other. Such a nice guy. I love Howard. I mean, hey.

So humble. For the people. For the people. Hey.

Do you see all the billboards that are going up against Morgan & Morgan? You'll see one on the ride home. I have seen some of those. Do you think it's against him or you think it's him creating more media?

It says fool the people on it. Do you think maybe he's creating more media? I don't know. It's possible.

Possible. Either way. Who has enough money just to throw some up bullshit? He was smoking some of that marijuana.

He's been getting legalized. He's like, you know, it'd be a great idea. Put a fool hat on me on the billboard. We did a reverse campaign.

As soon as you go to that website, it redirects you to mine. Right. Click here for more information. Hey, whatever.

You'll see it driving home. Okay. It's like right before the Longwood exit on the right-hand side, and it's Morgan and Morgan, and they dressed him up. They painted a clown on him and all types of shit.

Maybe it's Dan. Dan Newland? Dan Newland. He's crushing it.

Yeah. Well, he's got a couple of jets. I feel like it's somebody that got screwed over on a deal and had enough money. That's a lot of money to waste after getting screwed.

Dude. But, you know, there's this whole realm of people that have just fucking retarded money. That's true. You know what I mean?

The FDA thing, yeah. So. Should be interesting. If it wasn't something he did, wouldn't you think he'd get an injunction by now or something Is there something to make them take them down or something?

I don't think that you can. I mean, it's freedom of speech. Yeah, freedom of speech. Yeah, but there's gotta be something.

He's a lawyer, for God's sake. Yeah, there's some defamation of character. Yeah, there's something he can do. Maybe.

But I feel like the person who put it up is obviously smart enough to do it. Unless it's him. Unless he did it himself. I wouldn't put it past him to do it himself.

No, I wouldn't either. Cause he's the largest, what is it? He's got offices everywhere. Yeah, personal injury.

In the world. In the world. In the world. In the universe.

I saw that. In the universe. In the universe. Morgan & Morgan.

Four other people. Offices everywhere. Right. That's basically what you should say now.

Yeah, pretty much. Everywhere you go in Florida, you see an office somewhere. Yeah. It's not just Florida.

Well, I know. Everywhere. But he lives in Lake Mary or some shit, doesn't he? Yeah.

You hang out with him? No. I know who he is. Does he know you?

He knows of me. He knows who you are? You gotta come out with a cigarette for him? My attorney is, they both graduated together.

Okay. You play golf with them? You've met him? No.

I've met him. Yeah. Nice. You get in your cups together with him?

A few drinks or some shit? He drinks a lot. Yeah, I've heard that. Allegedly.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Yeah. It could be apple juice. Yeah. I thought it was scotch.

Spoiled apple juice. Could be, could be. Has he had the front nine yet, or the back nine? No, I haven't seen him.

He didn't come to my event. No? Yeah, I don't know. We're not talking about your event.

Not a Steelers fan? Is he not a Steelers fan? I mean... Maybe Jacksonville?

I don't know. You gotta ask the hard questions, bro. Let me see this guy. I mean, come on.

I feel like, I like talking to my attorney. My attorney is cool. You know? Right.

Anything I want to know about him, I just ask my attorney because they know each other. You get the details. Use the back channels. I like it.

I like it. Okay. Okay, next story? Yeah.

McAuliffe takes over all Saints sales. Mickey Pegg joins McAuliffe. Yes, that is true. Oh, what a smart one.

Our friend Mickey Pegg has been consumed. What's up, huge? Mickey Pegg has been named the president of sales for, not even vice president, president. Oh, Mickey Pegg consumed McAuliffe.

No, no, other way around. Oh, he found himself, he fucked himself up and got himself a job. That's what just happened. Oh my God.

Yeah, I know all those photos at home with his family. Yeah. And All Saints Cigars, a company co-owned by Peg, will now be sold by McAuliffe's sales team. Peg will lead a McAuliffe's sales team that has seven people in the field, six sales representatives, and Peg will lead, or we did it, Andy Yaffe, national sales director, and will now sell products from All Saints.

Press release indicates that most other operations, fulfillment, and invoicing will remain separate. While Pegg is joining McAuliffe, the ownership structure of the two companies has not changed, and therefore the two companies remain separate entities. Oh, so they weren't consumed. They were running separate.

Yeah, but it sounds like he got... But now he's president of sales for McAuliffe. No. Maybe he got a salary.

Yeah, no bricks. All gas. Right. I'm thrilled to roll up my sleeves and work hands-on with a dedicated sales force once again, said Pegg in press release.

It's not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm transparent that All Saints Cigars is my plan A, and there's no plan B while implementing a strategy with McAuliffe that I firmly believe in. Are you calling?

Decision strengthens plans A, yeah, call him, ask him what he makes, Michael. Did you connect? I think it's only 80,000. I wanna know if he answers the phone with McAuliffe Cigars.

Betts, betts, betts, betts, betts. Huge. Huge. Huge.

I am with a client right now, huge. Oh, I thought it clicked. Sound answer. Do I give out his number on the podcast?

Yes. Remember how we did this last time? Hello, you've read Mickey Pegg. I'm not available right now, but please leave your name and a message.

Give out the number except for the last two. Have a great day. Sounds so happy. At the tone, please record your message.

When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options. Hey, Mickey, this is Mike from Cigar Hussers Podcast. You're currently on the podcast, even though you couldn't answer the phone. We want to buy McAuliffe Cigars.

We have a couple of questions here with this unification of sales, and to see that you're labeled president, just kind of curious, number one, is what the salary is, and how much you're getting paid for something like that. So if you can give us a buzz back, we're gonna ask you some seriously hard questions, and we'll see you later, huge. Now that was gangster. That was gangster, I gotta give it to you.

Thank you, thank you. Mike, McAuliffe has their own factory, and his cigars are made by Rocky Patel. Right. I'm gonna be honest.

Rocky. I've smoked a lot of cigars. Yeah. I've never smoked a McAuliffe cigar.

No? We don't carry them here. We had that, they had a young lady who was their rep for a while, she came in here a couple of times. Mm-hmm.

And she didn't smoke cigars, it was really weird. Is it Dominican or Nicaraguan? McAuliffe is Nicaraguan. Never have one.

You gotta work on that, still. How you say Nicaragua? Oh, did I say it wrong again? Nicaragua.

Sounds a little racist. Howie, was that racist? I don't know. Oh, wow.

I don't think so. Thank you, Howie. Thank you very much, my friend Howie. You're just lucky that he's so sweet.

My friend Howie. That's my friend Howie. He would know if I was being racist. I don't know, he's pretty chill.

He's pretty chill. Talk about putting the brother on the spot. I don't know what the hell is going on. They say I'm racist all the time.

I have some other sources that we're going to exploit. We're going to review some of your comments every once in a while. It'll be good. Who else are we calling?

I don't want to tell you. I'll let you know. Alright, so no answer on Mickey Pegg. The retro hell on this is phenomenal, by the way.

You know, it's really good. I'm enjoying it. The front nine is a fucking banger. Yeah, the retro hell on this is pretty hot.

A fucking banger. I like the back nine too. But back to your, um, I don't want to interrupt you. No, that was the only two I pulled.

I figured we'd talk to you more. That's not a bad choice. I'd like to know one question about your cigar. What?

How did you come up with the box? Like, why the... It's golf, so it's green. Well, no, I understand the color.

But why the criss-cross of the clubs with the ball and stuff? It's kind of like a skull and bones thing. Yeah. Is that what you're going for, or...?

Well, no. So, if you look at it, if it's designed for golf, right, there's also two different sticks in there, I might as well put two different types of golf sticks also. These are two different, there's a driver and there's an iron or something? Well, no, I'm just saying there's two sticks, you know, so, but there's two different types of sticks.

So, if it was just one complete blend in there, you know, I probably could have stayed with that one golf stick thing, but I wanted to make it. And then it'd be the magic stick, and now we're going in a totally different direction. Absolutely. Da, da, da, da, da.

I got the magic stick. No, I really enjoy when it comes to, like, your boxes and stuff like that. You know, when I'm looking at a cigar, like, you know, you see the same wooden boxes, and you're just kind of like, eh, you know, nothing's really going on with it. Yours are different.

You just go, eh? Yeah, you just kind of look at the box. Well, the other ones are more traditionally Nicaraguan or Dominican looking. What about that one?

What about that one? Did you hear him say that one? What do you think? Oh my God.

Oh my Lord. He just has a little accent when he has to say Nick Crackley. Yeah, he's got to work on it though. Don't be sorry, be better, man.

It's okay. Thanks, Allie. It's okay. You smell very nice, by the way.

Yeah. Thank you, man. What is that? What is that?

Palmer's nervous. Nuggle up to his neck a little bit. What is that? It's amazing.

So, did you do this design yourself? No. So I have a marketing team, so I pretty much have a conversation telling what I want, you know, and then just start sending stuff and then either Rachel will look at it and then find out what she likes and then send it to me and then I'll, I give pretty much the final or if I want to add something to it. I just want to give them that golf theme, design it towards that, but I also want to have it stay in unison with the core value of the brand and the lookage, how we look with the, you know, the Howard G stamp on the top and everything that way.

I was going to do a different type of box, and then I was like, you know, I'd rather keep it simple, keep it clean, and keep it looking the way we normally go around. Got a magnet on there, too. Yeah. That's nice.

So, I noticed in the logo, you were established in '85? Or that's when you were born? '83. That's when you were born?

Yeah, me personally, I was established in '83. Okay, so that's what it is. Yeah, I was established. How old did you think Boy Howie was?

Yeah, I don't know. Making cigars for the last 45 years? How old did you think he was? Phil?

I thought he was in the 40s. Oh. Sorry, Howie. Well, I mean, he's getting there.

Yeah, but you know, like, I listen to his stories and stuff all the time. I think he's a little older than... He's only older than me by a little bit. Well, if he was established in '83, I mean, technically, this year, he is going to be 40 if he hasn't turned 40 already.

Well, I'll be 40 in November. What are we doing? Nice. What kind of party are we invited to?

Or are we just invited? I mean, that's a big 4-0. Now we're inviting ourselves. And will your lawyer be there?

Look, I have to see, honestly, I don't even know what I'm doing. You know what, I don't want to nitpick here. Got to contact Rachel. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

It's like you, his wife does everything, so we'll contact Rachel. I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but did you invite Howie to your birthday party? No. No.

We haven't had it yet. We haven't had it yet this year. Okay. I'm just saying.

Well, you might want to lock that in. Because I invited Howie to my birthday party. Our birthday is first. Well, okay.

First of all, normally we have our birthday party here at Hustler. Yeah. Okay. But there's a lot of things that have happened to where that, I don't know if that's happening.

Oh, you're saying because I trumped that? Because I did mine here? Well, he can't do the same thing. He's leaving.

Oh, I won't be here for my birthday. Oh, where are you going to be? At Tanner's wedding is the day before my birthday. Ah.

So then, what about you? Yeah, I mean, I'm in. Would you like to come to my son's wedding? It's in Missouri.

See, he's not inviting you to a birthday party, so. I just haven't put it together. I probably won't be having a birthday party. You don't have to really include him.

That's all I'm saying. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Well, you know, I could throw a party here too, man.

I could always throw a party. Hey. There you go. It's a snap of a finger.

I could have a party. It could be several things. You know, he could do like a whole week of this. Forty's big.

It is. We'll do a party here. Yeah. We won't go to the other place.

We can't drive the other one. No, no. We're not allowed inside. Just understand, we've declined that invitation.

I mean, yeah, the way you work it out, you don't want us to show, is you have it there. You're like, oh, sorry, guys. No, no, we will have one here as well. Nice.

Oh, the consolation party will be here. Hey, the better party will be here. Yeah, that's true. But you can invite him to come here if you want.

He won't come here. But this one, we'll have a, like you said, the private lounge. That'll be there. I'm probably gonna do something like that.

And it'll be an invite only. Only if I can get Merriweather yelling fucking penalties in the background like he did last time, calling shit. Oh, he's definitely gonna come. That shit was amazing.

If he doesn't get invited, it'll really be a problem. Yeah. You know, at this stage in life, even though we're the same age, he's had, you know, 572 more concussions in his career than I ever had. And so it's not even worth it, you know, just put a guy on the list, because if he's not on the list, he's gonna be mad, and sends all kinds of racial text messages to him.

Oh, that's nice. I thought we were MF'ing boys, you N-word. I'm a huge Brandon fan. I know, I love Merriweather.

He's with me. Guy is my speed, that's all I can say. About three nights a week, I'm usually with Brandon. Yeah, that guy is hilarious, man.

Dude, we were watching the game, we were watching the UFFSU game, and I didn't know what the hell the penalty was for, we were in the private lounge, all of a sudden in the background, like you forgot he's there, he's just kind of quiet, and you hear illegal motion, and then the rest, and I don't even think the announcers knew what it was for, I don't know what the penalty's for, and then all of a sudden, yeah, and I'm like, that was fucking, that was fucking amazing right there, that was fucking amazing. But you know what, it's always cool when you're actually watching games with guys like Brandon and especially Ike, especially, definitely Ike, because of the way their eyes look at it. Right. How they read the game.

Yeah, they see it differently. We look at it totally different than they look at it. Yeah. You're being entertained where they're more looking for what's going on.

We're watching from the cheap seats, you know? " They should give them their own flags and see if they can get it out before the ref does. Right. Penalty.

Penalty, you know, or they call who it's going to. Oh. Mm-hmm. You know.

Oh, that was number 76, bro. How did you see that? Right. I was watching the same flag.

Was 76 even on the field? I didn't even see them. Right. But that kind of stuff happens.

There was like, did you see the penalty for Pittsburgh with too many men on the field or did you see that? What was that, fourth quarter? Yeah. I was gone.

You already left. Yeah, we were left. Did you guys all drive together? Yeah.

He left early, too? Yeah. It's a long walk from way up high, Mike. No.

" Oh, really? Did he give us no warning? No, no, I'm leaving, or we're gonna go in 10? Yeah.

So I took my buddy with me. I said, man, Ike's in the truck. " I was like, you ain't gotta say nothing to me. I think I sent you a text.

Oh, no, you text me. We was already, I told you, we're already. I was like, where are you at? When you meet up, you're like, shit, I'm already on I-4.

Yeah, we were in Lakeland by that time, bro. Goddamn. No, no, you sent me a text saying, we got him right where we want him. So I'm like, well, if I left the game, it was 27-7, he must have scored a touchdown.

So then I look at my phone, I'm like, aw, Buckingham scored 10 more points. So instead of an ass-whipping, you lost respectively. Hey, you know what, man? You lost by 10.

Dude, I just like to go and have a good time. And I'm gonna stay to the bitter end, you know what I mean? We're riding this out. I want to see some shit, you know?

And you know what was sad, though, is sometimes, like, I saw one guy, he was a cornerback, he was covering a player, he came down on his foot the wrong way, and I'm pretty sure he blew out his ACL, man. And you could see the tears in this guy's eyes. " You know, this is week one, you know? Well, when you think about it, it was week one, or it was preseason?

No, this is pre- that game. It was week one of preseason. preseason right and this happened in the first quarter or later it happened towards the end so obviously it's not a first it's not a starter right so it's not somebody that's amazing for a spot it's not the direct backup if you're in the fourth quarter right so now it's one of those 90 percentiles that's trying to make it to the 53 man roster a unicorn and so now he injures himself well that's You know what? You can cancel Christmas.

Right. It's over. It's over. Even if he made minimum, which is probably what?

Half a million a year or some shit? Hell no. How much do you make for minimum? I mean, I think minimum is like 180 or something.

No, if you don't make the team, you go to like the guys that get cut, that don't make the team, but they still want you around. You go to the practice squad. Those guys make like 80, 90,000. Yeah, no, I'm saying, but if you made the team.

I think it's like 180 or something. Minimum 160, something like that. Come on, man. It's got to be more than that.

But shut this out. You don't mean to tell me. 60. 60 to sit on the bench.

60? You don't get the chance to sit on the bench. Yeah, but if you were third string. I'll be 10th string.

No, there's no such thing as that. You mean me to carry all the helmets? I'm in. I'll bring the water.

You're the practice dummy. No, I know. So it's like if I play running back, right? And I was on the practice squad on the Cowboys.

I gotta go up against the Cowboys starting defense, and I gotta play the running back from the opposition team and run their plays. Make sure my jersey's red. I gotta run towards Michael Parsons, who's about to probably next year or the year after, set the whole market and the whole industry. For sure.

That's, you know... Those might be some good practice squad guys, though. You're just getting hit. But I'm gonna get hit.

I'm gonna get leveled by this guy. Every time. For them, $80,000. Somebody need a raise.

And this guy's going to be making $8 million a game. You know what I'm saying? Right. Like $8 million every month or something.

Right. And I'm getting $80,000 for the season. But he do have some good tickets. Apparently not.

I mean, he's got to connect with Ike, and he was over there fucking. Well, no. That was different. That was, first of all, the away game.

It's preseason. So you wrote with Ike to the game? Yeah. So then when you get there, he's like, I'm going to the press box.

Pretty much, yeah. You guys are up there? That's how that works. I'll see you after the game.

He's a scout. Well, no, no. I understand why he's in there. He's going with the GM.

It was a casual flex on his boys. Yeah, of course. But you would think if he's taking you with, you're going to sit. No.

Any game he wants to go to, he's going to give you tickets. Now, when I go to Pittsburgh, it's not the same. Pittsburgh, they're on the field. Right, right, right.

You should have just kept walking with him until somebody put their arm in front of you. Nah, nah. That's more embarrassing. And then I had somebody, it was one of our top brand ambassadors with us.

Mike's with us anyways. So yeah, it was cool. I just didn't know it was going to be that high is what I was saying. And the same text message I sent, Ike, I sent you, that's when you were laughing.

Cause I was like, bro, really? I was dying. I said, I swear to God, I almost touched the blimp. He had to duck with it.

The other cool thing that fucking happened in that game for me was number 19 on Pittsburgh, last name Austin. They caught that bomb. Yeah. His dad was behind you.

Right behind me, dude. He was going nuts, and he was so excited. I'm like, God, that's got to be such a fucking good feeling because he actually got hurt last season. He never made the field.

He broke his foot or something. So to see his kid come around, I'm like, damn, that kid's pretty talented. And he's only like 5'9". So I was like, there's hope for people that are my height.

Yeah, that's my height too. Yeah, exactly. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, and he wanted the football.

Yeah. So he was yelling, he called his son Bay Bay because I guess he's the second or third or whatever. they all have the same name and he's going baby baby give me the ball so then a guy goes out picks up the ball runs it over i hand it to his dad his dad's going yeah and like everybody's going nuts yeah that's cool yeah that was a cool feeling you got to touch the ball i touched it i touched it oh you just stopped and taking a picture and then handed it to him yeah hold on one second just relax tell your kid to come back just calm down man you'll get the ball i'm gonna I want to get it for you. I want a necklace.

Okay, you can get in the photo with me. Come on. Take a picture of me and you in the ball. Handed you the ball.

All right, thanks. Sit back down and put it on my lap. Then you would have made the news. How do you piss off an entire crowd of Pittsburgh Steelers fans?

You know? Like, what? What? The guy handed it to me.

Yeah, he gave it to me. There was a lot of Steelers fans there, especially with it being a preseason game. Well, they haven't been in Tampa, I think, in like 20 years or something. Oh.

Especially, yeah. They should have got a chance to play them while they had Tom Brady. I think they did, in Pittsburgh. Yep, it was in Pittsburgh, not in Tampa.

Yeah. Yeah, because Brady has beat every day. But I will say, I was at the game last year, when they had Brady, when the Bucs were down, I think they might have been down 10 or something. And people were leaving, and I was like, nah, I'm not leaving, that's Tom Brady, there's one guy you don't give up on.

Two minutes on the clock, bro, we got a chance. That was the Saints game. That was the Saints game. It's like, Kamara just fell out, and he got the ball back, and he drove it down, and I am not gonna lie, I got fired up then, 'cause I was able to witness to go do one of those last things, man.

You should have seen me talking to those two fat people behind me at that point. I was like, "What? " I was fuckin' ready to go. " Yeah, that'll fire you up right there, man.

Yeah, that was a good game. Now, that game, I had club seats. Yeah, nice. That wasn't an iConnect.

No, no, no, no. That was one of my buddies that had season tickets there. Yeah. Yeah, that was that one.

This was my first time ever in my life in the nosebleed. Howie's a, you know, he's a man of, you know, he knows everybody. Yeah. He's got the connect.

I text, like I said, man, I gotta, just so you know, bro, I'm so high up, I got toilet paper in my hand, just in case my nose starts. So now he understands that he can't put you that high again. And he says, he said, I can't with you. He was laughing.

I was like, man, I thought you was gonna be on the field, I thought I was gonna be like, right behind you. Right. First row or something. I know.

Wee, wee, wee. The complete opposite of the front row. Yeah. Man, I was looking at the parking lot.

I'll even take the cannon seats. I was seeing people's lights on their cars. So wait, now where did you get to park? We parked at...

You didn't get a hookup where you could pull right up to the stadium or something? Nah. By the time we got there, it was already after the mid first quarter or something. Yeah, but I didn't know there was like, you know...

Nah, you gotta be early. Got you. So you had to walk a little bit. Yeah.

I got my steps in, bro. You got your steps in? Yeah. A little cardio.

There's a little cubby hole that I'll tell you about where you can… It's going to get planned out. Well, you should. I got you. As much as you go there.

Yeah, I know. I found this spot. I'm like, this is the spot. This is the spot.

Yeah. So with this perfect round out, is this your new favorite cigar of your line? Um, I'll be honest with you, this is my first Dominican line, and I'm really seeing the response from the different blends, and so it's doing a really good job. I'm really excited, so I'm gonna be adding some more things from the Dominican line.

So who'd you work with after this? This one, I worked with MJ Frias, my buddy Chris. Been knowing him for so long and super proud of what he's been able to do. And he makes a ton of cigars, a ton of cigars.

And, you know, the cool thing is when you work with people that you actually know, they want to give you the best tobacco. Right. And that's what happened with me with my first line. " You know, a lot of times people go and they try to get with larger brands that are really not really making the cigar.

Their name is on it, because some of the brand names you mentioned earlier, they don't own a factory. They get theirs made by some other people. was into you you know what i mean right but um they just add some premium to it so but from these guys those personal relationship when they come to you like man bro i'm telling you man we got to do something together man yeah you know and then i'm like all right well let me check out some things and right once they start to show me i'm like all right well let's do this right and then you know i take a while because i do take a while yeah and um and then i get it out to certain guys And then, like you, you was able to try it before everybody else too, and I literally look for the feedback from guys, I look at it from like this, if I give a hundred sticks out of each one, and I'm getting feedback like 85 to 88 are saying it's fire, and then I'm getting let's say like 92 to 94 saying it was really good, I think we We got action because if I can do that with a hundred, then that means a thousand people, that's the same ratio, which means 10,000 would be the same ratio, all I have to do is get that stick in their hand, and so it's kind of like, that's the kind of research I really look at, people that I really respect, who I know really smoke, and also not want to, you know, tell me what they think I want to hear, no, just tell me the truth. Not surrounded by yes people.

Yeah, I don't like that at all, you know, so I always say, smoke the first round and then smoke the back nine, I mean, front nine and the back nine. Right. And even if you smoke the back nine first, follow it with the front nine. Right.

And then tell me what you think, because right now, both of them are on your palate, so now you're able to say, man, you know what, well, this one, this one I liked it better, because I want to know which one you like better. I don't think I've ever seen a, me personally, a paired cigar like that. No. Is this the first time you've seen it?

I mean, like, I've seen them in, like, coffins or something like that, you know, where it's just two together. Like, LFT did a diadema duo or some shit, some other things like that. But see, I like the way I did it, and honestly, I'm gonna do it again with something else, but I want, but I'll do, this many boxes is gonna come in a pair. But for the retailers, I will also do the majority of the masses.

The crybabies. Everybody's not as cool as Mike, right? Yeah, that's true. You know, everybody's not as cool as Mike.

What Mike just said makes a lot of damn sense. You know, and especially if people got, you know, ordered, you know, 15, 20, 30 boxes, it's not hard to take, open it up and then take your sales reps and just split them. Right. That's cool.

But, at the same time, it does make it easier for us to also say, So say, hey, it's holiday season. And if you guys looking to grab gifts and stuff like that, we also have it already. Right. Already mixed.

Already mixed for you. Right. Or you can just buy two boxes. I like how it goes every other two.

It's not like one side of the box or the other side of the box. Yeah. I told them I wanted every other so they can just grab them two by two like that. Right.

That was the plan. Right. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on, sir.

Appreciate you. This is now officially shipping, right? So we are in business. They're open.

Absolutely. So, please check out Howard G. Cigars. Check out The Perfect Round.

Available. We're at, uh, you know... Look at your local retailer. Yeah, check it out.

com? com, goddammit. So, alright. Thanks, man.

Anything else you guys good? Always, guys. I'm good, I'm good. Alright, bye.

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Show Notes

Description: On this week's episode of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, we're thrilled to deliver some fantastic news from the premium cigar industry. In a groundbreaking turn of events, the premium cigar industry emerges victorious as it beats FDA regulations in court, leading to the vacating of stringent restrictions that have loomed over the industry for far too long. This monumental win sets the stage for a new era of innovation and growth, and we're here to unpack all the details.

But that's not all – get ready for some exciting business moves in the world of cigars. Micallef Cigars takes a bold step by acquiring All Saints Sales, making waves and expanding their presence in the market. Additionally, the talented Micky Pegg makes his mark by joining forces with Micallef, setting the stage for a partnership that promises exciting new developments.

And wait, there's more! We're honored to have a special guest on air – none other than Howard G from Howard G Cigars. A true visionary in the industry, Howard G joins us to share insights about his latest creation, "Howard G The Perfect Round." Inspired by the spirit of sportsmanship, this cigar brings a unique twist to the table. Featuring an 18-count box, each containing a combination of The Front Nine and The Back Nine cigars, it's a delightful journey through two different Dominican puros. The Front Nine boasts a Connecticut shade wrapper, while The Back Nine blends in a sun-grown habano wrapper, both bound together with Dominican excellence.

Cigar Details:

Wrapper: Dominican Republic (Connecticut Shade) / Dominican Republic (Sun-Grown Habano)

Binder: Dominican Republic

Filler: Dominican Republic

The Front Nine/The Back Nine (7 x 52) — $16 (Box of 18, $288)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: August 2023

Join us as we explore the intricacies of these premium cigars, the industry's legal triumph, and the exciting new partnerships shaping the cigar landscape. So grab your favorite cigar, settle in, and tune in to another informative and entertaining episode of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast!