Cigar Hustlers Podcast Special Episode Mike Rosales

Episode Summary

A short, off-the-cuff special episode recorded on site at a Cigar Hustlers lounge event with RoMa Craft Tobac's Michael Rosales. After some good-natured ribbing about "Mike" vs. "Michael," the conversation gets into RoMa Craft's newest brand, La Mastranza — a San Andrés Claro/Rosado-wrapped, Estelí-made blend that Rosales describes as a solid medium (the hosts argue for medium-plus, especially on the retro). It ships in three box-pressed sizes — 4x50, 5x60 and a 6x52 box-pressed Toro — in 40-count boxes, priced in roughly the $9–$11 range, with a yellow-over-white band. Rosales confirms the shipment is already en route and should be hitting retailers around the time the episode airs.

The crew also digs into why the names are so hard to pronounce: each La Mastranza vitola is named for a place or region in Spain (Castilla, Murcia, Valencia, Cataluña), tying into the "Spanish Market Selection" wrapper-color reference — which leads to a running joke about retailers mangling names like CAO, Oliva and RoMa Craft's own Quinquagenario. Rosales also previews what's left for the year and into Q1: a Frenchies-style Aquitaine size in tins, plus Toro additions across Intemperance — Volstead, EC, BA and Whiskey Rebellion — likely rolling out first as a Toro sampler ahead of the trade show.

The most substantive segment is Rosales explaining why the Intemperance BA (Brazilian Arapiraca, Cameroon-adjacent talk included) has been absent so long: COVID-era disruption in Brazil slowed importation, much of the available leaf arrived already "cooked" when RoMa Craft needs natural-fermented wrapper, and wrapper prices spiked far beyond what a sub-$10 portfolio can absorb. With cigar sales stabilizing after the 2021–22 boom, he expects pricing and availability to normalize — and now that RoMa Craft has its own factory, they can finish the fermentation in-house. The episode closes with talk about the lounge's quarterly special events (bottle shares, an open smoker with chicken, steak, pork, sausages, salmon and pineapple) and whether the looming Longshoremen strike from Texas to Maine could affect shipments — it won't, since RoMa Craft flies product in rather than shipping by sea.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Mike vs. Michael
   A running bit about name preferences and Facebook profiles kicks off the special episode.
2. 02
   La Mastranza: the new RoMa Craft brand
   Rosales breaks down the San Andrés Claro/Rosado wrapper, the medium (or medium-plus) body, and the Estelí production.
3. 03
   Sizes, packaging and pricing
   Three box-pressed sizes — 4x50, 5x60 and 6x52 Toro — in 40-count boxes at roughly $9–$11, with a yellow-over-white band.
4. 04
   Why the names are so hard to say
   Each vitola is named for a region of Spain to tie into the Spanish Market Selection wrapper-color theme, sparking a riff on retailers butchering brand names.
5. 05
   What's coming next: Aquitaine tins and Intemperance Toros
   A Frenchies-style Aquitaine in tins plus Q1 Toro releases across Volstead, EC, BA and Whiskey Rebellion, likely starting with a Toro sampler.
6. 06
   Why Intemperance BA disappeared
   Rosales explains the Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper shortage, over-fermented leaf, price spikes, and why owning a factory now lets RoMa Craft finish fermentation themselves.
7. 07
   Lounge events and the open smoker
   The hosts discuss quarterly retailer events — bottle shares and a full open-smoker cookout — as a way to create real experiences for customers.
8. 08
   Longshoremen strike and cigar logistics
   A quick look at the pending East Coast port strike and why air freight keeps RoMa Craft's shipments moving.

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

- Are you ready? - What are you doing? - He's texting Skip. Can't you believe I had to come here?

Where are you? - Where are you? - Jamie's asking me where the remote control is out of the TV output. Like, I know I haven't been there.

- Right. You're hardly there. How would you know? - How does that work?

When does a husband know where shit is? I have no idea. " Yeah, exactly. " Hey, welcome to episode, special episode, Mike Rosales.

Michael. Michael Rosales. On Facebook it says Mike, okay? I know, I know, you know what, that's his own shit, that's Michael's bullshit.

I understand he prefers Michael, but... He does, he prefers Michael. I don't know, why is that, Michael? Why does it say Mike?

" It never fails. Well, I think that it matters sometimes, some people are paying attention. Well, if you re-correct them, then they're like, "Oh, hey, Michael," right? But it's like, after a while...

I prefer Michael, please. " Because you're familiar with it. Yeah. You understand the struggle.

Well, if somebody gives me, if somebody pronounces their full name, like, "Hey, I'm Jonathan," if you come at me with, "Hey, I'm Jonathan," I know you're not good with John. Sure. Right, yeah, if that's the way you introduce yourself. Right?

So you just double check. " Yeah. After a while, you just kind of, your give a shit filter just kind of like, they just ward it out. But I feel like you surrendered by giving it the Mike name on Facebook, your Facebook profile.

Yeah, I just, I don't care. I feel like you need to fix it. Okay. I like it.

I feel like you need to fix it. I'm like, you know, but here's the thing. It's been so, such a long time since I've graduated, you know, and realistically, like, I'm not sitting around with a bunch of like, um... Slapdicks?

Yeah, well, there's a lot of stuff, there's a lot of stuff, there's a lot of stuff, there's a lot of stuff, so, you know, it is what it is, so, I need, I'm gonna need, I feel like it, it bothers you more than it bothers me, it does, it really bothers you, you know, um, it's just cause you're my friend, I appreciate that, you know what I mean, it's just that simple, no, you know, it's like, you don't have to worry about the bullshit, I'll worry about your bullshit, you know, like, oh no, that's not what you call him, yeah, if, if anybody calls you Mike, I'm like, that, that's not what he likes, he likes Michael, he goes by Michael, well, it's not, as long as it's not shitheads, like, And if you're a guy over there in the corner, then I'm okay with that. Don't call me shitheads. Wow. Don't call me shitheads.

Hashtag shitheads. You see the sign? Oh, I thought he was calling me a shithead. He meant the sign.

The sign. The sign. I believe he was referencing me. Well, I think I did.

Shots fired. Shots fired. He's going like, eh, fuck that guy. Well done.

Thank you. Thank you. Not my first day. That's right.

So, hey, we're going to keep this quick. It's going to be like a quick 15, 20 minute, fast little interview. But I just want to tap in quickly about, you got a new brand that's coming out, right? Yeah, La Mastranza.

Yeah, La Mastranza, so... Don't ask me anything about it, I don't know. That's awesome. Yeah.

That's fantastic. It's all up in Skip's head. It's all in Skip's head. Okay.

Yeah. No, so it's got three sizes. Do you want to blend? What do you want to know?

Whatever you want to talk about real quick. What's the blend? I don't know. I mean, I could tell you.

So I can tell you that it's a San Andreas Claro. It is. Right? Yeah.

Right. Like the flavor and the savory of Nianito. This is like a slightly toned down version with a, as far as like, it's not in the, it's not as dark. Right.

So it's got a nice color shade to it, right, the Rosado, which is what you're talking about. And so it's really a, it's a medium, solid medium cigar that I think anybody would really enjoy. I think medium full or medium? I don't know, I'm smoking through them, I'll tell you this, it has, I don't know if I get the medium plus.

Really? That's interesting. I mean, I took it more of a medium full per se, it's definitely... You got one?

Let me try one out. Let me see. I've had one before. We got one of those packs over here?

I have no idea what they taste like. I've had one in... We should all share one. I've had a few of them.

I've had some in Vegas, I had some in Esteli, I had some... Okay, none for you then. Sure. Just me and Michael.

That's right. I think that what's really cool about it, first of all, I feel like you're too much like Skip right now. We need to walk this back. All right?

This, whatever, it's a good cigar. Like, look. Well, here's the thing. I was on another podcast where they just kept handing me bottles and bottles and bottles, and finally they got it out of me.

And then I got a, oh, hey, we shouldn't do that. Hey, let's walk that back. Yeah. So you have bottles?

We have some bottles? I feel like, you know, they've been kind of, they're in flotation, or whatever, yeah, yeah, you've already been involved, I can tell. I had a sip. I could tell.

My, it's. This is it. That's all you had. That's the one.

Well, you're, maybe you're just a lightweight now. Oh, no, yeah. Oh, no, yeah. No, no, no, no.

It's just early, it's early. It's early. It's, it's just now 6:30 on the East Coast. Yeah.

So, okay. So, La Mastranza. Yeah. Right.

It's handmade in Estelini. I feel like if I don't, I don't, so you like it medium plus huh? Yeah, I think it falls in that category. On the retro, on the body, like where?

I mean, everything I retro now. Okay. You know, when I think I got COVID, but I didn't test, it's possible that I had, I couldn't taste. Allegedly.

Yeah, I allegedly couldn't taste anything for six fucking months. And the only way that I could start tasting things was when I started forcing the retro. I see. So now, it's just part of my everyday life.

So I think the retro is fantastic. It is delicious. Yeah. You know, but I really dig the sizes.

I think the sizes are... Yeah. Three different sizes. They're all box-pressed.

5x60. Yeah, hang on. I'll go to my Cliff Notes real quick. 5x60.

There's a... There's no 46. No, there's a 4x50. Yeah, 4x50.

5x60. Uh-huh. And a 6x52. Right.

Standard Toro, box-pressed Toro. Box-pressed Toro. Yeah. I'm excited about that one.

Yeah. So, we're gonna, when we do our next event, we're gonna have to do like who can actually pronounce the names the best. Yeah. And that would be fun.

I wanted to ask you that. Because, here's what's really funny to me. Hit me. There's always this statement of, hey, they're good cigars, they don't suck, whatever, right?

It's like, okay, how about we just name them something fucking simple and basic so that we can all understand what's going on. Instead of calling it Lama Stranza, fuckin' something something, fuckin' whatever, there's three big huge words that I can't pronounce. Can you pronounce? No, I can't pronounce half.

No. Just call it the Bob. No, yeah. This is the Bob, the Steve, and the Jim.

The BDP. The BDP, right, he's nice and easy, rolls off the tongue. I'm calling one of them Murica. I'm just owning that.

It's not Murcia or whatever the fuck, no, no, no, no, no. Murica. That's okay. Murica, and then like, I'm gonna put maybe, I'm gonna start, So, adding a secondary band, I think that would be hilarious.

Really fire them up. Really get Skip going. Murca. Murca.

So, why? Why so complicated on the names? Well, each place, kind of, or each of the names represents a specific place and region in Spain. So, that was the tying into the Spanish market selection, which is the color reference to the wrapper leaf.

So you try to keep it all within the theme. Right. That's how we did it. We could have just done like...

Toro. That'd be too easy, bro. Come on, man. This is the Toro.

Well, you know, what's great, though, is when retailers, you're on the phone with them, they're like, hey, I need to get a box of... So this one guy in Arkansas is like, I need the Modi 5. Look at the Modi 5. You got the Modi?

The Aqua Teen Modi 5. It's great. The Canucklay Dragger. That's it, yeah.

So you're going to tell Oliva to change their name? I mean, dude, I'm in multi-vendor events, and people are like, the, uh, let me get some of those. Olivia's? Olivia's.

It's my favorite! Olivia's, yeah. I'm a huge cow fan. Yeah.

You got the cows? Dude, the names that some people, like, drop on some of us is great. " I'll try and find it. The cow, yeah, we have the cow, we have those.

Yeah. It's the cow-cow leaf. I mean, how much more simpler can you get than that? I mean, the real question is how much more complicated could you guys get it?

At this point, I feel like- Quinquaginario. But it's only one word. It's a lot. Was that the right way?

Yeah. Oh, wow. Quinquaginario. But I feel like, letters to letters, we're not even close when it comes to quinquaginario.

Mastranza. Phonetically, yeah. Tell me one of them, because I know one of them is Mauricias. I got them right here.

He's right here. Look him up. Come on, bro. Tell me the names.

Let's get it down for the record so that Skip can watch us and correct you later. That's not how you call him, fuck. Well, I don't even think he can say him. Oh, great.

The Mastranza Castillo Mauricio. Oh, the Mauricio. It went into action. It went into action.

Mauricia. I thought it was in Mauricia. No. America.

That's America. Mastranza Caballeria Valencia. Valencia. Okay.

So the other thing is, this is all in Spain. In certain areas, they have a different dialect too. Right. So in some of their letters, I can't even, yeah, it's like...

Oh, so it could be different depending on where you're at. Exactly, yeah. So, good job, Skip, good job. Yeah.

Different parts of the country, it's pronounced differently. I'm gonna start, I'm gonna paint the America one red, white, and blue. Masranza Catulonia. So, yeah.

So, I mean, that's... That's it, that was it. There's no other word on that one. Catulonia, that's it.

Cataluña, that's it? Ciudad de la Cataluña. Ah. I mean, here's the thing about Spanish.

What's that, like city? Sounds like city. Give me Google. How do you not know?

Dude, there's lots of information that I have to, I don't want to say anything wrong about that. You got me on the spot, I'm over here sweating my balls off. That's nice. I like that.

Brady's over here in the corner writing down, taking notes. You gotta be ready. No, I am ready. I know he listens to these podcasts.

He listens to all of these. All the podcasts. Oh yeah, all of them. On minute four in 37 seconds, this is where you fucked it up, okay, you gotta, you gotta fix that, so.

We messed up, Hunter is calling me from Riverside. Wait, he can wait, he can wait, yeah, sorry Hunter, sorry Hunter, yeah, I'll call you buddy. Uh, we messed up, we were talking on the Patreon, and we were talking about, uh, Eduardo, I guess, from Aguilar, I don't know which way he's right now. And I think I was calling him Enrique or some shit, oh my god.

The higher ups all come down on us. We got Jack Taranio chiming in, Hector Alfonso chiming in, and then skips late to the game a day later. Like, we've already been abused on this. We have a weekly chat group with Hector and Jack to tell us what we've done wrong.

Yeah, Jack is a fucking horrible critic. That's your, those are the truth fact checkers? Yeah, those are fact checkers. He just hammers us.

I gotcha. Unless we pick on Luciano, then he doesn't say anything. He loves that. Oh dude, I saw the real the other day, that was brutal.

That was hilarious. That was pretty good. Hilarious. So, three sizes.

Three sizes, box press. Are you gonna expand into different patolas, or this is what we're doing? You know, I always say, I don't think so. And then...

Bam! Bam, there's a new one. There you go. So, but as of right now, that's how it's planned.

We're looking at the three. Yeah, and they're all coming on the shipment. They just left, or it's leaving. He's on his way to Managua, so he's about to clear it, so all of them are about to drop.

Yeah, by the time this airs, I think that they will be, they should be arriving to retailers. Have you seen the band? That yellow? Yellow over white, that's really cool.

That's sharp. Really nice. Yeah, so you got a 40 count box in 20 and 20, kind of like how we did with the Wunderlust for Europe. Yeah, and they retail at a really good price.

Yeah, between 9, 10, 11 bucks, something like that? Yep, so. Pretty good, man. I think it's fantastic, especially, you know, and for the sizes.

Yeah, Toro's 11, coming in at 11, Box Press? Yeah. Hell yeah, man. So, get 'em while you can.

Yeah, I think that they're gonna do well, I think that they're gonna be a consistent mover. My guess would be is that the one that we did in the pack would eventually make it to core. So that was the pre-release? That was the pre-release.

What was that size? That was a 4x60 Box Press. 4x60? Yeah.

Okay. 4x56. It's like a quiz he's giving you over here. Yeah, 4x56 box press.

Is there anything else that you guys are slating for the rest of the year? Yeah, so you remember the little Frenchies we did? Yeah. So I did that in an anthropology size.

Did you really? Yeah, so I'm about to drop. Oh, that's gotta be ridiculous. Packs of tin.

They don't like it, but I love it. But I'm also the one that probably smokes the most EC out of all of us. So, I love it. When is the Toro size and the EC coming out?

That's all slated for Q1. Next year? Yep. Most of them are in production.

We're actually even trying to get one for the Adapidaca, which would be nice. No doubt. Which is the BA, Intemperance BA. Yeah, the Intemperance BA.

What's crazy, do I get calls for that now? I don't have it. I don't have it. Listen, it's a great cigar.

If you can find it out in the wild, most of them probably have two and a half, three years of age on them. Smoking great. But I'm really excited. So, you know, for me, right, the Bellicoso is kind of like a Toro anyways, as far as the size, but there are some people that just like, they want a Toro.

No. No, this is not the same thing. But if you look at the sales for the 5x56, it's like, it's like, you know, gangbusters. Right.

So I really think that the Toros will do well. Okay. Yeah. So will it be, so Volstead, EC, BA, and then Whiskey Rebellion.

All the Toros that are coming out. They're coming out. Yep. Sampler pack, or are you just doing standard release?

No, we're going to do a Toro sampler. Yeah. And then I'll kind of drop first, I believe, and then we'll roll out the core line stuff. I like it.

Very cool. Yeah, so that'll be kind of, like I say, kind of hitting that Q1, kind of going into the trade show. All right. Yeah.

Very nice. Got some little... A couple little nuggets? Yeah, little drop-a-drops.

Moving along? Yeah. Do you have anything else that you want to add before we let you go and let you all try and finish the rest of the OU game? I believe that the BACA potentially is slated back into production.

Cameroon. Yeah, Cameroon. I think what's really kind of funny is that, you know, you were talking about the BA and people don't really grasp the concept as to why it didn't come back out and why it hasn't come back out in so long. Yeah.

And why didn't it happen? I think there's a couple of reasons that you can kind of, so during COVID, Brazil was hit pretty hard, and so the production for importation had kind of slowed down. And then the stuff that was coming in had all been cooked and we use a natural, and so you're sorting through, so let me back up, the intemperance portfolio for the most part is a sub $10 portfolio line. Right.

So that that seven fifty to ten dollar MSRP. Now, if you have taxes in your state that kind of throw it out of there, then that is what it is. Right. So whenever you go and you kind of start to look to buy the wrapper leaf and the wrapper leaf now is exponentially is exponentially more expensive, then it kind of throws it out of that ballpark of keeping it in that price point that you need.

So I think you're starting to see kind of, you know, as cigar sales kind of stabilize and they're not having that 21, 20, 2021, 22 kind of growth, manufacturers don't need as much and they're not kind of gobbling it up and they're not, you know, so I think you're going to kind of see it kind of, you know, prices will kind of come back down, normalize, stabilize, and then the availability will start to be a little bit. So the good quality stuff was extremely limited. Yes. And the price points were extremely high.

So, with that recipe, pretty much, man, you can't. You just made it difficult. Got it. And, you know, and then again, by the time, you know, people had gotten their hands on it, because it's, it's not a, you know, arapiraka that it's typically put in these, you know, spittoons where they darken it, right?

So it's, you know, but you need a natural, for us, we use a natural, right? So. Like a natural fermentation process. Yeah.

So it darkens it by itself. Think of it like a sous vide, right? So you just kind of, you know, you, you kind of put it in its own juices and you kind of let it cook. Right.

And then, um, so it kind of darkens and gets, you know, real sticky, right. And so that's, you know, to try to get them to do, you know, like stop that, don't do that, you know, and then either way, it's still expensive. You didn't have B, you weren't, um, doing BA before you had opened up pre-industry, correct? Correct.

So by the time that you acquire Brazilian Alaparaca this time, you'll be able to finish the fermentation process if you have to. Right, on here. Very cool. Yeah.

Good stuff. So, what else you got? I think that's it. Okay.

I'm letting you off the hook. So, what's up with that food? So what do we got going on with the food? Oh, we got an open smoker going on right now.

That's crazy, man. He has all kinds of stuff out there. Yeah, pretty unique. So, do you want to tell me about what kind of meats we got on the grill?

We got some chicken, we got some steak, we got some pork. Pineapple, Pineapple. I saw like three or four different sausages. Yeah, different sausages.

There's like three or four different sausages. They've been out there since eight o'clock this morning. Yeah. Cranking away.

It's like Edward's his hand made a grill. Well, here's what's important from a retailer's perspective, Michael. Give it to me. It's important to engage with your consumers and your customers on a different level, right?

And provide them with these special experiences. So here we are. You flew all the way in from Texas to greet some of your customers that come in, our loyal customers that love your product. Yeah, the guy said he ate, he smoked three eight.

He smoked three Neanderthals every evening. Yes. It's crazy. He's a great guy.

Love that guy. And we want to make sure that they get a good experience here, something new, something different, and that you get a good experience here as well. That's awesome, man. I appreciate that.

I think it's a good use of the lounge. Yeah. And we like to incorporate, you know, like once every quarter, we like to try and do something special and different. Because last time we here, we did like a bottle share, right?

Yeah. Yeah, we did a bottle share. Yeah. And then, so this is kind of a unique kind of spin, which is like blacktop tables and everything?

Yeah. Well, you know, same scenario. I think that the bottle share was probably our first one thing ever we did. Yeah.

Right. Hey, how do we make, utilize this space? Right. So we did that.

And then it was like, okay, let's review. Let's review. How do we make it better? And then Greg did a whole thing where he cooked, and that went really well.

It's like, okay. I mean, he almost died, but, you know, like, okay, now how do we level that up? And then Greg found these guys, and then we're like, okay, let's incorporate that. And we'll try and mix in different things as we keep going around here, but we like to do one every quarter or so, like a special event.

Yeah, that's cool. And you're a special guy. I appreciate it. So here you are.

You too. And then we have pineapple, smoking pineapple. And salmon. As long as the pineapple's not upside down, we're good, right?

Yeah. I'm trying to think how they had it hung. I think they had it hung upside down. It was sideways.

It's actually sideways. Sideways? They're not undecided. Yeah.

See, Palmer knows. He's a swinger. Not a swinger. I do have a question, though, for Mr.

Rosales. Go ahead. Are you guys watching the strike at all? There's a pending Longshoremen strike from Texas all the way up to Maine?

No, I don't watch the news. Oh, because then if you have stuff coming in third, what, fourth quarter this year, it might not get in. Uh, well, you know what's, so, most of our stuff comes into Miami. Well, that's included, so, you said Texas to Maine.

Texas to Maine, so that's all around that coast. Oh, okay. I thought you meant like a beeline. Oh, no, no, no.

All the, all the docks and ports around the, from Maine all the way around. So, who is striking? The longshoremen. They might, they have till October 1st is the deciding if they don't have an agreement, they're going to strike.

Oh, okay. - And then all those 35 ports get shut down. - Interesting. - Don't worry.

- So that means we have to go west coast in? - Right, which is always busy anyway. - That's true. - So east coast, so Florida would be a problem too?

- Yes. - Interesting. - I've already discussed this with Greg. - Interesting.

- These are the boats or these are the flights? - These are the men that unload the ships. - Okay, well we do air flights. - Oh, well you might be okay then.

- We'll be alright. - We bring it via the plane. You know, the plane is no problem. - So you guys don't go to the airport, you don't even come in through the ports.

Listen, if I got to find everybody else that's kind of walking up and have them strap some bags, I got it here, I ain't worried about it. Yeah, we can have a team of people here. Lightweight Heavy needs four backpacks. Oh, dang.

Why you got to use? He's very strong. He's very strong. Yeah.

But I think that, you know, hopefully as long as the air flights are not disruptive, we'll be okay. All right. I forgot you guys come in there, you don't come in by boat. That's right.

Every two weeks, the shipments, they don't have to be as big. Right. Well, I'm looking forward to this event. It's going to be great.

Thanks for having me on. And let's go do this. Thanks again for coming out. Thanks for the podcast.

Okay, and we'll talk about that trade on the... Yes, fantasy football trade. A lot going on. All right, let's go.

Bye.

Show Notes

We sit down for a brief in studio. interview with Mike Rosales of Roma Craft Tobac