Ecuador Habano Crop Hit hard by El Niño | CHPOD 655

Transcript

Hi, we're rolling, we're rolling, we're rolling baby, go on, go on, three, two, one, show me the baby, welcome to a Cigar Hustler podcast on today's show, that's not peanut butter on my chocolate, uh oh, Happy Birthday, Vito, If Being Attacked By One Bear Wasn't Bad Enough, Then In Cigars, El Nino, It Takes Its Toll, Chen Gets Some of It Back, and Chai Mali Makes A New Cigar, Then a What's The Score Wrap Up. Come on in late. I'm your host, Mike BDP Palmer, and joining me today is my co-host, Shia Goldberg, here. He's cut off, too.

I gotta fix his head. Oh, that's much better. Get comfortable. Get comfortable.

Put your feet up, whatever you want to do. I'm a lot shorter. Good for the body image, this posture. You got to move the microphone closer, though.

What? Yeah, you can take over. Do what you got to do. Did you clock in?

Let's go late. Okay. Come over here. Get your mask on.

I don't know who's over in engineering. Right now, it's me. It's on the fly. Right now, it's me.

Things are rolling. Our production team was late today. Oh, it's after 12. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't really care. We don't care.

Yeah. Craig is not part of this show. Yep. Uh, so we'll go with the only man who's safe- Are you going right to the show?

I haven't got, we're about to do the, what's in the lounge. Okay. I haven't done that yet. Okay.

But Tim McGuffey, the only man who's safe with giant attacks, Mr. Tim McGuffey. Light went up, settle in, and welcome to a Cigar Hustler podcast. Dun, dun, dun.

Dun, dun. But first, uh, I don't know, somebody, tell me what's going on in the lounge. Tell me what's going on in the lounge. Ooh, I'll tell you before I disappear into the night today.

First of all, that's perfect. Like and subscribe wherever you want to listen to this show. com for all your chpod swag. com, us, Cigar Housers Podcast.

I think by the time this one airs, the fundraiser for the kids will be officially closed. They did meet their goal. Yay! Yeah, I hit the button for Uncle Skip.

I called Uncle Skip, and Uncle Skip delivered to close it out. He said that he only wanted to contribute towards Teddy's, but he did contribute towards all of them. She just up her total three times and then divided out. Yeah, so some comments from the lounge from that, let me see, good luck, good luck, Norm, good luck, Corey Davis, Francoletto, Tyler Jeffrey, donated, love y'all.

John Lovell said, "Woohoo, I made it, I'm in the lounge. He is not the guy. He's not the guy, he is the king. Appreciate you, brother.

Let me see if there's comments from the actual booster. I want to make sure that I say thank you to everybody, because honestly, guys, it's a big deal. I really appreciate that. You know that the best thing that you can do for me is take care of my kids, man, and you guys all stepped up.

So thank you. What are you doing behind him, Tim? He's touching himself. Travis Peterson, Norm Joseph, Anonymous, Charles Goff, I covered, I think everybody, there's a, you know, Skip slid in at the end, there are a couple from yesterday, David Hoffman, Julian Gordon, Stephen Wells, Mark Palmer, and a few Anonymous's, so if I missed you, I apologize, it's not my intention, I'm grateful for all you guys' support, and then some comments from The Lounge.

At CW6383 says, Siggy Hatfield in the house today, yeehaw, and he was on time. He was, he's always early. You know? Oh, there's only two comments.

And Dalton Wulstonholm says, do you have a Powstanie sampler? Try looking up one and couldn't find one. I haven't had one of your cigars yet, but I know they're, they're great as long as you can see. As the draw is fine on the Sumatra.

It's going to be questionable. We've talked about doing a Powstanie sampler many times and never, it never happens. Yeah, so what we did do is we did create a sampler, but it has the original Warbear in it from 10 years ago. So it's officially up, we can do one that's not that and has like a, you know, a little sampler.

We should definitely do that. Just reach out to the concierge guy. Yeah. Yeah, what you should do is just sign up, become a customer like account and you can text and directly communicate and Steve will take care of he'll build you anything you want.

Now, also, you can't really see this here. I'm going to come over to this one. Put here. To me?

Hello. Hi. Still can't see. You want me to move?

The quarter zip. No, you stand there. Quarter zip. The quarter zip is here.

The order zip is there. This is the demo. This came a little bit low. It's going to be a little bit higher.

But it says pressure is a privilege on it. And what we're going to do is we're going to set pre-orders on it before I order a bunch of shirts that I have no need for. The pre-order will be live as soon as this show comes up. It's very nice.

Get behind me. Yeah, you're about to take over in a second. But that's all I got for today. We're a little short on time, so you better stretch this out, Tim.

We better stretch this out, Tim. We're counting on you. And Shia, you better deliver, all right? I'm sure Palmer has questions.

We want to know what you're up to now that you are in the game, out of the game. We don't know. So. Both at the same time.

And long-winded has never been a problem, so I got you. Perfect. All right. All right.

Well, then, hey, let's get on with the show. Go ahead, Palmer. So abrupt. B.

Reese. What are you- Oh, fixing the camera. Time watch yourself. Accused Hershey of replacing milk chocolate and peanut butter with a compound coating called peanut butter style cream.

Ooh. They're changing the original candy. What are you doing? Swatching the video.

In some of the products, Reese said that the unwrapped chocolate peanut butter cream many hearts tasted different. So, what he's done, Shia, is they've tried to cheapen the product and still charge the same price. Oh, imagine that. Now it's not chocolate and peanut butter, it's chocolate and peanut butter cream.

Oh, that never happens. No, that never happens, never happens. But the creator's grandson called them out. Hmm.

The... The... The original, yes. So, Hersey, what, the third?

Who called him out? What's the name? All right, hold on. B.

Reese. Wow. I love that their last name is actually Reese. It makes sense.

I've never thought about it. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are named after their family. Yeah, I've never thought about that. Wow.

It's interesting that you went right to Hershey being the family name, but not Reese's. Yeah, I don't know why. Yeah. I thought it was like, I thought it was owned by, I thought Hershey owned them and like Snickers, Three Musketeers, that sort of thing.

No, no, there's a, there's a Peter Snicker, who owns that candy bar. Yeah, there's a Peter Snicker. And then there's a Paul Milky Way. Yeah.

And then there's a Maury Musketeer. Right. Maury Musketeer, right. exactly that's the way i think works the skittle guy you know what his first name is yeah what is sam skittle sam is it samuel skittle gonna be rainbow rainbow skittle unlock the rainbow that's his middle name samuel rainbow skittle uh now i gotta fast forward back to the place the familiar orange wrapper doesn't mean every product has the same recipe some offerings say peanut butter cream so they have no label it you know i also heard that for halloween they had to They put on the package that it's not a jack-o'-lantern because there's a jack-o'-lantern image on the packaging.

Truth in advertising still exists? Well, people are suing because, you know, they opened it up and it's not... They wanted a jack-o'-lantern. They wanted a jack-o'-lantern.

Not just a pumpkin shape, wasn't enough? They should have just shipped mush pumpkin. Solved the problem. They just crushed them all.

Yeah. While classic cups are labeled milk chocolate and peanut butter, the new ones they have changed the wording on the package to say peanut butter cream. Peanut buttercream. Company maintains that classic cups are still freshly roasted peanuts and milk chocolate while acknowledging recipe adjustments and other shapes have happened.

Oh, seriously, you're gonna change? Look, man, I already look pale. I need to adjust it. You've gotten so pretentious here very quickly, just so you know.

I adjusted the light, I know, it's very intense. So in 2027, when it comes around Valentine's Day, you will be able to get the peanut cream Valentine's. Hmm. Will there be an actual Valentine in the packaging?

Well, they're heart-shaped. Oh. So that's already been a thing. But it still said peanut butter and chocolate.

It's not peanut butter. I'm going to sue if it's not a real heart. Oh. How about that?

That's going to be a thing. Okay. Moving on. California man celebrated his 97th birthday with cake, music, and dancing.

How old do you think he was? 97? Oh, did I say his name? Yeah, you did.

Oh, I gave that away. We're all in wait. 97? Thank you for everybody's awake.

Alright, Vito, in true Vito fashion, he wanted to celebrate by throwing a Halloween birthday rager. So, on November 2nd, he got all his friends together, and they had a big party, they were singing, they were dancing. Vito shared his secret to living a long life with his friends. " That sounds like a good dude.

During the celebration, Vito can be seen dancing with his friends, including to the BG's 1977 hit, Staying Alive. But, while his friends all sang Happy Birthday, Vito had a massive heart attack, and he died at the party. Oh, oh God. Dude, talk about the best way to go.

That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Go in and out on the same day? Absolutely.

And the celebration of life is happening? Right. They're singing happy birthday to you, he grabs his heart and his head went down on the cake. Might as well have a funeral at the same time, I mean, they could make it awake.

Yeah. Like, oh, there he goes. Yeah. Let's save some money.

Prop him up, wipe the cake off his face. Wow. I mean, that's a good way to go, though. I mean, 97 years old, partying with your friends, listening to the Bee Gees, staying alive.

Not really, though. Yeah. The photo is him dancing to staying alive with a young, attractive woman. Mike's back.

Mike's back. He's coming back. Thanks for the record, Greg said the only reason why you were up there was you were talking about mold in your house, so you didn't address anything with you about work. No, no, no, I just said we talked.

It wasn't about work, I just said we talked. You just missed it, Vito died. What's that? Vito has turned 97.

Oh, happy birthday. Well, he died at the birthday party. No, he's dead now. All right.

Oh, see, now this story doesn't work because he's not here. Last year, we did a story about a Canadian who got attacked by a bear. They were on a field trip, school, kids, and a chaperone. Chaperone and a couple of kids got attacked by a bear.

They never caught the bear. And now, a mother and a daughter were found dead in British Columbia. They were in the same area as the field trip. Was this where they filmed cocaine bear?

You would think maybe, right? Jenny Bachelorette and her 20-year-old daughter, Sila Reed, they disappeared near Bella Coola during a walk. Bella Coola is an area in Canada. The search unfolded over several days.

Relatives reported the missing Sunday. November 1st, searchers found the mother's remains. They found pieces. Monday, and then on Tuesday, they found pieces of the daughter.

More than one grizzly bear may have been involved because it was multiple tracks found. It was a club of bears. I don't know. What's a group of bears called?

Anybody? Anybody? I don't know. Mother and...

Could you look that up over there, late boy? Yeah. Is it Bear Scouts? The Bear Scouts.

Oh, it could be. Cub Scouts? Conservation officers are investigating the possibility but have not confirmed exactly how many bears participated in the attack. Participate is like they organized.

Yeah, right? Participating like it's a club meetup, like, hey guys, hey, there's a couple of people out here, we miss those kids and that guy, here's our chance. A group of bears is called a sloth or a sleuth. A sloth of bears.

Or a sleuth of bears. I like sloth. Yeah. m.

and avoid going outside alone. So apparently it's only at night. Do bears attack at night, Tim? I feel like they talk all the time.

You would think. Yeah, I don't think they were nocturnal. I thought they were awake during the day. Well, they hibernate.

Yeah, that's seasonal. Yeah, that's a seasonal thing. So maybe they were bulking up. There you go.

I think that's the benefit of the apex predator is you get to hunt whenever you want. That's true. Oh, that's what makes you an apex predator? I guess.

A bear's an apex predator? I am not an apex predator, so I'm only speaking from the outside. Oh. What was this from, this report?

Is this recent? Yeah, yeah. It was November 2nd. Yeah.

I mean, so they're like getting ready. They're trying to bulk up right now and get some sleep after that. So. Oh, that's a great point.

Yeah. Hibernation prep. Uh huh. You think this would be the time you would not go wandering around the woods?

Well, you know. In Canada, in the area where they tried to eat the children. That's true. Hmm.

Courage. Hmm. Stupidity. Right.

One or the other. Yeah. Maybe that's what they call it in Canada. Hey, it's stupidity and courage.

Uh, the The search party did have mounties in it, that's nice, because you don't hear much about them anymore. Mounties? Canadian Mounties? What's that?

The guys with the puffy pants, the red jacket, and the big hat? Puffy pants. Oh, oh yeah. Canadian Mounties?

I thought they were called just like Canadian Rangers or something. No, Mounties. Mounties. Because they have horses.

What does it have to do with a mountain? Mount the horse to ride the horse. Oh, Mounties, okay, that makes sense. My lord.

Who didn't red light now? The area suffered another serious attack last year. Sierra Grizzly attacked a school group near Bella Coola in November 2025. Oh, a year ago, exactly.

Same day? Same month. Wow. Geez.

Wow, I would stay out of the woods in November of this area. Yeah, I think your hypothesis about hibernation prep seems to be more and more true. Right. " Well, they didn't eat the children, they just hurt them.

Oh. They tried. They ate the lady and her daughter. Maybe the kids were too fresh.

This one hasn't seen despair in life yet. Yeah, a little age on their food, possibly. A little age, yeah. All right, it softens up the stuff.

This is a story from ABC News. You would ask that? No, I didn't ask. I thought you asked where the story came from.

Well, I just asked when it was from, if it was recent. Oh. Because the bulking. The bulking.

Yeah. The bulking season. All right, how much time? Oh, 15 whole minutes.

Wow, we're just whizzing through. So shy, what are you up to? So, Shay, what are you up to? How you been?

Mostly hanging out here, smoking cigars. It's been a pretty fantastic last month or so, kind of reconnecting with the things in my life that were put on back burner for business needs. Yeah. So, puppy in the household, puppy turns a year, got to spend a lot of time getting him right, training, bonding.

Good deal. Supporting the house, yard work, projects, and you know me, I'm always working on something in cigars. for the rest of my life. Right.

You only killed not even a minute. It's a good 45 seconds. I mean... I said not even a minute.

That would be 45 seconds. Yeah. You know what, Tim? I'm really tired of your lip today.

All right, let's talk about a little bit of Cigar News. Maybe we'll have something there to talk about or we'll have a 30-minute show. Yeah. All right, ASP says Super El Nino has destroyed more than half of its 2026 Ecuador crop.

And Ecuador? I thought El Nino was on the Western Hemisphere. Apparently not. Mm.

Ecuadorian Habano crop. Yeah, I... You understood that part? Yeah, yeah.

All right. A major tobacco grower in Ecuador says extensive rain from this year's Super El Nino. Habano. Is that like...

What is that? It's like what's on our Habano cigar. It's a wrapper. A cigar?

What's... What are we talking about? What? Yeah.

Ecuadorian Habano tobacco. Ecuadorian Habano. I'm lost. It's a seed varietal.

A seed? What's a seed? He's just being difficult. No, I'm just being difficult, yeah.

The devastated crop in the cigar industry will feel the impact ASP Enterprises. Have you heard of ASP Enterprises? Oh, for sure. Have you?

The largest tobacco... It's a brokerage? Yes. A brokerage house?

Yeah, the way I understand it, they control about 80 to 90 percent of Ecuadorian production. Wow. A little closer to the microphone. Yes, sir.

How's the sound on his microphone? He sounds fine. All right, you're okay. I'll chew on it, no problem.

All right, good. But, say that again, I'm sorry. Them and Oliva Tobacco, they control a significant part of cultivation and distribution of leaf. Do you know if ASP has its own farms or do they just rep farms?

Many of farms. They have their own farms. Many, yes. And brokerage of other people's farms, as I understand it.

They've told customers to expect just 25 to 35% of the Ecuadorian tobacco they ordered. Oh, that's bad. That is bad. Company president David Perez, do you know Mr.

Perez? By name and reputation. Is he a nice man? By name and reputation.

Says 40% of the crop remains in the fields with more loss likely unless conditions improve. So when they say he's still in the fields means they couldn't harvest it, it was unusual. Right, yeah. Or, you know, it's going to have a tremendous amount of holes in the middle of the leaves.

All right, that matters because Ecuador supplies wrappers for many premium cigars, including Connecticut, Habano, and Sumatra Varieties. Oh, good. Three of our... Mm-hmm.

Yeah, the big three. We're down to... Maduro? San Andres, that we're out of at the moment.

Damn. A third of the new cigars introduced at this year's PCA trade show listed Ecuadorian Rappers. The damage has already forced ASP to send field workers home early. Traditionally, everybody shuts down in December, is that correct?

Yep. Yeah, yep. So they didn't lay them off completely, they just sent them home in November. Yeah, extra month.

Yeah, but that means they have no work. That kind of sucks. Factories will face reduced supplies next year, but smokers likely won't see the effects for several years because tobacco needs processing and aging. With many factories already holding smaller wrapper inventories, a shortage could hit especially hard.

Yeah, I think this is going to be a long-term troubling thing for us. Like the broadleaf. Like the broadleaf. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, Ecuador will recover, because in Connecticut River Valley you have a different problem, which is land redevelopment and venture capital and all the rest of that, the value. Oh, good. But they'll get to regrow Ecuador.

It's just, like you said, so much of our industry is based on that product. Well, I mean, everybody has switched over. And now this has been. It's as if nobody wants us to have cigars.

I feel like when something like this happens, you always see a surge of a specific country, you know, You know, for like two years, they're like, oh, they're all Nicaraguan cigars are coming out right now for some reason or all Honduran cigars, you know, so I feel like this is going to be one of those things where in a couple of years, we're going to see a surge of Honduran, Dominican, you know, Nicaraguan, which we kind of already have, but a lot less Ecuadorian, Connecticut, and Habano. You are super blurry, by the way. There we go. That didn't help any.

It moved. Well, the problem is even the cigars from most countries still have to have a wrapper, and we're running out of wrapper options. Yeah, yeah. And that's like kind of the biggest player in a blend, I feel like.

What do you think? Man, so many things. Please, talk. With the restriction specifically on shade tobacco, right?

The fact that almost no Connecticut shade tobacco is even being grown. Right. I also think it's completely probably coincidental, maybe not, but recently in the last six months to a year I've heard about people growing shade tobacco in Nicaragua, so fortunately, hopefully that will offset some of it, but I mean, you know more than me with the brand, Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade is like the Connecticut Shade. Right.

S. still is Connecticut Shade. I believe it. Yeah, I believe that's correct.

So yeah, this is going to be, unfortunately, probably another consumer price hit, manufacturing price hit, but like they said, we have a couple years to figure out some alternative strategies, so it'll be interesting to see how we pivot around this. So when you say shade, that means they're covering, they put something over the top of the tobacco to cut down the sun? Well, yeah, so in Connecticut River Valley, yes, cheesecloth, but one of the major advantages for Ecuador when they started cultivating, I mean, the reason for cultivating shade tobacco is it's grown in a region that sees like, don't quote me on this, 300 days of rain cloud cover. So that shade comes naturally.

Right. So not only is the land less expensive and the labor less expensive, but you're not running poles and cheesecloth every year. Hmm. Oh, interesting.

See, I actually have something. I was going to say, I was wondering why Nicaragua hasn't really got in on that. But I mean, I guess that makes sense. And also, like, if they kind of dominate a lot of the other things, a lot of the other tobaccos, A lot of the other tobacco's grown in Nicaragua, you know, why really go out of the way to compete with Ecuador or with their Connecticut Jade or anything like that?

Now they really need to, but... Yeah, yeah, and I think to your earlier point, hopefully, we'll see some uptick in cultivation in other places, and I mean, the Cameroon situation aside, Indonesian, Sumatra will probably make a little bit of a surge based on this. S. grown rapper maybe has a chance to kind of fill the gap, so there are some positives in this, hopefully.

Hopefully. OG Connecticut. OG Connecticut? Yeah, it's like original Connecticut, you know?

Oh, gotcha. Growing in Connecticut. Alright, there's another twist in the battle over ownership of the Cuban cigar business. Have you been following this story?

Yes. Oh, he's smiling. Thank goodness. 55% stake in the Habanos SA.

We covered our story yesterday, we Where 55th Avenue is dissolving the company because of the ownership issue, and then they're going to start up a new one where he doesn't really own it. So the judge is allowing him to take back his ownership. That's about to not exist anyway. Correct.

Yeah, this story came out now a day after the other one. Interesting. So maybe these guys are trying to do it so that they can keep his stake, or he can keep his stake, he can keep his portion. By giving ownership to somebody else.

Yeah, quiet patsy, or not patsy, quiet ghost investment. Right. Except you reported it, so that's weird. These companies have been placed under court-appointed liquidators earlier this year, with a potential sale of his cigar interest on the table.

But the judge found that the government hadn't presented sufficient admissible evidence to justify winding up the companies. This ruling does not clear Chen of criminal allegations, which he denies or removes the sanctions against him, and that's the complications for the cigar industry, restoring control doesn't automatically fix the banking and distribution problems. Well, it doesn't seem like they would have solved any problems anyway. Right.

Yeah, it's just a problem and a series of problems. Also, the way I understood it, a lot of the judicial weight was coming from Scandinavian countries in the EU. So, it's odd that it was ruled on in the Virgin Islands, and you would also think at this point in time that all of the Virgin Islands would want to be distancing themselves from trafficking. You would think maybe it's the Virgin Islands and maybe that's where the banking is or something.

Probably. Because that's a good place to put... Offshore accounts? Yes.

The handover still requires further court action with another hearing provisionally scheduled for December. For Cuban cigars, distributors, and retailers, the uncertainty continues, so nothing's changed. That sounds right, shell game. All right, 25.

We're still not even at 30 minutes. It's a bummer, anything new? Well, we have another story. Okay.

Chai Mali, did you guys carry that over there? I don't. The new Chinese cigar? No.

No. Chai Mali? Chai Mali. Huh.

We don't carry it here either. Chai Mali Argosy, A-R-G-O-S-Y, how would you say that? A-R-G-O-S-Y. Argosy, I think you said it.

Argosy. It's debuting next week on Saturday, November 14th. Chai Mali Cigars will show off its fourth line. The Chai Mali Argosy is a new two-size regular production line that uses a Mexican San Andreas wrapper over a blend of tobaccos from Nicaragua and Peru.

It will debut at the event held at the V-Cut Lounge in Burbank, California. Are you familiar with the V-Cut Lounge? Also no. Palmer, are you familiar with Burbank?

Burbank? Yeah, that's where "The Tonight Show" is. Oh, really? I believe.

I thought that's where the banks that go burr are. That's also the name for a group of bears. Yeah, Burbank. Burr.

It's a bank of burrs. No, it's a sloth of bears named Burr. Really trying to stretch for time here. Yep.

How about Cigars Unbanded? We all know who they are. They have a podcast. Uh-huh.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, they're held in partnership with Cigars Unbanded, a YouTube cigar review channel that probably has longer shows than we do. Chai Molly says that the event will be focused on a pairing of new Argosi with tea. They're pairing with tea.

Yeah. You ever paired a cigar with tea? Absolutely. Have you really?

Yes. So I had to in my previous existence when I was doing a lot of the marketing and education around the Winston Churchill line at Davidoff. The tea was part of my R&D for understanding Winston Churchill and the Brits in general, I guess. Yeah.

Was it a good pairing? It is, yes. Really? If you like coffee and cigars, obviously they're completely different, but that same setting for me, like early morning cigar, a cup of tea generally is a little more delicate, so I usually pair it with significantly more delicate cigars, but I find it pleasant.

And they take their tea with like a splash of cream and sugar, right? Is that how Brits usually take it? Yes, I think, yes. Tea and sugar, or honey and cream and sugar, or cream and honey.

Gotcha. Or just honey. All right, as with the company's other lines, it's made at the Mi Havana factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. Jai Mali says it hopes to have Argosy on shelves by the end of the month.

I have seen that brand out a lot lately when I'm out visiting other shops. So it must be doing well. Well enough to put out a fourth line. I don't know.

I don't think I've seen it. Alright, we're almost over. I'll look up Chimali. You'll look up Chimali?

Yeah, is that C-H-I-Mali? C-H-I-M-O-L-L-Y. It's pronounced differently, I'm sure. There's probably some type of Chinese pronunciation.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen this before. Well, they have some pretty cool bands, I'll say that. We've had samples here, but Greg didn't want to carry it for one reason or another. All right, it's time for the industry's favorite game, what's the score in unison?

Oh, got it. Okay, all right, let's go to it again. All right, from the top there, Tim. Yep, yep.

All right, it's time for the industry's favorite game, what's the score? It's time for what's the score. We take a cigar review from Half Wheel, give you the cigar, the blend, two positive clues, one negative clue, followed by a final thought. Your job is to guess the score.

Have you ever played the game? Are you familiar with the game? I've witnessed and watched the game. I've yet to play the game.

I've played from home. Oh, you play the home game? Yeah. Oh, you have the home version.

Yeah. It's nice. All right. Today's cigar is the Perez Carrillo Pledge of Allegiance Rocket 2026 Red.

It's a Dominican-made 6 3/8 by 58 Perfecto, priced at $50. Oh, it didn't say who reviewed it, did it? No. Patrick.

Patrick. We'll go with Patrick. There you go. I think it was Patrick anyway.

All right, as a... Is it a bigger advantage for the person to go first or second? I want to get... It depends on how you play.

Yeah. The way Mikey plays, it's his advantage to go second. Yeah. Because he doesn't play to get the right score, he plays to beat you, whoever else he's playing against.

Didn't I beat him the other day? no. I'm pretty sure I did. Did you?

Yes. I don't remember. He did not beat the dice yesterday. Oh my God, two times in a row.

Ziggy Zani has these magic dice that do the bidding for him. Amazing. First game, the dice beat Michael. And the second one?

No, the second one was yesterday, he didn't beat that one. Oh, okay. So now we're moving, I believe he said, to chicken bones? Some type of voodoo ritual?

Some type of voodoo ritual? Yeah. Ziggy scares me a little sometimes. I gotta figure out a way to compete with that, I mean, that's ingenious.

His hat game alone is beating you. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, what am I gonna, how am I gonna, what am I, you know? You can wear a hat?

Yeah, I thought about it today, but then I was like, this is just too much. Stop wearing your pajamas? This is a shirt. It's your pajama shirt.

This is a strawberry festival. Maybe, maybe, yeah, but he wears a shirt and tie. Listen, man, okay, I came here one time, showed up to, not to work, in a, in a, in a very nice suit and tie. Greg said to me, "You should dress like this every day," and I said, "Really?

" He's like, "Well, no, not to here. " And I never wore it ever since here. Do you work today, or just here? I don't think I work today.

You could have worn it today, then. All right, anyway, go ahead with your first guess. Oh, right out of the gate with no information, we're starting. No, no, there's several guesses as we go through the information.

Well, you know what the cigar is, and the shape of the cigar, and how much it is. 88. Ooh, he went with the 88. The old tried and true, man.

He's seen it done, he plays it. Well, this is the Picurillo, 89. S. S.

Pennsylvania 41 Broadleaf, I don't know what that means. S. Connecticut and Pennsylvanian. All right, another guess.

S. to that. Yeah. Well, it's the American.

He paid Cuddyo. Plenty of people made an American that weren't entirely. I'm going to push it up to one, 89. 89.

Tim? 89 also. You said 89 also? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We had a chance at the last round, but. All right. Clue number one. The way you just said, all right.

You're like, all right. Yeah, whatever. All right. The reviewer praised the draw, smoke, output, ash, and burn throughout all three samples.

The large perfecto performed consistently, letting the reviewer concentrate on the smoke without construction problems, interrupting the experience. Am I first still? You're always first. 91.

Timothy? 90. Well, he didn't say 91. Clue number two.

Earth and pepper provide substantial flavor with occasional coffee and citrus sweetness, adding variety. A temporary softening of the smoke's texture brings another dimension to an otherwise assertive broadleaf profile. Holding fast at 91. 89.

Clue number three, the intensity occasionally becomes overwhelming, particularly in one sample. Sweetness and nuance struggle for attention, brief chalky notes intrude, and the closing stretch becomes aggressive and drying. Oh, my 91 is in trouble. 90.

69. You went from... Correct. Okay.

It's me finding my footy. I'm just making sure I understood. Yeah, 69. All right, final thought.

The construction impresses, but the blend favors force over finesse. Dedicated, broadly, fans may enjoy it. Smokers seeking, subtly, might struggle. All right, gentlemen, what is the final score?

This is it. This is the last one. 86. Oh.

Timothy? Man, that's a good number, man. 87. And he said 86?

Yes. You went the wrong way. Dang. 84!

Woo! Like, even the con, where's the, oh, he doesn't have the remote on. Oh, it's on the outside. What am I doing?

Okay, grab the remote. Uh-huh. All right. Turn it on.

All right, no, no, now hit. Does it need a prep, or does it just? No, where's the prep? Oh.

I don't know what the button is. Start? Maybe. We'll find out together.

Let's start. Watch your face and head. All right, hit whatever else. CLE.

Point back there. There you go. It's supposed to spark. Yeah, I think.

Oh, no, you went clean. Oh, no. So many things are happening, people. Well, hold on.

We're going to spend 15 minutes now trying to figure out how we're on this thing. Failed my victory lap. That's for sure. Start, stop, CLE.

Okay, wait. It's on. Uh-huh. Why is it working?

Oh, I'm glad it's not just me. This is great. Well, okay, I think when you turn it on, it's, it warm, it's supposed to warm it up for like, three minutes. Oh, so, yeah, so it's not hot yet.

Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna find three minutes to talk about something and then we'll do it again. I'm gonna sit here and just, yeah. You know, I actually didn't think it was that, like, for the cons, compared to a lot of the other stuff that I've gotten, like, 89, 90. Oh, the cigar.

Cons weren't that bad, yeah. No, no, no, for the, for the cigar, you know? I mean, 'cause that's pretty low for what I thought it was gonna be. Did you.

What are you smoking over there, Shay? Oh, well, I'm glad you asked me. I've been enjoying this entire time and trying to pay attention to the Test Blend for your newest BDP release. I'll just keep rudely interrupting, I'm sorry.

What? If we just keep rudely interrupting you. Rudely interrupting you. Yeah, how dare you try and work?

What do you think, as long as it's good? Oh, it's been remarkably enjoyable. Worked really well in the background while I was trying to listen and participate and kept my attention. The burn construction is exactly what I would have expected, having known where it was made.

But the taste profile is nice, consistent, but interesting. Thank you. Really well done, sir. Thank you.

And this is the first time I had to put thoughts to it. And so that was all organic. And that 20 bucks you gave me beforehand is going to pay off beautifully. I know, I can give what my money's worth at least.

The thing's ready, by the way, I think. No, I just tried to hit it. You didn't see me... You tried again?

oh wait wait wait i saw something oh there's one i'll take it i saw it it was there we go we got another maybe it's not quite hot enough yet here i'll relate my cigar with this yeah yeah and one more come on there we go boom how do you turn the damn thing that's fairly symbolic of my performance in general underwhelming well the entire show is underwhelming wow he really makes a big What's the difference when he's not here, doesn't it, Tim? Well, you know, he usually talks about, like, 15 minutes about the lounge and stuff. Oh, we didn't do the comments. He did them, no?

Oh, he did them before he left. He kicked it up. There was only two, though, in the lounge when we started. Yeah, and then he starts talking about the website, bada bing, bada boom, you know how it is.

Shield for some donations. Yeah. Right. All right, guys, thank you very much.

We can extend it a little bit. You got something to talk about? What do you got to talk about? I got the mold problem going on in my house.

That's a personal thing. We don't want to talk about it. Come on, it's fun. The house is falling apart.

I need a second table. How's this table coming? This table? Wait, what?

I need another one. You need another table? I need a desk. Oh, the other table has two coats of finish on it, and the third and final coat, and then the wax, and then, yeah.

It should be ready by this weekend, Monday. Oh, really? We'll have it for next week? Mm-hmm.

All right, kids, then I need a desk. For where? Upstairs. Okay.

Isn't that fun? Thank you so much for what you did. Now get back to work. Right, but you can use the metal legs that are over there.

Great. Because it has to match that setup upstairs. Yeah, I would love to use a different wood, because that wood sucked. I bet you would.

Okay. You can use whatever wood you want, I don't care. Great. Well, upstairs, it's just plywood, isn't it?

Yeah, plywood's a little gauche. Maybe you can just, can you just cut, okay, we gotta look at some. All right, guys, we're gonna go, this is ridiculous. Thank you very much, hope you enjoyed your edumatainment.

Hopefully, Mike, you'll be back tomorrow. I don't, I don't know what's going on. I shouldn't have even showed up, I'm sorry. Right, you shouldn't have showed up, it would have been such a better show.

show wow all right guys everyone uh shy you want to plug anything anywhere you're gonna be um you want to plug the dog park people come see you absolutely your dog gemini springs almost every morning please don't come i enjoy my solitude tim you have anything i've been to gemini springs i've seen you no yeah but you don't wear the mask so he has no idea who you are exactly all right yeah i did one thing before we go sure you're going to barn smoker this weekend no we don't get invited that they don't like us i kind of why i asked plus it's over at the guy's Oh, right. Yeah. We're not going. Perfect way to end the show.

Well done, Shia. Well done. All right, guys. Thanks.

Bye. Bloop.

Show Notes

A Super El Niño wipes out over half of Ecuador's 2026 wrapper crop, plus a 97-year-old's fatal birthday party and a grizzly attack.Ecuador Wrapper Shortage · El Niño · Chimali Argosy · What's the Score · Chen Zhi HabanosThe crew opens with lounge updates on the kids' fundraiser reaching its goal, comments about a Powstanie sampler and a Pressure's a Privilege quarter zip pre-order, then covers off-topic news on Reese's peanut butter cream, a 97-year-old's fatal birthday party and a deadly bear attack in British Columbia. Cigar news covers Super El Niño destroying much of Ecuador's Habano crop, a British Virgin Islands ruling in the Chen Zhi Habanos S.A. stake case, and Chimali's new Argosy line debuting at the V Cut Lounge. They then play What's the Score with the Perez Carrillo Pledge of Allegiance Rocket 2026 Red, and wrap up with a stalled cigar-lighting gadget and Shia's remarks on a BDP test blend.