Episode 105 The Best Reviewer is..... Another Johnny Come Lately! Big Event at Hustler!

Episode Summary

Episode 105 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast turns the tables on the cigar media: after weeks of compiling roughly 15 different "top 10/15/25 cigars of the year" lists (the last one being Cigar Dojo's), Mike Palmer and Mike Toon rank the reviewers themselves. Their four favorites, counting down, are Blind Man's Puff, iRobusto, Developing Palates, and — at number one — Tuesday Night Cigar Club, whose three-way top spot went to RoMa Craft's Neanderthal OM Lancero, Genetic Deformity and the new LH. Along the way they point out the cigars that kept showing up across multiple lists: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust's Muestra de Saka Nacatamale-era hits like the Sobremesa Brulee and the Mi Querida Triqui Traca, HVC 500 Anniversary, the Powstanie War Bear, RoMa Craft Baka, Southern Draw's Kudzu and Rose of Sharon, Crowned Heads Le Careme, Herrera Esteli, and Menelik. They also admit to two blind spots they now want to smoke: the Tyrannical Buck (a cigar with the dinosaur band) and everything from ACE Prime.

The hosts get candid about review bias — every list reflects personal taste, friendships and relationships, and they say there's no single "right" way to review a cigar. Mixed in are their usual tangents: a Zika-joke health scare, a phone call to Mike's wife Adrienne to settle whether she's a bandwagon Kansas City Chiefs fan, and thoughts on Conor McGregor's 40-second win.

Industry news covers Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini's memorial bill urging support for the federal premium cigar exemption bills (S.9 from Marco Rubio and H.R. 1854 from Kathy Castor, the latter excluding flavored cigars), plus the FDA's clarification that while Tobacco 21 is law, it is only enforcing an 18-year-old minimum during a transition period — and why retailers should just implement 21 now. They also cover Southern Draw Cigars' announcement, via Sharon Holt, that the brand will not raise prices for 2020. The show closes with listener of the week Nick Ruggiero, shop visitors including Matt Hunt of FQ Cigars, TPE 2020 travel plans, and a Friday event at Cigar Hustler with rep Peter Hernandez featuring Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, HVC and Aladino.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Reviewing the Reviewers
   The hosts compile roughly 15 cigar publications' end-of-year top lists and grade which outlets did the best job.
2. 02
   Blind Man's Puff and iRobusto
   Picks four and three, with agreement on the HVC 500, Sobremesa Brulee, Mi Querida Triqui Traca, RoMa Craft Baka and the Neanderthal LH.
3. 03
   Developing Palates and Tuesday Night Cigar Club
   Aaron's Developing Palates list earns a nod, while Tuesday Night Cigar Club takes the number one reviewer spot for its boutique-heavy, off-the-beaten-path picks.
4. 04
   Cigars They Still Need to Smoke
   The Tyrannical Buck and ACE Prime keep appearing on other people's lists, so the hosts put out a call for samples at TPE.
5. 05
   Review Bias Is Real
   A frank discussion that every reviewer's list is shaped by taste, friendships and business relationships — and that's okay.
6. 06
   Southern Draw Holds the Line on Pricing
   Sharon Holt announces Southern Draw Cigars will not raise prices for 2020, and the hosts debate the economics behind it.
7. 07
   Florida Cigar Legislation and FDA Tobacco 21
   Rep. Anthony Sabatini's memorial bill supporting S.9 and H.R. 1854, plus the FDA's transition-period stance on the new 21 minimum age.
8. 08
   Shop News, TPE 2020 and the Friday Event
   Listener of the week Nick Ruggiero, visitors including Matt Hunt of FQ Cigars, and an upcoming Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, HVC and Aladino event with rep Peter Hernandez.

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

Welcome to episode 105 of a Cigar Hustler Podcast. This week, the best reviewer is another Johnny-come-lately in a big, huge event at Cigar Hustler this week. I'll listen more in episode 105 of a Cigar Hustler's Podcast. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike squared, squared, squared.

Hey, oh, it's on. Oh, geez, it's on, Michael. That's it, we started? We started.

Welcome to a Cigar Hustler Podcast Episode 105, the number one cigar-related show on Podbean, still. This is like week two. You really have a week. You really hang your hat on that one.

Hey, it took us two and a half years to get there. And here we are. I did check today. We are up close to 700 subscribers above the number two spot.

You don't sound excited today, Michael. I'm excited. I'm excited every day, Michael. I need you to get it in gear.

Oh, I'm so excited. I am excited. And I just can't hide. What are we doing today, Michael?

We have some news to do later in the show. We're going to push it to the end of the show now. You're really excited about the news. You said that again.

You asked me what we had to do, just tell me what I have on my papers. We gotta review these. That's where we're going, Michael. We're going to review the reviewers.

Review the reviewers. I'm gonna put in a dun-dun-dun. So we looked at about 15 review sites for their top 10, 15, 25. 10 to 15, 25, whatever they have to have.

We've been compiling these over several weeks because everybody takes their time to do these after the first of the year. The final one that we were waiting on was the Cigar Dojo Gentlemen, and they did theirs this past weekend, this past Friday. Yes. And sorry, Michael, you didn't make the list.

You know, it's funny, you know, I gotta tell you, I really do enjoy, like, what we were doing on Facebook, just kind of heckling and following everybody and just kind of breaking their balls. We have to keep doing that. I mean, that was a lot of fun for me. In all reality, you know, I'm not doing it to fucking make something, you know?

So last year, you made, I think, one list last year? Yeah. This year, I believe you made three, I think it is, total? I feel like, though, we made the half-wheel one last year.

That's a big one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that would be a big one. Have they done theirs?

I don't think we have theirs in the list. Yeah, they did theirs. Oh, okay. I don't remember.

Yeah, we did. They've been doing a lot of... It's not in here, but I thought that it warranted it. Oh, it would be in there?

It would be, you know, that's why I said, you know, I said, you know, cause we have like 13 pallets here, but overall there's 15, right, and you know, so yeah, we didn't need the paper for that one. Ah, gotcha, okay, alright, so we compiled them and we've gone through them painstakingly, we smoked a couple of cigars from some of the list, and we did those on the Patreon. What's really kind of funny though is after looking through all of them, there's a couple cigars that I feel like I need to try. I haven't had the opportunity to have them, so I want to smoke the Tyranical Buck from my boy Riste, Riste.

You know what? I'd like to try some of his too. He made a bunch of different lists with different cigars. Yeah, so I've got to give that guy credit, you know?

Right, and he also got... I smoked his toothpick before, I smoked a couple of his other stuff. The toothpick was really good, especially for the price point, but I didn't get to try the Tyranical Buck. Oh, that's the one with the dinosaur in the band?

Yeah, and that hit a handful of review sites. " You know who else hit a whole bunch of them? Southern Draw. Robert Holt hit a bunch of them.

I've smoked most of his stuff, but he hit a lot of lists of shit. That guy puts in the work, man. He is. They made a big announcement that they are not doing a price increase.

They feel that it is not the time for the industry to have to deal with that and their people and processes, so I thought that was very nice of them. His lovely wife made that announcement the other day. Yeah, well, good for them. President and CEO of the Southern Draw.

I mean, you know, it's a question of supply and demand and that whole factor. Right, and they had a good point. It would almost cost too much money to reprint everything and get it out there. I don't know if I'd buy all that, but I think more along the lines of, look, they're working with one of the biggest factories with a lot of great tobacco.

Right. So, you know, unless the factory raises their prices, then it doesn't make sense. Right. You know what I mean?

Why just take one to take it? J. Fernandez, you're not running low on tobacco anytime soon. Right.

Right? So, I get that, you know. You're right? Sorry, yeah, just the timer isn't where I can see it.

We're okay. I don't think you can see anything at your age anymore, probably time. Pretty much, you can't. Hey, I trimmed the beard, got a haircut, a little less father-timey looking now.

You look good, yeah, you're bringing it in. I would love to see you come in here one day with, like, you just dye everything, just completely like a brown, like a dark brown. I did it once for it, when I used to just have the goatee, and one year for a motorcycle trip to the Keys, I tried to dye the goatee, because it went white before the end it. Oh, it was the brown, it didn't match it all.

Riding through this world, fucking Sons of Anarchy over here. Playing Sons of Anarchy right down the Keys. Yeah, but I think it would be great, you just come in one day and just totally brown. If I could wash it out quickly.

That would be epic. But you know what? At Christmas time, when I had the Santa hat and the red shirt, I'm just going to let the beard go starting November next year and just do Santa here for the thing here at the shop. Hey, I'm Santa.

Hey, I'll be Santa Claus. I'll pass out the presents. I can point at them. Santa will hand them out.

That kind of reminds me of a funny story. There's these – my nieces and nephews, a couple of them are terrified of animals, people that are dressed up in costumes. Oh yeah, the one little boy. Yeah.

Oh yeah. From several different things. Oh yeah, he's terrible. But the one that's a little bit older is terrified too.

Oh. So we were at Universal. He was terrified to hashtag the panda. And everybody was kind of acting up at our house.

You threatened him with the panda. No, no. " Oh no. So I terrified the kids at my house.

It was really fun. I took off the mask, and I, you know, afterwards, and I think he kind of... After he was crying and screaming. You know, you start to draw the parallel that it's just a constant, like, you know...

Right. It's just Uncle Mike in a costume. " Yeah. It's not a scary person.

Wait, this is my friend. So, yeah, that's pretty funny. I have a quick story as long as we're telling stories. Ooh, let's tell stories first, yes.

Okay, all right. The other day when I had the cold when I was sick, I liked to post those stupid little things. Your 24-hour Zika? 24-hour Zika thing, yes.

Captain's log? Captain's log, yeah, those type of things. Thanks. And Josh Fabello called me on Friday.

He thought I actually had Zika. That's fantastic. And he called to see how I was feeling and if I was dying or not. Hey man, what's going on?

Are you okay with the Zika? I'm so sorry. He said he was thinking, well, it is Florida. He could have got it.

Maybe I should call and check. So Josh, thank you for calling and checking on me. I do not have the Zika. I call, yeah, Bellicoso over on Mills and 50.

I call the cold. It's the same symptoms. I call the common cold Zika. It was pretty epic.

That's awesome. I started doing that the year the Zika came around, and now my wife hates it, and she hates that I do that, because I look like I'm dying for 24 to 36 hours. Yes. It was a fast recovery this time around, though.

Oh, yeah. It was real quick. I woke up one morning and I had it. The next morning, it was gone.

There you go. I was vomiting last night. From drinking? Was it a tequila?

No, it wasn't a drinking thing. I got super lightheaded, like I fucking lay down on the ground, I thought I was going to die, I was right on the cusp of-- You didn't call me, you didn't have your wife call me until you could tell me goodbye or anything? No, she was like, you know, are you okay? She was, I mean, she was-- She said, should I call Palmer?

She was on top of it. Is Palmer okay, should I call him? No, no, she didn't say anything. So, um, but like, I was right on the cusp of, maybe I should go to the hospital.

Like, that's how bad it was. If I ever say I'm going to the hospital, my wife freaks out, because I don't go to the doctor in the hospital. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I'm right there with you, dude.

So if I'm hitting that button, I'm thinking that this could be it. Like, make sure the paperwork's in order, because I'm not coming back, you know? You're not coming back from this. So I thought, you know, like, I couldn't get my head up, like, I was, I thought I was gonna die, and then I just vomited like a fucking, like Linda Blair in Exorcist, and then I was better.

And here I am today, full recovery. Full recovery. Remarkable. That's it.

It's one of those two-hour things, not a 24-hour thing. Oh, mine was 24. Alright, so getting back to these review sets. Getting back to the list.

Alright, so we looked at about 15. Yes. And we have what we considered the best of the list. We have the best and the worst.

I have four here that I appreciate, that I like. And I'm going to start backwards. Okay. All right.

Number four. These are the best four? These, for me, these I think are the best four. I think there was a mark on that one, so I also chose that one.

Yeah. Okay. So this is a Blind Man's Puff. Yes.

Yes. I was very pleased with that one, or agreed with, I guess it would be. Yeah, so, you know, obviously, you know, they love Sokka. Everybody loves Sokka this year.

He's a, you know, he's a marketing genius. He's entertaining and all that good stuff. But he was number one and number two on this list with the Mikurita Triki Traka. Triki Traka.

And the Sobra Mesa Brulee. Oh, the sweet tip. Uh, yeah. Oh, wait.

Allegedly. No, it's allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. Well, it's not, it's not. You know, they gave Roma Craft the Baca attention.

The HVC 500, I totally agree with. I think that's a fantastic cigar. It is a very good cigar. And I don't think that it gets an...

HVC doesn't get enough credit overall. I'm looking forward to Pete being here this weekend so I can get some of those from him. Yeah. I mean, the Neanderthal, in my opinion, the LH should have got some attention here, but it didn't, but that's okay.

I still agree with a lot of this other stuff on here. Oh, the other cigar that I want to, now that I want to try is Ace's stuff, Ace Prime. Oh, yeah, Ace Prime. Because that shit's everywhere.

The guy was here, but we just couldn't make it work out. Yeah, we had the opportunity for it and couldn't work it out with the schedule. Yeah. So, we're sorry, Mr.

Ace Prime Cigar. So, but the Menelik's on here as well. Yeah, that did quite well, too, because that was, started out as an event-only cigar. The Menelik?

Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, it's a good way to bring it into production and see how it's received. Right. Number three would have to be iRobusto.

Okay. Is that only because that's the ones that you're on? No. I mean, that helps though.

Don't get me wrong. If you want to get mentioned, say a cigar is good. First of all, for me, the best cigar of the year is an ENFL LH. Yes.

Right? Okay. So that's in their top three. Okay.

Right? Right. So, okay. I'm paying attention to that.

Yeah, they really love the Tricky Trocic, Tyrannical Buck, but the Connecticut. Oh. Southern Draw is on here, the Roma Craft Baca is on here, the Powstanie War Bear is on here, but that isn't why, I swear. What number was that?

Was that the one he's 14? It was a number irrelevant at that point, because you're at 17. So like if you're a top five, you know, then at least people are looking at you, but anything past that, in my opinion, you know, whatever. The Menelik, obviously, is back, is on here as well.

" Gotcha. The Southern Draw Kudzu, I don't think we've had that one either, dude. I have. I have.

He's come out with a Lancero at the TPE, which I would like to add to my list of cigars you're going to get for me. Oh, yeah, it's that time of year again, huh? Well, I guess it's twice now. Steve, well, I'll go in July.

Right. We've already made that announcement. Oh, yes, we were mentioned by PCA. Yes, we were.

I'm on their Instagram page now. We are now friends with the PCA people. Hello, PCA. Well, you are, because this is the Cigar Housers Podcast with Mike Palmer.

Your photo was first on the little press release there. On the Abbott & Concello. Yeah, I thought that was one of the best ones I've done so far. You guys are just having way too much fun.

Thank you, Mr. Jurgelat, for the help with my, he's my art department. Art department. You know what?

I think I messed this up. Can we yell at the people throwing boxes outside the door? Yeah, hey, God damn it. All right, so I gave my boy, your friend, Aaron, at Developing Palettes, I gave him some love, too.

He's a little more all over the place on his review. He is, it was quite disturbing. Okay, now with them, I believe they had to have reviewed the cigar to make the list. Gotcha.

So it is the top 25 cigars they reviewed. So here again, this tyrannical buck again. That's number two, the Maduro this time. Got to find those.

The Alma de Fuego's on here. The other two gentlemen also said they liked the War Bear, but they had draw issues. And they had draw issues and burn issues or something to that effect. Hashtag I have burn issues.

Ace Prime Cigar, Ace Prime's on here again. Ace's on that list too. Yeah, so you start to see some redundancy with some of these things. Southern Draw's back on here.

Yeah. Oh, where did you learn that move? That technique? Okay.

So this is my opinion as they instantly win for me. Wait. Are those the good ones now that you just went through? Yeah.

So the one you're about to do now is- Is the one that I think is the best. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Are you going to do the one you think is the worst?

Four, three, two. No, I didn't want to shit all over anybody. That was everybody was looking forward to you shitting on people. I think that you can just read between the lines and who I think did a good job- Who you did not mention.

Go back and say, oh, well, you weren't mentioned on Scare Hustle's podcast, so obviously the fact of the matter is that all review sites are biased, right? Everybody has an opinion and it's usually, I mean, it's every time it's biased, it's not usually, it's every fucking time, right, so you're going to say, I like these people because they're nice to me or they give me money or whatever the case may be, you might be friends with them, you know, right? It just is what it is. So, so here's my, this is my favorite.

This is the number one. Yeah. The number one reviewer of cigars for 2019 is? My boy Matt at Tuesday Night Cigar Club.

Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I gotta respect this list.

It's done really, really well. Damn it, I didn't mute that. Oh. Was that Brittany?

Brittany, want to be on the show again? It's my wife. She must know when the podcast is going on. Go ahead, bring her in.

No, no, I'm just going to text her. We're good. So, Tuesday Night Cigar Club. Yes.

I marked that one also, I believe. It's one of my favorites also. So, these are the guys that watch the movie and drink the beer? Yeah, yeah.

They're good dudes. It does seem like a good idea for a show, but it is so long, I can't, I can't, it's like two and a half, three hours. It kind of reminds me of Mystery Science Theater 3000. You remember that?

Yeah, yep, yep. Their number one cigar was the Neanderthal. The LH? It actually says it's a three-way tie between the OM Lancero, Genetic Deformity, which we featured those as both Double Feature back in episode 87, and the brand spanking new LH.

Ah. You know, I think the LH is an amazing cigar. The Lancero for me, I'm not, I like it. It's just that it needs to be a little bit bigger.

If it was a Lonsdale, I think that you'd have a little more opportunity. We pause here for a reply. No, it's no big deal, I can wait. All right.

It's not a big a deal. Just a little. Uh, do you see my new, uh, podcast stand here? Yes, we got that from our, uh, from our friend Southern Gunner.

From my boy Hugh. Hugh. Check that out, huh? That is nice, we put a picture there, you don't even have to hold it on.

It's so fancy. It says Mike and Mike Productions on it. Yeah, it does, it says Cigar House's podcast on one side. Cigar House's podcast on the one side.

I don't know what this is for, maybe toothpicks or something, I don't know. Business cards. That side is business cards. But what's the middle part for?

Would you like a mint? Is it magnetic? Maybe it's where you put paper clips or something. Oh, maybe.

Yeah, it's nice. I don't have any office. I'm not really, you know, stationary, vast, intelligent. Except you want that one office piece of furniture that folds onto a bed.

Yeah. All right. So what else do they have on this list? The Sober Mesa Brulee makes number two.

De La Carame by Crown Heads. Another good cigar. Southern Draw, Rose of Sharon, Herrera Esteli, another Kudzu by Southern Draw. Partagas, okay, I have a question mark on that one, another Just Some Crowd, The Nugs, you know, like he, they did a good job in my opinion of, I think that they smoke a lot of the boutique stuff and they, you know, they go a little more off the beaten path and, you know, and it's not just your mainstream, even your mainstream boutique, I mean, you know, they're obviously smoking a little bit of everything, right?

Right. I don't know what their process was or qualifications for theirs. That's what's so hard with these reviews. Everybody has a different way of doing it.

I don't think that there is a right or wrong way, though. Well, that's just it. There's not. It's like, whoa, why did you put this number one?

I was like, because I really fucking liked it. Right. It's all about the personal preference of the individual. It was really good.

Whoever's reviewing the cigar. Mm-hmm. So yeah. So those are your picks.

You want to run through the ones real quick, just the names of the good ones? The names are the good ones. Tuesday Night Cigar Club, Ira Busto, shit that I threw on the ground here. Let me see.

I don't want to mess this up. Developing Palettes, Tuesday Night Cigar Club, Ira Busto, Blind Man's Puffs. There you go. There it is.

I like those guys. They did a good job. I think they did a better job on their reviews than everybody else. If you're going to go through the reviews and look for cigars, look for theirs.

Yeah. Those are the ones. Apparently, we need to try some tyrannical bucks and some Ace Primes, so if they're fans of the show, come by and see Mikey at the TPE, drop off some things. Yeah, I want to try them.

God damn it. All right, we're at 18 minutes. We can just take a break here and be a good place to break it up. Why?

Let's keep going. We've got more time. Is your news all cigar stuff? Not all of it.

There's a little just Florida news. Oh, okay. I don't know if you're going to touch base on the Conor McGregor fight. No, well, okay, we obviously have time for that, it was only a 40 second long fight, but we can go ahead and do that now.

Okay. I didn't watch it, but it was 40 seconds long. It was amazing. I mean, I just caught the highlights afterwards, and I didn't spend...

The highlight was the whole show. Yeah, I didn't spend the 60 bucks, I just waited patiently. Oh, how pissed would you be if you spent the 60 bucks? It happens every time.

Every time, yes. Every fucking time. So I heard he came out, busted the guy's nose, and I was in. Well, what's kind of remarkable is he hit him with the shoulder.

Is that legal? He hit him with his shoulder four times, yeah. So, eh. Yeah, they were wrapped up, yeah.

And then he kicked him and then he beat the shit out of him until he was TKO'd. It was amazing. " So what's kind of remarkable, though, is Conor McGregor's mindset. Like, how do you...

I mean, the guy has made it, right? Right, yeah. The guy's accomplished. I mean, he got in a boxing ring and fought Floyd Mayweather for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Like, he's set. Proper 12. Right. Needs no more money.

He's got his own booze. So when somebody actually gets to that level, you know, it's difficult, I can imagine it's difficult to keep going and keep pressing forward, right? Who wants to fight him? I don't know.

Well, I mean, you know, to be honest, he's been out of the ring for over a year, so I'm sure that a lot of people felt that there was like blood in the water. Like, oh, now's our time. Now he's not going to be precise. He's getting soft.

He's drinking his booze all the time. " He came out and hit him with a bottle of booze, and then it was over. Not today, but he was very respectful to the guy, like he hugged the guy at the end, the whole shit. Oh, I saw he went and said something to the guy's mom, too.

Yeah, so, you know what I mean? Like, I got a lot of respect for the guy. " Because usually he's the polar opposite from Lucky Charms. " So, we gotta get 'em all together.

Smoke a cigar. There you go. Maybe they'll be at the Vegas show. Yeah.

Are you excited about the Super Bowl now that we've determined who's going? Well, yes, because my family is big Chiefs fans. Bullshit! No, no.

Bullshit! Listen, listen. No, no. You're, you are that guy.

Oh, I, oh, me, yes. No, I'm jumping on the band. Eddie King Palmer is definitely, you know, your wife qualifies to as full of shit. Chiefs is from Missouri.

Bull. I don't give a fuck. That is her family's team. I don't give a fuck.

Does she follow football? No, she doesn't follow football. But it is her family. She couldn't tell me three fucking people on the Kansas Aces.

Oh, she couldn't now. Yeah, she could. No, she couldn't. Yeah, she can.

No, she couldn't. Yeah, she could. Call her right now. You got the phone.

You have her number? Call her. Here, hold on. She's at home.

Because it's Martin Luther King Day. They're off. We'll take it right away. We're at 20 minutes, so we've got to do this fast.

Do you have her number? I don't know. I think you have her number. All right, let me talk first so she doesn't freak out because she'll think I'm having your phone.

She might not answer. All right, she'll answer. Hello? Hey, Adrienne.

Yes? Hey, honey, you're on the air. We're doing the podcast. Yes.

But we're talking about the Kansas City Chiefs. Yes. And Michael is saying that you are a jump on the bandwagon fan. I am.

Oh my gosh, I'm offended. Good. Okay. So here, so this is how I can eat my own words.

I need to know three people on the team other than Patrick Mahomes. Can you tell me three people on the team? You didn't say she couldn't name Mahomes. What?

You said three people. I would have said Kelsey, Mayhomes, and Barry. Okay. Oh, see?

All right, I'll give you that. All right. That's fine. Close enough.

And Kelsey spelled with a C-E, not an S-E-Y. That's true. Oh, see? She knows the correct spelling.

Okay. All right. I told you, that's her family's team. Do you know how many wins they had, What's your regular season?

A lot. Okay. How about that for a number? All right.

Fair enough. Okay. Don't ask me anything else about football. How about hockey?

Nope. No. Hockey? This is Super Bowl time.

" Oh, so how about your team? What about my team? Where's your team in the Super Bowl? Well, they have six championships, but they didn't make it this year.

Oh, well, it's about time they gave it to somebody else. Yeah. This is Chiefs year. We'll see about that.

San Francisco may stop you. You know, it's funny, we were watching it, and Tennessee was so far behind, and everybody was going, well, yeah, but the Patriots could have come back. So, right. It's true.

I'm not worried. Go Chiefs. All right. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you, honey. Thanks for calling. Love you. Love you, too.

I'm gonna go study up my Chiefs. So, if you call me back, I'll know more. That's it, yeah, Tyreek Hill, you should mention him, you know, you got some running backs, LeSean McCoy, Damian Williams, stuff like that. But, hey, you did good.

I mean, you mentioned a defensive player, so I'll give you that. Yes. All right. All right, thanks, son.

They have to have their defense A-game when they play. There you go. All right. All right, bye, Sweetheart.

Bye. I think Terrell Suggs is on their team now, too. I don't know if Barry still plays on their team. I'll have to verify that.

I'm not a cheeser. I told you she would know. She did okay. Caller's on Alex.

He can run through the entire list. Yeah, well, he's probably a real fan. He is. He's a diehard fan.

She's just a casual bandwagon. It's okay. It's fine. She got three.

Kind of. She made the thing. She got Mahomes. She had to mention Mahomes to get those three.

Well, everybody's talked about Mahomes. That's what I'm saying. What, 15, 16 years old? He looks incredibly young.

He's 12. That's what he looks like. Yeah. All right.

And San Francisco put on a clinic, too. Oh, I know. I didn't watch that, but I kept checking the score. Green Bay just didn't stand a chance.

No, they weren't. And that's Fred Rui's team. Yeah. And he is a true Green Bay Packers fan.

We should call Fred. No, don't call Fred. We're done, we're done making our calls. We've already proved our point.

All right. Okay. We're in 25 minutes. We're gonna go take a break, and we'll be right back.

All right. All right. Bye. Hey, it's Mike Toon with Cigar Hustlers Podcast.

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Get your show swag and become a true hustler. And we're back! And we're back, Michael. Now we have the news, the industry news.

Florida lawmaker files measure urging members to support the cigar exemption bills. Representative Anthony Sabatini introduced a memorial bill yesterday in the Florida House that commemorates these facts and also encourages his fellow lawmakers to support two federal bills that would protect premium cigars from regulation. R. 9, Largely Symbolic Memorial Bills, are the method by which legislative bodies petition Congress and the government's or governmental agencies.

R. 1854 was submitted by Florida Rep. Kathy Castor. Both bills seek to protect premium cigars, with Castor's bill going one step further by specifying that cigars with flavor additives, in parentheses, should not be protected like premium cigars.

Oh, flavor, you're the enemy. Flavor bad. No flavor cigars. That sucks, man, that sucks.

I mean, you know, I'm glad that they're putting together a bill and they're trying to do stuff, but you know, in overnight, they made it 21 from 18. And this is a bill that's been going on for over a year. I mean, come on. Give me a fucking break.

Well, that leads us into our next story, Michael. Good. FDA is not enforcing the Tobacco 21. Oh.

S. Food and Drug Administration has clarified its position on a new federal that bans those under 21 years old from purchasing tobacco products. While the law was signed on December 20, 2019, there was a dispute about when the new law went into effect and what the agency could enforce. The agency posted a clarification on its website today.

In short, it's illegal for anyone to sell tobacco products or e-cigarettes to anyone under 21, but the agency is currently only enforcing a minimum standard of the age of 18 during a transition period. Okay, so I can still sell to somebody under the age of 21 as of right now? As of right now. Effective immediately, retailers must not sell tobacco to anyone at their age 21.

That is what they stated. The FDA recognizes that both the agency and some retailers will need to update current practices to implement this new law as FDA will need time to do outreach and education to retailers and update the agency's programmatic work to reflect this change in law. See, the problem is, they don't know that everybody knows. They haven't, other than the website thing they did.

Right. Yeah. So, I mean, all you have to do is go, "I don't get on the internet. " I think that's what happened to me if somebody did.

But, I mean, it makes sense to put those practices in play, you know what I mean? Well, that's it. The FDA doesn't have a way to enforce it yet. Okay, but if that's the law, where do you draw the line at?

Okay, well, once they have the ability to enforce it, then I'm going to put everything in play? Well, there's all sorts of programs and educational things and stuff. Right, but as a business owner, it's probably in my best interest just to make the adjustments now. Oh, it's easier to do it now, right.

Hey, it's 21. And then maybe one or two fall through the cracks as your employees are really checking completely. Right, and you start smoothing out all your issues before, you know. Before they start sending people in.

Before Johnny Law comes in to fuck up your day. Let's see. While the agency didn't specifically say that it would punish retailers caught selling to those between the ages of 18 and 20 during the transition period, that's likely to happen if it's not using anyone over 18 but under 21 in its compliance checks. This will likely be a moot point by the end of the year.

So, the people they send in now are under 18. Yeah. I believe that. Yeah.

So, that's what it is. Oh, so they're not going to rape, they're not going to, okay. They're not gonna rape you if there's an 18 to 20 window. Yes, rape.

Allegedly. There's like it'd be a moot point by the end of the year. The law requires FDA to go through a series of procedural steps before it could be enforced, and it seems like FDA will try to expedite the changes so we can begin full enforcement as soon as possible. Yeah.

Okay. So, great. I'm glad that you're thinking it through after you shot at the hip. Right.

That's a problem. Okay, nobody under 20-- wait, how do we check if they're under-- Oh, we're gonna have to give them time. We have all those children that we send in to buy stuff that are under 18. Whatever.

It's ridiculous. But, hey, they slid that one in. That law went right into effect. But, hey, the process of protecting cigars, it's gonna take a few years at least, you know, so.

Right. It makes total sense to me. It makes total sense. What else you got there, Mikey?

Let's see, let me read this real quick. I think we already, might already tell you. This is the tobacco, the TPE 2020 industry's first major trade show of the year, less than two weeks away. Southern Draw Cigars announced it is not planning to increase prices for 2020.

We talked about that. We did talk about that. This is just the details. In a press release, Sharon Holt of Southern Draw Cigars explained, "We wish to avoid spending too much time on price increases and justification discussions with our staff and current valued retail partners.

The family believes this is a time that should be spent on value increasing discussions instead. " Okay, we got that story. We already got that story. Moving on.

What have you got? That's it. That's all you have? That's all I have.

It's Slow News Week. But we have a Listener of the Week, Michael. We do. We do have a Listener of the Week.

We do, and I've got to give another shout-out to you, too, so go ahead. com Listener of the Week is... Oh, there's the gong. I love the gong.

Nick Stagramming, Nick Ruggiero. Nick Ruggiero. Ruggiero. Nick was nice enough to make a four-hour trip, four hours, three and a half hours, one way.

Well, he flew into Fort Lauderdale for business. Right. And then he immediately rented a car and drove way up here to Deltona, the epicenter of the cigar industry. For more business.

Dude, I just came up here to see us. Well, it's business. Oh. Business.

More business. No, he came up to hang out with us. Came up to hang out Saturday night here at the shop. And then he drove back.

I mean, the good thing about the four-hour trip there and back is he gave him time to catch up on the podcast, which was nice. That is true. Because then I got text of, oh, you know, shit that I said a month ago, and I didn't remember saying it. I'm like, oh, yeah, it's okay.

So that was really nice. But yeah, no, he's a great guy, dude. I'm glad that he came up. We had a lot of visitors that Saturday.

We did. Who were the two gentlemen? Brian came up, Brian Cummins from Virginia with his wife. Oh, there was people at the table.

Very nice. And then they had two other friends. They had two other people that they met here. Well, they met them, no, they met them on the cigar safari.

Oh. And then they had them come in here. Oh, okay, gotcha. And then my boy Greg from RDV, he's a personal trainer there.

He brought one of his best friends. Oh, that's what he works over at RDV. Bernie at the gym, yeah, so they came to hang out. So, I mean, we had quite the crowd on Saturday from people all over the place, which is really, I really appreciated it.

You know what I mean? It was, it was nice of all those people to make time to come in and say hi. Yeah, I mean, I'm very grateful for that. Yeah, that was really fucking awesome, you know.

We took some pictures, we passed out some stickers, we got to hang out and talk. For people to come in and kind of just shoot the shit with you. And then Matt Hunt from FQ Cigars made a little pop in. Yeah.

That was nice, he spent some time with the people from Virginia. Yeah. I'm sure they enjoyed that. You know, seeing Matt Hunt, that's a big deal.

Yeah, kind of a big deal, especially these days. I mean, that guy's, you know. He's so fit and buff from his... Doing his orange theory.

Orange theory things. Yeah. But, you know. Support for Listen of the Week comes from Manscaped, who is the best at men's below-the-belt grooming.

Manscaped offers precision-engineered tools for your family jewels, Michael. Yeah. Let's see, they have redesigned the electric trimmer. 0 has proprietary skin-safe technology so the trimmer won't nick or snag your nuts.

Right. Manscaping accidents are finally a thing of the past. Protect those balls. com, use the discount code- Promo code cigar.

Cigar, C-I-G-A-R, C-I-G-A-R, you will save 20% off your entire purchase and free shipping! Now today's your last day for this. Today, yes, we did a four-week stint with them for the current agreement, so I will be contacting, I believe her name is Natalie, here very soon, and see if they want to jump on board for the full Cigar Hustler podcast experience. Yes.

So. Interesting. We won't wait till this one goes on. So at the end of the first part of next week, I'll contact her after this one's been out for a week.

Let's see where that goes. And see where that goes. Yeah. But we are taking sponsors now, obviously.

That aren't cigar related. That aren't cigar related. Because we have our opinions on cigars. Yes, we don't like to have to make our list from any reason, people we like, people that pay us, people that send us free cigars.

Right. Yes. So use the right tools for the job, Michael, your balls will thank you. So who do you want now?

We don't have a shop of the week, we've sort of fallen off. But now that that's kind of run its course. What sponsor do I want? Yeah.

Oh, you know, Budweiser, Coca-Cola. Like, you went in on that one. Yes, I'll find another one. I have been talking to a company called Chubbies.

It's an ED pill. Really? ED pill and other male enhancement products. Oh, very nice.

So, we'll see what happens with Chubbies. I wonder if we can get one of these craft beers to do it. Oh. I mean, you know, you got Intuition, you got...

Our beer show. We need to do another beer show. The beer show we did was our highest rated show ever on video. Yeah.

All you have to do is just slide in a guy from Intuition or whatever and it's a fucking... Right. Yeah. We should get a hold of Cliff and...

I wonder if he's working today. It's Martin Luther King Day, so... Probably not. Maybe not.

Who knows? Yeah. So, what else you got? That's it, boss.

That's all you got today? That's all I got today. Anything else happened this week for you? 35 minutes.

Let's see, I had the Zika. Yeah, you had the Zika. Basketball games, you got to come out a little bit. I got to come out a little bit, yeah.

My wife had a lock-in at the school. Yeah. She went to a school board meeting thing today. Yeah.

Introducing rounds, I don't know. What about you? Nothing else? Oh, we have an event coming up this Friday.

We do have an event. With one of the reps in the state of Florida. Yeah, he's one of them. Peter Hernandez.

He's still better than Alfredo though. Well, well, it doesn't take much. I could tell you, so Jack Taranio called me and he was asking me questions about a cigar that I'm not going to mention the name because fuck that guy. Oh, so mean to my friend Jack.

And then he was, then he was, no, it's not mean to Jack, it's about a, that was a cigar that he was smoking that. Oh, oh, I thought you didn't want to mention one of his cigars. No, no, no. And then he's like, and then he started breaking my balls about that Espinosa and stuff.

I'm like, I said, "Hey dude, I need an order. " Where's your boy, uh, where's your boy Alfredo? Oh, you need to place it. So, like, yeah, I like giving him a hard time about Alfredo.

Oh, gotcha. So, it's nice. Hmm. Which I truly enjoy.

See, so the event is Dunbarton Tobacco, HVC. Yep. HVC. Aladino.

Dunbarton Tobacco, and Aladino. Yes. So, I'm sure that'll be a good... Yeah.

Good night. Pete's always fun to have here in the shop. Yeah. And, you know, Chet loves his brulés.

He does. He does love his brulés. Smokes a shit. Oh, maybe we can get Pete to do a Patreon when he's here.

Ooh. I mean, he fucking, he ran away last time, scared. He did. He did.

Hmm. See, that would be Friday night. Um, we don't want to do a regular show. He was just on.

It's a little too close. Okay. So. Make him do a Patreon.

We'll make him do a Patreon for next week. We have to look at the schedule because you're going to TPE. You know what we should do? We should review a cigar that he carries and just fucking, and just give it to him.

" Well, even if it's good, we should say it sucks. No, he can't do that. Just be honest. Well, no, we'll clean it up at the end, but we'll be doing it as we're going through.

I'm sure we can find something that he represents that I'm like, this is terrible. I bet you I can do it. I don't know, from those three brands. He carries other brands.

Oh, does he? He does. Oh, just not as well. Oh, yeah.

We just don't carry them. He's going to have them, wouldn't he? Just go through what he has. Of course, I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's what should be that.

Oh, no, tell me about that. And then he'll give his all like... Right, he'll get the big sale thing. This cigar tastes like fucking shit.

I'm glad he doesn't listen all the time so he won't hear the plan. He won't know about the sabatoir. It'll be epic. Good stuff.

So anyway, you're going to the TPE. We talked about that briefly last time. Looking forward to that. You still don't know your spot.

2024. Oh, did you look? Boom! There you go.

2024 next to the Rumacraft. That's over a weekend, isn't it? Tobacco table. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Do you come back Monday? Or do you come back Sunday? I think we come back Saturday night and we arrive Sunday morning or something. Oh, the red-eye coming back.

Yeah, coming back from out there. Yeah. So it shouldn't affect the taping schedule. You know what I'm not looking forward to is like, you know, because we don't know a lot about the TPE and the overall cost and expenses and you want to keep it as low as possible.

Right. Fucking flying spirit. Oh, you're gonna hate that. So that's gonna be a bitch.

I think that's a notch down from Allegiant. Oh. I like Allegiant. I like Allegiant.

My wife's flying into Legion on Thursday. Yeah, so, you know, I gotta figure out some movies to watch or something like that. You need to download them on your phone. Yeah, but I don't have Netflix or anything, so, I mean, I could...

You have Amazon? I do. Amazon Prime? Yes.

You can download movies on that one, too. Okay, and I have Disney Plus, I can catch up on some of the Star Wars shit and whatever, but, like, there's gotta, you know... You know, I have access to Disney, and I'm glad I don't, I didn't buy that, 'cause there's not, without kids? Without, well, yeah, kids.

There's not a lot on it to watch. I thought I got on it to watch. The Mandalorian was good, but now there's no Mandalorian. But now it's gone, yeah, I watched that.

I've watched some of that Jeff Goldblum show, and that's a little quirky and kind of a little entertaining, but I don't think I could watch it the whole series. My little guy, well, not my little guy, because now I have a little girl. You have a little girl. Well, I guess it's my little guy.

What is she watching? What shows is she like? Nothing. But my little guy loves the Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.

Oh. And that's on there, and he plays that every fucking night. Oh, wow. So, I don't know.

One of my nephews was little. He used to like to watch Pretty Woman. Really? It was on VHS.

Interesting. That was his show. And now he's a pimp. Good for you.

No, he moved back to Michigan. He's the only one in the family now that's back in Michigan. Everybody else left. He's concubining?

I'd be concubining. No, no. He's got two boys now. He's got two sons.

He's got families in four different states? No, just the one state. He flies around a lot. He's some type of inventory manager at some restaurant supply type thing or something.

You're a used car salesman type guy? No, no, that's okay. He runs a warehouse. While conventions?

Runs a warehouse. Conventions in California, Texas. You're always taking a shot at my family. Wow.

No, I'm not. That's true. Always. Fuck you.

Always insulting my family. That's not true. That's not true. I love Jake.

That's the one I need to love, right? He's the best. He's the best. Exactly.

Because he's the one that comes on the show once a year. Exactly. I love that guy. He's amazing.

And people are still talking about the foodie foodies. The foodie foodies. The foodie foodie. Shatta.

And the Hojoes. And the Hojoes. Yes. Yeah.

Still haven't talked to Mr. Oliva yet about the – Oh, he texted me. Oh, did he? John?

Yeah. He went to – he's in – He was in Lakeland and he went to DR. Yeah, DR. Yeah, but he's back now.

So, yeah, he's going to – I'm sure he's going to circle around here soon. Yeah. Shut up. Somebody's coming in.

You're mad about the sounds. They won't be able to hear it, I promise. I'm going to be nuts. If I can hear it, you can hear it in here.

No way. I have headphones on. I'm hearing it through the headphones. I can hear it too.

Through the headphones. Maybe. All right. I guess we'll wrap this up.

Unless you got something else. No, I think that's all I got, man. Yeah. I'm going to do a Super Bowl party, I guess, here at the shop, which should be exciting.

Yes. I'm going to reserve chairs and stuff. We just talked about that at the meeting. You have to buy tickets.

It's exciting. And, oh, you know, Hugh did not only just send this. Oh, yes. You went to something.

He provided a plethora of onesies. Oh, that's right, yes. Yes. Some of them were distinctly Polish, which is really, really nice.

" Ah, yes. Very nice. Yeah. There's like five Polish words that I know, and that's definitely one of them.

Your dupa is one of them. Oh, well, I'll try to work that into every conversation. Hey, what's up, Dupa? Hey, Dupa, what's going on?

So, yeah, so yeah, Hugh, I mean, Southern Gunner, it's Southern Gunner, you're the fucking man, dude, I really appreciate it, and appreciate all you do. He's also the one that did our theme song for the show. He did, you know, he's a great friend. We're horrible friends in comparison.

He's a great friend. Honestly, I mean, yeah. Let me just mention his name. You want to give him a gong?

Go ahead, sure. You just want to hit it. There you go, Mr. Southern Gunner.

Also a Manscaped Listener of the Week. Well, he also purchased the lawnmower. Yeah, he did. And he put it all over Instagram, it was very nice of him.

Yeah, he did. He's probably the only one that used the discount code CIGAR and got 20%. That's not true, I know a lot of guys that used it. Oh, well, maybe we're going to be a regular thing here, who knows.

I'm not saying no, I'm just saying it's not going to happen. There's no fucking way. All right, guys, thank you for listening. This has been episode Check the Board 105.

Episode Pi. Yeah, we're just cruising along here. Life is good. Alright guys, thanks, we'll see you later.

Later. A Cigar Hustlers podcast, its owners and its sponsors take no responsibility for the opinions or statements made by the talk show host or their guest. Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike and Mike Productions or the podcast providers, and opinions between talk show hosts may differ. This is not our intention to libel, incite, or hurt anyone's feelings.

We invite you to write the show's host, Mike Szczepankewicz, with any feedback or suggestions that you have for their shows. These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience. This has been a Cigar Hustlers podcast, a Mike and Mike production. m.

for all new episodes. Hi, I'm doing, I'm Husto-I-Raw. Yeah, we just don't have to do a single, uh, single podcast ever again. Perfect.

I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing? The Hojo, the... Hojo!

It's the Hojo! You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way. I couldn't get past Hojo! All right, love you.

All right, love you. I love you. Hey, whoa. Love you.

Oh, there you go. Sure. That's it. Now I have to kill you both.

That's a sign of a good podcast. It's gonna be like four cigars when I walked in a door. All right, end this.

Show Notes

This week we review the reviewers!  We call Mike Too's wife and get her to defend her love of the Chiefs!  And a huge event at Cigar Hustler!

As always we welcome your show thoughts and ideas on our Facebook page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast".  You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast.  You can follow Mikey @cigarhustler and Mike too @fcc_mike.

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Thanks for Listening!!