Episode 109 Why is the Drake so good? Redemption Interview! Don't Touch The Yoga Ball!!!
Episode Summary
Episode 109 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is billed as the "redemption interview" — Spence Drake returns (this time sober) alongside Adrian Acosta of The Cigar Culture for a loose, profane, and genuinely informative industry conversation. The two walk through how Drake's new lines finally hit the market four months behind schedule in December, why that delay actually bought the cigars extra age, and how reorders in January and February have been strong.
The heart of the episode is the story behind the Ilegal Habano blend. Acosta had developed a specific blend in the Dominican Republic and looked for Nicaraguan counterparts to the same varietals and priming structure; he handed the spec to Drake, who had it produced at Omar's La Corona factory in Nicaragua. Everyone who smoked it — Drake, Esteban, and Costa Fotiadis of Smoke Manayunk — agreed it was finished from day one, the first blend Drake says never went back to the drawing board. Drake ranks the Habano as his favorite of the three wrappers, with the Connecticut particularly strong in the Toro and the San Andrés third on his list. The crew also gets into half wheel reviews (a running roast of Brooks Whittington's palate, plus mentions of Charlie Minato and Patrick Lagreid), the White Hat / "White Hate" email typo that accidentally built Drake a whole new audience, and the brand's rename to La Familia Robaina.
The second half covers the show's recurring five questions with Adrian Acosta — his great-grandfather as his dream cigar companion, Joe Sherman's advice about patience in the cigar industry, his own personal blend he's made for seven years, and Marlon Brando's Godfather as his fictional smoking partner. News segment: UPS now requires an adult 21+ signature on all shipments containing cigars and tobacco products under a December 2019 revision, with COD complications and higher shipping costs to follow. The hosts close with an update on their search for a podcast intern — four of eight colleges have already said no.
In This Episode
- 01Meet Spence Drake and Adrian AcostaIntroductions, the domain-name mixup with an Australian adult film performer, and the trade show illness making the rounds.
- 02New Lines Hit the Market LateDrake explains the four-month delay, the bonus aging it provided, and strong January/February reorders.
- 03Half Wheel Reviews and Reviewer PalatesA running roast of Brooks Whittington's scores on cigars from the factory, plus the 89 on the Warbear and the Polonis bundle review.
- 04How the Ilegal Habano Blend Came TogetherAcosta's Dominican blend translated into Nicaraguan varietals, approved unchanged on the first sample at Omar's La Corona factory.
- 05Wrapper Rankings: Habano, Connecticut, San AndrésDrake rates the Habano his favorite across all three sizes, the Connecticut Toro as money, and the San Andrés best in Toro.
- 06Listener Questions and the White Hat TypoInstagram questions, pet peeves, favorite HR cigars, and the infamous 'White Hate Cigars' email signature that went unnoticed for three months.
- 07Five Questions with Adrian AcostaHis great-grandfather, Joe Sherman's advice on patience, his own seven-year-old personal blend, and Marlon Brando as the Godfather.
- 08News: UPS Tobacco Signature Rule & Intern HuntUPS now requires a 21+ signature on all tobacco shipments including B2B, plus the show's ongoing struggle to land a college intern.
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 Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Hey, I'm Jacob Tipton. You may remember me from episode 102. Well, I haven't quit yet.
This week on episode 109, why is the Drake so good? Redemption interview? Don't touch the yoga ball. All that and more coming now.
Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike.
Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike.
Squared. Mike. Squared. Oh no, everything's going.
It's all happening. It's all starting. Right now. We're live.
No, we're not live, we're recording. Welcome to episode 109, gentlemen. Trigar Hushford podcast. Michael.
Hi. Talk. Introduce our guest, Michael. I just reached out to Skip real quick, see if he wanted me to ask you anything in particular.
Shut the fuck up. I did, that's what I was doing. I have questions from the audience. It's Miguel.
For Spence? Yes. The audience. We gotta break them in.
We gotta break them in first. Well, those are towards the end. That's the lube. I have a very little bit of news, and we have an internship update, and it's only been two days since we did this, so we don't have a lot.
So why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself. My name is Spence Drake. Spence Drake? It's a true story.
Yeah. Not Spencer Drake, not to be confused with the gay porn star from Australia. No? Oh, yeah, that's a thing?
Did you get in trouble for using the name? No, no, I fought over a domain with this guy at one point in a bidding war, and it got up to like 2,700 bucks, and I was like, I'm not bidding anymore, back when I had a real estate company. " Wow, so that's out there? No, it's not there anymore, thank God.
I think he retired, there was too much thrusting, and hip dysplasia, something like that, I'm not really sure, like a Labrador. So he just took it down? But good Lord, the guy, he had a lot of fervor, you know what I mean? Yeah, the thrust was strong.
He was committed. But since he got out of the game, I think my thrust game in terms of Spence Drake's out there, Spencer Drake's, is unrivaled in that world, but it's taken a lot of effort and strong thrusting. Good for you. I enjoyed your white hate story on the Coupe Show last day.
Wait a second, we haven't finished our introductions. Oh, sorry. And you, sir? Who the hell are you?
I didn't know we were talking. He doesn't speak English, he said. Do you have any to translate this to me? Don't they ask Edron?
You got to get a little closer to the mic too. I'm sorry. I'm just Adrian Acosta. That sounds better.
From Latin America, ish. The Caribbean. The Caribbean. It's an island in Latin America, I believe.
So you put up with Spence on the regular? Yeah. I didn't know how to answer the question. So how much...
I'm looking for the day that you guys are no longer working together because I want to hear the shit. The shit that's going to come out of his mouth is going to be awesome. Shit comes out of his mouth. Well, he gets on a plane tonight at 6:00, he can come back tomorrow.
We share a hotel room. It's just the one room, one bed. His struggle is real, you know? I mean, it's tough being on the road.
I won't share rooms with another man after Costa Fodiatis got everybody sick. Oh, the Costa virus? Oh my god. Costa Rona virus 2020.
Dude, so I got sick. Everybody got sick, man. And it was incredible. It was terrible.
It was horrible. You got sick too? Yeah. You might have saw him for five minutes and all of a sudden you're infected.
Yeah. I mean, I didn't really see him a lot, you know? But you know what's funny? " And there was like this fist bump with me.
" And then like I saw him the next day. " And then we hugged. " Not that quick. He's like, "No, I'm better now.
" Alright, and then I'm thinking, ah, it was just, it was just small contact. It's like psychosomatic now. It was, it was just small contact, so I'll be fine. I get home, and then I, I did the, uh, I did the podcast with Developing Pallets, I felt like total dog shit when I'm doing this thing, I'm like, ah.
Developing Pallets. Yeah, yeah, have you heard of 'em? 27659. What, you didn't throw a niner in at the end?
I mean, you gotta drop the niner at the end. So, um, so I did that, and then like, for the rest of the week, I always just felt like total shit. And then I eventually had to go get antibiotics, man. Oh yeah, so did I.
Yeah. So did I. And it's a little resilient against the antibiotics. You know what, it's funny for me, with the Z-Pak, I was like, I started to instantly feel better.
I'm like, holy shit. Psychosomatic again. Yeah. Did you snort it?
I thought that was how I was supposed to do it. That's advisable, absolutely. Crunch it up. Gets right into the bloodstream.
Yeah, or you could just mainline it. Yeah, no. Yeah, I just had somebody with that. I got, you know, I got the IV connect, just no problem.
All right. So now that we covered that, so... I feel good. I looked at weights this morning at my hotel.
That's nice. Uh-huh. The resistance band thing you were talking about? Yeah.
Resistance band. You want to talk about the yoga instructor? See this? She was really, really hot.
Yeah. So I, I, I, I contemplated beating off to it, but I, I chose to not do it. And that's all honesty. Like, I didn't do it.
Just to be clear. Even hotels, which has their own gym, I didn't whack off. He couldn't whack off on the balance ball. Is that true?
He didn't finish. So, what's going on, man? You got some new cigars coming out? You've been promoting them?
You've been on a couple shows lately? Yeah. How's that all going? Everything's going good, man.
The cigars got to market four months late, which is good, so they got an additional four months of age. That sounds about standard in the industry at this point. You'll get a November, okay? Okay, mine was August, it ended up being December, it was pretty awesome, I think I did the math right, but yeah, the cigars hit the market in December, starting to see a lot of reorders in January and in February, and the response has been really good, minus half wheel, but everything besides that has been really good.
That's standard approach. Yeah, but nobody cares about them, so... Who reviewed your... " because Brooks has a shit palate, everybody knows that.
I mean, why does Brooks keep being the one that reviews cigars out of our factory? Can we please get somebody else? Charlie reviewed the bundle cigar we do called Polonis, but every other cigar- Gave that a 97? No, it was like an 80-something, but it's a bundle cigar.
It's like an 86. Right. But every other cigar pretty much out of our factory, whether it was the Leaf by Omar, which he gave a 90 or something on a Redux recently, or anything else that we've made, Brooks has reviewed. " He's eating cheeseburgers all day, so.
Wow. Super aggressive. Who? Him?
He's not aggressive. He's slow, kind of slovenly. But you wish he was more aggressive. But his testosterone levels are obviously low.
You know, so I was, I heckled the shit out of him a little bit. Unintentionally, it just kind of happened. What's he gonna do? He can't chase you down.
So I was harassing Nick Malolo a lot, and Brooks just so happened to kind of be in the vicinity, so he was trying to get pictures and all this other shit, and he couldn't, because I was... His fat was in the way. No, I was definitely causing a problem. So, then he reviewed the Warbear, and I, you know...
Took it out on him. So, instead of getting the 90, which puts you in the top 25, whatever the fuck, you know, for half-wheel... I really liked it, it's all about the factory, but I got an 89. I got the not quite good enough.
Yeah, but 89 by their standards is actually pretty good. It's practically perfect. Yeah. It's really actually pretty good.
It's all relative. And I do really like Brooks, by the way. This is just all fun and games. Yeah, I know.
No. I'm gonna actually, I'm gonna edit this and I'm gonna cut that part out. Do not. Do not.
I own everything. Wow. Super great. So you made three lines.
You made three blends. You made the San Andreas. You made the Habano. Habano.
Habano. Habano. Good Lord. Habano.
Habano. Habano. Yeah. Connecticut, Habano, and a San Andreas.
And you said the Habano is the best? Habano is my favorite, but I actually go between the Connecticut and the Habano. The Connecticut and the Toro size is money. The Habano in all three sizes I really like.
And then the San Andres I liked most in the Toro. And you blended the Habano. Yeah, I collaborate with that, with Spencer. By collaborate, he means he sent me the blend, and I had them make it.
Nice. And I said, wow, this is really good. We're gonna keep it. That was a very funny story, though.
Yeah. How become... English, please. In English?
Hand it the microphone, too. You gotta be like this. You gotta be all Habano. I don't know, I feel so weird.
No, it's normal for you. Can you tell the story? Yes. It's more faster your way.
" Because we kind of collaborate on stuff like that. If he's going down to the DR, he'll ask me if there's anything I want him to mess with. " We were already kind of in the final stages of a Habano blend that we were really happy with. Not Habano.
Right, Habano, correct. Yeah. It's Spanish for Habano. Okay.
So, we were really close on a Habano blend, and pretty far away on the San Andres, which is Spanish for San Andres. Yeah. That's nice. And then, Ilegal is Spanish for illegal.
Illegal. Yeah. You're so witty. Yeah, thank you.
Thank you. That was sarcasm there. This podcast is going much better than our last podcast. Yeah, it was really high.
Yeah. You were. So, he gives me this blend, a very, I mean, super specific blend in terms of the primings and all the different varietals and regions and everything. " This was, and that's not, you know, the norm.
Especially, there's Peruvian tobacco, Pelladoro, there's a number of different tobacco. We don't disclose it because there's a lot of Cuba in there. So don't disclose about that. Hence the name, Elagal, right?
Right. So he gives me this very specific blend. We put it together, and I told this story on other podcasts. Oh.
And I don't have a lot of shame. We're the number one podcast. No, no, but this is, yeah, exactly. So I was on the phone with the IRS.
Uh-huh. And I was on hold for like two hours, and I finally get a human being on the other line. Okay. Very pleasant.
Pleasant phone call. What's her name? No, it was a hymn, it was like Javier or something, which is really depressing, but Sally. So Omar, our factory owner and the guy that does most of the blending, he comes in and he's very excited about this cigar he's smoking, and I'm very unexcited at the fact that I'm on the phone with the IRS.
Right, and they want you to stay on the line so they can come and apprehend you. Right, right, well I was in Nicaragua, thank God. Yeah, worked out well. So, let me see if I can see if I stole that.
Hold on. Shut up, my bitch. I need to light, Mike. You talk too much.
I know. I know. My wife tells me that. She's right.
" And he's like, "Poor to Adrian. " So, me and Esteban was there and Costa Fotiadis from Smoke Manayunk, who infects a lot of people. - Right. - So if you meet him, stay clear of him.
- Yeah, make sure you're wearing a mask. - Yeah, he's disgusting, but he's built like a Greek God. I mean, good Lord, it's incredible. " So we didn't have to change a single thing, it's the first time ever in my experience, which is fairly limited in the blending world relative to a lot of the other people in the industry, it was the first time ever we haven't had to change a single thing.
There was no going back to the drawing board and changing anything. It was something we were really happy with from day one. So that was it. " Good news is the blend's incredible, bad news is I am stealing it.
Yeah, you get no royalties. Yeah. No, that's still in the court system. What's really kind of remarkable is that you said that would be faster than your version of the story.
- I mean, holy shit! - Yeah, it's faster, 'cause I appreciate all that, but it was a blend that I was trying to put together, and with another process in the Dominican Republic, and I have that blend, a specific blend, 'cause then I would say the necessity on the grey, balanced, tasty aroma Habano in the market was, like, in need, but just my thoughts. It's not really for market, for market cigar percent, but, and I said, you know what, Spencer, yeah, I have something, and then I gave it to him and he did a great job. One, one, one specific point that, knowing La Corona Tobacco, the process that they do, that was about how I make that blend, so they can put the same process in, in the cigar.
So, if you made it in the DR, would it have been under illegal, illegal, la la la? No, it was a blend. It was a blend. It was a blend first, no matter where you do it, but...
But it wouldn't have been his? No. So you would have made it yourself? He already had.
I already have it. He had already made this blend, which is just basically like a Dominican counterpart to it. So some of the regional varietals that we used out of Nicaragua were things that he had used with Dominican tobacco with the same varietal in different regions of the Dominican, And he kind of took a correlation between this tobacco in the Dominican and this tobacco in Nicaragua and tried to create the same blend with a Nicaraguan version of it. So it's, I mean, I've never heard of anything like this going on in the industry before.
I'm sure it probably has happened, but for him to have a specific blend that he had put together in the DR and then to try to find a Nicaraguan counterpart to have that same sort of balance and complexity with maybe a little bit more balls, It's just because of the fact that it's Nicaraguan tobacco and it typically has some kind of stronger flavor components than you get with the Dominican counterpart. Right. But I've smoked the Dominican version of it. And it sucks?
No, it's delicious, man. It's a great blend, too. And it's fucking terrible. No, it's a good blend for Dominican.
Yeah. Exactly. For a Dominican blend, you know, it's extraordinary. He's really good.
Yeah. Okay. San Andreas is the best one. Sorry.
No, no, it's third on the list, but nonetheless, it doesn't matter. No, but it's cool. I mean, not everybody has a pallet like mine. Yeah, I got you.
Yeah, it's you and Brooks. We do look alike, though. We do look alike. Kind of, kind of, yeah.
And he's got a warm embrace. I mean, he really does have a warm embrace. But he's like the weak link of half-wheel, and I think everybody knows that. He knows it.
But, you know, hopefully he can pick his game up and catch up to Brian and Charlie and... Patrick? Yeah. Rodrigo.
Yeah. Patrick Rodrigo. You want to ask the questions that our audience has? Sure.
We have questions from the audience for Spencer. Because, I mean, that was, whew. I'm exhausted. That was long.
I'm exhausted. All right. These came off of our Instagram followers. He's looking at them.
You got to hide them. You can't let him see. I can't read that far. Look at the size of these glasses.
I just burnt the microphone. That's okay. That's all right. It's fine.
It's just the cover. Okay. Now it's broken, now it's broken, now it's broken, can we charge him for that? Send him the bill, please send him the bill, alright, I'm trying to think how you should start, Did you not hear the story of the IRS?
Spring on Instagram. He actually has fans? " Definitely. Definitely my biggest fan.
That was perfect. Biggest fan. Biggest fan. Huge.
Huge fan. I'm quite familiar with all your work. Outside of the balance ball and the yoga instructor. Yeah.
At the hotel. In the hotel room. Did you get her name so you can find her on Instagram? Even Hotels, by the way.
Even Hotels. Really interesting. Plug. Plug.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sponsored by Even Hotels. But maybe not after they find out what I did with that balance ball. My name is Spence Drake, and I...
I think we kind of determined who he is and what he does. manufactured cigars. Yes, yes, he did mention it. And I just thought that was quite funny.
Yeah, La Familia Robana, formerly White Hat, right? White Hate, yeah. White Hate. White Hate.
There was a typo, evidently, on the original. You didn't listen to the podcast from Coop? No. So, I got to tell the story again.
Yeah, then tell the story. It's a good story. I mean, it's painful, but it's good. But it'll be quick.
I'll make it really quick. You'll tell the short version. You got like 20 seconds. So I had the signature on my email, and for like three months, I had this signature on my email.
And I had somebody contact me and say, hey, your signature is messed up on your email after three months. Right. And I look at it, and I'm like, oh, no. Like, how do you fat finger or – How do you add the E?
And instead of being S. Drake @WhiteHatCigars, it was S. Drake @WhiteHateCigars, which White Hat had its own line of questioning initially. E.?
Yes. You know what's kind of amazing is that nobody else fucking even bothered looking at it. Most people just reply to your email. They don't take the signature line and do anything with it or put it in your contacts or whatever.
They just reply to your email. So it took three months for somebody to actually try to click on it and realize it didn't go through. " - Right. - Went to a whole different website.
- Yeah, no, that website, somebody has purchased that URL. - White Hate Cigars? - White Hate Cigars, yeah, somebody has purchased it. It doesn't go anywhere, but it's like a landing page sort of thing.
You can look it up, audience, and yeah, but you don't want that in your search. But nonetheless. Because then your Facebook feed gets really weird. Yeah, but so anyway, Coop had been trying to get me on the show forever, because obviously I'm me, and he- He is so talented.
" Yeah. I keep getting responses in these meetings, right? Jesus. He can invite you to these meetings.
Maybe I guess that's right. He's getting responses and people are showing up with white- White hate. A whole new audience for you. Holy moly.
White hoods. Wow. Yeah, we'd love to be on your show. I agree.
We're going to get to a whole new audience. All right, do you have any pet peeves? Yogi1966 would like to know if you have a pet peeve. Ooh, do you have any pet peeves?
Pet peeves. I don't want to tell you because you're here. The lighter clicking thing, I really hate that. People clicking pens, people, you know, in the cigar industry, in general, pretty much.
Okay, he hates that. That's good to know. I'm going to make a YouTube video of it, and then loop it, and then send it to you every fucking day. Make that the signature on your email.
Right. Just a click, click, click, click. What's your favorite HR cigar from Instagram it? My favorite HR cigar is, man, it's tough.
It's either the Habano Claro in the 109, or it's the Signature Corona. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, I would say the signature Corolla.
For sure. Okay, and then from It's Southern Gunner, our final question. Why the Drake is good, philosophically? It's a reference to a Seinfeld episode.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. The Drake was like the maestro or whatever. Right.
No kidding. Yeah. Yeah, like the maestro, you know, taking blends from other people and just fucking using them as your own. Then, you know, I get it.
No comment. That's it, it's all the questions. That's all the questions. Okay.
Yeah, I just didn't have a whole lot of interest. So, you know, it's funny that you're on, because I spoke to Ronnie Heysha, Heysha, the other week, no, yesterday. And, you know, he was talking about your product. Never heard of her.
Yeah? Never heard of her. You never heard of her? No.
You don't remember a specific video of your shit being ejected out the front door? It's flying off the shelves. Flying off the shelves. Well, he said that he wants to revisit it.
No, he is. Yeah, he's a good guy. He also said that we don't represent, we don't talk at all about what we do, like how we're affiliated in the cigar industry. Speak into the microphone, please.
I'm sorry, I had to turn off my phone. Oh, like, what? About the shopping stuff? Yeah, like the shop and prostania.
Well, you personally don't do that. You didn't want to connect the two. I thought that was pretty funny. I also wanted to talk about...
So we did finally watch one then? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. He's my spirit animal.
Is he? I love Ronnie. What a great spirit animal. Oh, he's such a good dude, man.
He really is. He's just a, he's a fucking crazier than I am. Yeah, well, at least on Facebook. No, no, in reality, yeah.
Yeah, in person? Yeah, no, he's come up behind me before and like, I mean, he made out my cheek one time. Oh, that's, that's good. Wow, that's nice.
No, it was really nice. Yeah, I think he's Caldeon, so. That's nice. A lot of tongue work.
Ooh. J. Fernandez. It was Half Wheel.
It was not Half Wheel. It wasn't Half Wheel. It was Cigar Authority. Cigar Authority?
Cigar Authority. Yeah. Well, in a half-wheel story, they said they did. Oh, no.
They said they leaked it. Yeah. Hmm? Cigar Authority.
Apparently. Apparently. Well, we don't fact-check on the show anyway, so it doesn't really matter. No.
I'm safe. Goddamn, I'm safe. Do you want to ask the questions? Oh!
I mean, we've asked them to spend. They were miserable answers. We've done that forever. Certainly, we can do that.
I have them right here. We have five questions. Oh, cool. We haven't done them five questions forever.
Yeah. We used to ask this to everybody who came on the show, everybody's first time on the show. So this is your first time on the show. First time on the show.
He has viewed the show from the live audience, but... Yeah, that was like Roachy and Tut, right? Yeah, that's right. All right, first question.
Name one person, living or dead, you'd like to share a cigar with. Jesus. Now, yeah, my great-grandfather. That was nasty, right?
Wow. I totally tried to get that out. He just got deep with you with his great-grandfather comment, and you're just over here. No, I tried to get rid of it.
It smelled worse than it sounded. You could have just held it. No, I totally aimed it at you, but that was just trying to get it out of there. You could have just held it.
All right, serious now. My great-grandfather, why? He was the first figure that I seen enjoying a cigar, and that was the first person that I gifted a cigar. " He's actually my boss.
I believe it. Actually, Katia is both of our voices. Yeah, yeah, she's a-- Shout out to Katia. Yeah, what?
We appreciate your work. Well, that's a good answer. All right. All right, number two.
Best piece of advice anyone ever gave you? Yeah. That's on me or that's on Spencer? That's on me?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's already answered the questions. Other than don't work for Spencer Drake. Yeah, other than that?
Wear a condom. Yeah, that's the second one. But the primary on the industry, yes. Mr.
Sherman, Mr. Joe Sherman, when I was in retail back in New York, tell me one time, are you patient, kid? I was like, what is the... I said, are you patient?
You like this industry? And I said, yeah, I consider myself very patient. And I said, well, you're going to be very successful. You're very patient.
You need to have a lot of patience in this industry. Okay. That works well with working with me. Yeah.
Especially working with Spencer. Yeah, I could see that. Okay, number three. Like getting paid, you have to be patient for the fucking paychecks.
That's what he keeps telling him, be patient. Thank you, Katia. Your favorite cigar. What's your favorite cigar?
Doesn't have to be one of his. Okay. Oh, good. It's not a brand.
I made that cigar seven years ago, and I still consume it in my personal time. That's my personal blend, so I did that cigar. The Dominican one? No.
The Dominican version? Not the Dominican? Well, it has Dominican Tobacco. Where'd you make it?
I made it in the ER, and I make it in Nicaragua as well. Okay. But not at La Corona Factory? Not at La Corona Factory.
Okay. All right. Number four. Do you make a lot of them?
No, you're still good. Enough for myself. So how many is that? $5,000, $10,000 at least, every year.
Annually? Annually. And to share with my friends and family. Have you had one?
Yep. No would've been a funnier answer. What'd you think of it? That was disgusting.
It's the San Andreas, Michael, that's where they either got one. A fictional character you would like to have a cigar with. Can you repeat that in Spanish? ¿Donde es fictional character?
El Ficcinale. A fictional? Fictional character. Yeah, somebody from a movie, not a real person.
Someone from a book or... Cartoon character. He doesn't read. Character in a movie.
I can read. This is so bad. You guys are evil people. I messed up.
I messed up. Character of a movie or a character of a book. Yeah. I have a character figure.
Yeah. My dad. He's not fictional. He's a real person.
Well, wait, maybe his dad's fictional. No, that's not fictional. No, no, that's not fictional. That's what his mom told him.
Well, yeah, Marlon Brando. Marlon Brando, but nonetheless, in Spanish it's Marlon Brando. You mean like the Godfather? Like the character they played in the Godfather?
Okay, okay. We got there. We got there a lot faster. I'm here to interpret that.
We got there faster with Hiroshi, I think, but, I mean, holy shit. What was Hiroshi's answer? I don't remember. I have no idea.
I think we just kind of let him off the hook a few times. We're like, okay, where's he at now? Back in Cuba? He's in Cuba.
Cuba. Cuba. Cuba. You guys FaceTime often, or what?
He hates you. We do WhatsApp. You do WhatsApp? Yeah, it's a different sort of platform to communicate with people internationally.
A lot of Chinese people use that too. Yeah. Yeah, it's big in China too. You can pass the coronavirus through WhatsApp.
Oh, that's good. But it's not in Cuba yet. Coast-to-rona-virus. Coast-to-rona-virus.
It is in Cuba. It is? Yeah, yeah. Oh.
Simone SA. OK. They still report it. It's not allowed to be reported.
Ah. Fifth question is, do you want to tell people how they can get ahold of you? Your Instagram page or... Sure.
Friendster. What was it? Friendster. Friendster.
Or Grindr. Well, Instagram is... What's your Tinder? T-H-E, Cigar Culture, The Cigar Culture, and Facebook, Adrian.
Thanks for spelling the out. I don't know. T-H-E, Cigar Culture. You don't have an idea how many people messed that up.
It's so much better when you give Spence a few drinks before he comes on the podcast. Versus Reefer. Yeah, just kind of lube him up a little, you know? Oh, lube.
Yeah. You like that. Back to the yoga instructor. Oh, lube on the yoga ball.
All right, we need to take a break. We're over 29 minutes. All right. All right, just a second.
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"Fucking crap. Craft beer world. Yeah. All right, we're back on.
I love your sentiment. I know you do. Just let it settle. Just let it settle.
No towel for you. Is that milk? We're recording. Oh, excuse me.
I believe I heard that. Don't worry. All right, so hit me. I have just a little bit of news.
Okay. And a update on our internship. Okay. You want the internship news first?
Internship. Save that for the last. Okay, we'll do that last. Okay.
Okay. UPS would now require a person at least 21 years of age assigned for all packaging, containing cigars and other tobacco products. A revision to the UPS's Transportation of Tobacco Products Agreement in December 2019 includes the change. It covers all tobacco products including cigarettes, cigars, roll-your-own-pipe tobacco, smuggled tobacco, vape, and e-cigarette products.
Does that include business-to-business? No, just person-to-person, it says. Oh, no, it does say B2B, so yeah, business-to-business. UPS and other carriers already require shipping.
Shipping and handling prices just went up. S. has already increased to 21 at the federal level. Enforcement of the law has not yet begun.
It's affecting the COD as well. They cannot mix that up, the signature requirement, the COD cannot be the same. Oh, look at that. Double whammy.
Double whammy. So it's going to be an extra fee if you're COD. No, I think they don't go together. Got you.
They don't allow you to go together. So, signature required, that's like an extra 10, 15 bucks, right? Oh, is it really? Can't wait.
Can't wait. Everything's going up. The days of free shipping are over. I'd never get free shipping.
That's the only news. We just did it two days ago. That's it. I have the symptoms for the coronavirus.
Nah, you don't want to do that? Nope. Ways to improve employee morale around here, because it's a hostile work environment. No.
See? You don't get that either. I'd like to hear that. Go ahead.
You want to hear that? You have Spence's attention. Okay. Mike loves a list.
So there's six ways. So you communicate often? He does that. Solicit employee feedback?
Never. Every week. Every week. We have a meeting every week.
He does do that. Do you think he listens to any of it? No. Especially when I say something, he just says it's stupid.
Do you feel like you're being ganged up on right now? I can tell you that in this week's meeting, they said, "Hey, you know what would be really awesome? So when you're washing glasses, you can hear the front door open and that's already been installed. Have they talked to you about your shirt size?
No. He's not really getting bigger. The shirts are getting smaller. It's an XL.
It's an XL. Well, if you wash it in hot and dry it in hot. That's the other brother. Greg wears his mediums.
It's super tight. Make firm business decisions. Okay. Create an effective incentive program.
That's what we don't have. Facebook. yeah I think I'm doing all right here use social media to praise employees uh maybe not so much I'm not really into praise yeah yeah and have fun oh I definitely have fun I have fun at their expense come on man we have a good time here maybe maybe four out of the six I would say five out of the six I don't think you use social media to praise employees that's the one I don't do you're counting the the social media is the effective incentive program yes Infective? Infective.
Infective. Infective. Infective. All right, so you got five out of the six.
All right. Hey, without even knowing about this fucking list. You need to praise. Praise the employees.
Hey. All right. I'm going to praise Jacob as soon as we get out. I'm going to praise the shit out of him when we walk in.
He needs it. He needs it. He does. He needs it.
I brought him down. I think I brought him way down. Very low self-esteem, that young man. Okay.
He's really good looking though. Is that your wife again? Yep. She always knows.
I always know. Is she talking about me? Is she mentioning it? Yeah, is he coming over right there?
Is he coming over right there? Nice. I'm not allowed back at the house. You either?
I'm not either. After I lost a bunch of money from Greg. I'm not allowed at the house anymore. I don't allow myself back to the house.
Well, that's Greg's house. No, that was your house that I lost all the money at at Super Bowl Sunday. Yeah. Ooh, double up.
Oh, that was against the New England, New England-Atlanta game. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah.
He fucking... Oh, I had him. Yeah, he took such a dumb bet, and then they came back and won, and I took a bath. Yeah, he did.
I think Greg got like 500 from me that weekend. And you haven't been able to recoup since. No, no, my life has spiraled downward since that moment, and it wasn't in a good place then, so it's really dark. It's 28 to 3, and you're like, you know what, I'm going to give you another bet to kind of offset it so we can just break even, but my brother doesn't take that shit lightly.
So, he took that bet, and then he just raked you right over the coals. He beat me in poker the night before, too, and I was way ahead of him, and then we started playing like one-on-one, which was just heads up, and I had had a few drinks, nonetheless. He wore you down. No, he went on a heater, and it wasn't wearing me down, he caught fire, and yeah, it was like a $500 hit to Greg, but it's charity, I mean, if you know Greg.
Okay, with the Handshake website we found, we have applied to eight different schools to get an intern. Yeah, we're going to get an intern. We're trying to get an intern for the show. Somebody to work the camera and help us do a couple other things.
It's kind of like Adrian, you know, charitable work. They can get school credit, but no extra payment, we don't have any money. No, no, but people are into that sort of thing. Yeah.
But out of the eight schools, we've already been denied by four. All right, so we're halfway there. So why? Because of the tobacco?
They didn't say. That could be it. I don't know. We just need the one.
We just need one. No, you need to get an answer out of those schools as to why you were denied. He's right. You'd like to find that out, because that'd be good content.
Hey, could you let us know why we were denied? Bigger colleges, too, have already said no. UCF said no. Florida Southern said no.
I think UCF is the biggest college, isn't it? Here? Around this area. No, no, no, no.
In the country. Really? I think UCF has the highest enrollment in the entire country. Wow.
Yep. It is. It's a huge place. It's like 60-some-odd thousand students.
It's pretty crazy. It's not the School of Hard Knocks. That doesn't have the most people. Oh, good point.
Good point. You know, just go check your Facebook posts. I love that. Yeah.
Looking at people. I went to the School of Hard Knocks. School of Hard Knocks. School of Hard Knocks.
That's it. That's all I got. That's all you have. We just did a show two days ago.
That's amazing. That's all I got. It's okay. I appreciate you doing this on our behalf.
Yeah. I appreciate you doing this on our behalf. You needed a redeeming show. Yeah, is there anything else that you want to say in any redemption-wise or anything like that?
Fuck plugging, you don't get to plug in. I'm sorry. I really am sorry that for any of you that watched the previous episode, to be honest. You gotta go back and listen to it, because it's really...
There's no video, thank God, because the eyes would have been glossy. I just want you to know, if you think that your life sucks, and you got, you know, a lot of things are going bad for you, you're going sideways, just go ahead listen. Who's talking to you, Jeff Gruber? " Do it sober, Jeff.
I mean, do everything sober. It's better for you and your family. My life doesn't suck so bad. All right.
Well, hey, thanks for coming on. Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you so much, bro.
Thanks, Andrew. Appreciate it. All right, guys. That's it.
Bye. Love you. Love you. And all of you.
Do you guys want a hug before we turn it on? No. No? Okay.
All right, bye. 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. It is not our intention to libel, incite or hurt anyone's feelings.
We invite you to write the show's host, Mike Stefan Kevich, 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, who's Joey Raw? Yeah, we just don't have to do a single, a single podcast ever again. Perfect.
I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing? The Hojo Deeb. Hojo!
It's the Hojo. You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way. I couldn't get past Hojo! I don't even have to try it.
We're gonna cover a lot of ground here, Mike. All right. Try to keep up. That's a sign of a good podcast.
It's going to be like four cigars when I walked in the door. Alright, end this. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Hey, I'm Jacob Tipton.
You may remember me from episode 102. Well, I haven't quit yet. This week on episode 109, why is the Drake so good? Redemption interview?
Don't touch the yoga ball. All that and more coming now.
Show Notes
This week we get to talk to Spencer Drake from La Familia Robaina and his right hand man Senior Adrian Acosta, Cigar Broker to the Stars!
Its a much better interview than the last time he was on the show!!
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