Episode 136 Revenge, JC Newman Snubs, Esteli Puro

Episode Summary

Episode 136 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with the hosts, Mike Szczepankiewicz and Mike Palmer, thanking Ronnie of Secreto Cigar Bar in Michigan for a care package of Drew Estate Sweet Jane, Fat Bottom Betty and Desert Rose patches and swag, then airing a grievance: J.C. Newman assembled an unboxing montage for its new Yagua cigar featuring Coop (Cigar Coop), the Cigar Dojo, Cigar Obsession, Cigar Prop, Cigar Talk with Pat and Blind Man's Puff — but not the Hustlers. The shop also received its first shipment of RoMa Craft's Baka Jungi (alongside the Pygmy), which sets up the episode's centerpiece prank: Mike Palmer smoked a stick out of a box that had been promised to loyal customer Nick Ruggiero, and the hosts call Nick live to break the news (he was in on it).

The news block is the meat of the episode. Cigars International cancelled CigarFest 2020, and Cigar Aficionado cancelled both Big Smoke Meets WhiskeyFest and Big Smoke Las Vegas — joining the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival, Drew Estate Barn Smoker, Weasel Fest, La Zona Palooza, Two Guys Smoke Shop's 35th anniversary, the Texas Cigar Festival and Smoke in the Carolinas, with only Tampa's Heritage Festival still standing. Bigger news: a federal judge in Cigar Association of America v. FDA struck down the substantial equivalence pathway as applied to premium cigars, lifting the September 9 deadline and remanding the deeming rule provision to the agency — with reactions from Rocky Patel and Ashton's Robert Levin. The hosts also cover A.J. Fernandez's price restructuring (New World Tins dropping, New World Oscuro sizes rising due to Cameroon wrapper costs) and Foundation Cigar Company's Huapan Huapan/Highclere-style five-year anniversary Perfecto for El Güegüense — a 4x60 perfecto with Nicaraguan Corojo 99 wrapper over San Andrés binder, made at TABSA, $15 a stick in a 20-count winged collector box.

The closing segment is a phone interview with Justin Andrews of Diesel (AJ Fernandez), who details the new Diesel Estelí Puro: the first cigar A.J. Fernandez has made using wrapper actually grown in Estelí, made possible by A.J.'s drip-irrigation investment years earlier. Andrews explains that roughly 95% of Estelí tobacco is binder and filler, what makes a true regional puro different from a country-of-origin puro, and confirms three sizes — Robusto 5.25x54, Toro 6x52 and Gigante 6x60 — shipping in September with a roll-your-own promotional program instead of the barrel giveaways of past releases. He also talks about pandemic life off the road, renovating a house, and endless Home Depot runs. Florida oddities round things out: genetically modified mosquitoes in the Keys, a Lake Jesup alligator harvest that cost a hunter his forearm, and the Miami Dolphins allowing 13,000 distanced fans at their home opener.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Secreto Cigar Bar swag and Drew Estate patches
   The hosts publicly thank Ronnie of Secreto Cigar Bar for sending Sweet Jane, Fat Bottom Betty and Desert Rose patches, a lighter and a Xikar cutter.
2. 02
   J.C. Newman's Yagua unboxing snub
   J.C. Newman's media unboxing montage included Cigar Coop, Cigar Dojo, Cigar Obsession, Cigar Prop, Cigar Talk with Pat and Blind Man's Puff — but not the Hustlers.
3. 03
   The RoMa Craft Baka Jungi prank call
   Mike Palmer smoked a cigar from a box of the first-release Baka Jungi reserved for customer Nick Ruggiero, who gets a live call breaking the news.
4. 04
   Cigar event cancellations pile up
   CigarFest 2020, Big Smoke Las Vegas and Big Smoke Meets WhiskeyFest all cancelled, leaving Tampa's Heritage Festival as one of the last events standing.
5. 05
   Court strikes down FDA substantial equivalence for premium cigars
   A D.C. district judge ruled the FDA violated procedure, killing the September 9 SE deadline and sending the deeming rule provision back to the agency.
6. 06
   A.J. Fernandez price restructuring
   New World Tins drop in price while several New World Oscuro sizes rise about 10 cents due to increased African Cameroon wrapper costs, effective September 15.
7. 07
   Foundation El Güegüense 5th Anniversary
   Nicholas Melillo's 4x60 perfecto with Corojo 99 wrapper and San Andrés binder ships in a winged 20-count collector box at $15 per cigar.
8. 08
   Justin Andrews on the Diesel Estelí Puro
   Diesel's brand ambassador explains the first A.J. Fernandez cigar with Estelí-grown wrapper, its three sizes, and the roll-your-own promo replacing barrel giveaways.

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

Hey, this is Mike too, and this is the Cigar Hustler Podcast Episode 136. This week, Mikey tries to get revenge, JC Newman snubs us like everybody else, and stay tuned to the end to hear about the first Esteli Pua. Pupo, Puro, ah, well, uh, all this and more this week on a Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Wait until you have, like, a really expensive light over here.

Oh, fancy. Okay, uh, wait, wait, wait, um, oh, can't even see. Episode 136 of a Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. So, uh, where should we start? Did you have your pasta? Did you have some sauce?

Did you try the sauce? Oh, yeah, we did a second one. I posted pictures. Oh, you know what?

People have been asking who won. I haven't heard from Hunt. I don't know. We'll have to reach out to him.

We'll have to reach out to find out who won. Figure that out. Everybody, I don't know. But we probably won't do another cooking show.

It's not really our thing. It's tough. I mean, we're barely a cigar show at this point. We're just sort of a show.

Yeah. But, I mean, I had fun with Matt. I enjoyed the episode, and I thought it played well. And I made, or my wife made chicken parm with it, with the sauce.

Oh, I made, I used the white and I did a shrimp pasta thing and it was delicious. Oh, shrimp pasta. Well, he said the white one goes over seafood, so I put my Fratelli sauce over shrimp. Some scallops?

No, no, just shrimp. I like scallops. Just shrimp. Scallops are nice.

Yeah, but shrimp happened to be on sale that day. I was there. I was gonna go with scallops to tell you the truth, but shrimp was on sale. I do need to thank Ronnie Hyesha, Hyesha, who knows, the fact of the matter is, here's the simple, the retort to that, if we screw up anybody's last name, they have to get mine right first, nobody can say your name, and he never says your name right, but anyway, he was doing a huge promotion for Drew Estate, Sweet Jane's, Desert Rose, whatever, so it came up on the story, well, there was a There was a patch in his photo.

Yeah, and you wanted that patch. " Well, he made a thing about it that I was dry begging for everything. Oh, really? " or something like that.

" So, okay. Right. So he sent a nice package. He did.

He sent a patch for each one. So I got a Sweet Jane, a Fat Bottom Betty, and a Desert Road Patch, he also sent a lighter, and also sent an X1 Zycar Cutter, all with the Desert Road stuff on it. No kidding. So, Ronnie, thank you very much, it's very nice of you, brother.

That Ronnie, he's such a sweet man. It's Secreto Cigar Bar. Secreto, Secreto. Secreto, Secreto.

com, I believe it is, up in Michigan. Oh, look at you, a little shameless plug, see? He's the man. See, when you give and you're a nice person, it goes a long way.

I purposely haven't thanked him personally just so I could do it on the show. Wow. So, Ronnie, thank you. Wow, there it is, Ronnie.

Apparently, a friend of Chet's works there. Really? Chet's from Michigan also? Yeah.

Yeah, his brother-in-law or somebody or some good friend of his is one of the bartenders that works for Ronnie or something. It's got to be crazy. It's got to be tough working for Ronnie. It's got to be tough.

I don't know. He's a little crazy. He's crazier than us. Could be.

No, he is. Well, it's probably back in the days when your dad used to hang out here because his dad hangs out of his shop all the time. Well, his dad's amazing, though. Yeah.

I liked your dad. Your dad was very nice. Yeah. He's nice to me.

I loved his stories. You know, I've told Ronnie that I love his father way more than him. Oh, really? Yeah, because his dad gets very angry about stuff.

So, he's getting some of the Karole Bashkins. Yes. And I thought that they weren't celloed. They're not celloed.

Oh, no, they're not celloed. " So, like, that's something that his dad's gonna lose his shit over. Oh, he likes celloed stuff. Yeah, so they can put UPC labels on it and stuff like that.

You know what, they're gonna sell so fast, you don't even need UPC. It's gonna be pretty, yeah, so I'm gonna work on getting them celloed. " Well, we're just constantly working on improving. improving we're trying to grow trying to improve and you know the next level if you're gonna make mistakes might as well be on us so here we are it's very bright in here we're getting there now i understand why people wear sunglasses uh when they take this it's nice because i don't have to look that way i just look at you ah well you know i thought about setting up over there and doing a direct shot front but nah because then we'll be doing this the whole time right we purposely do Let's do the little corner piece just so we can look at the camera and wink and smile at everybody.

But we're good, but this is, I feel good about this and I like mixing it up. It's nice, you know, at least the audio is good too. Oh, the audio is always good. We've got that, at least we've got that portion of the show down pat, and you know what, I don't have the audio hooked to the camera.

Son of a bitch, I can fix it. But you can fix it. I can fix it, yeah. Yeah, that's easier to fix now.

That's okay. So at least the audio, so at the halfway, we'll switch and plug in the cord. Because we were moving the camera around so much it never got... Because we're getting better at it.

Yes. What was I going to say? Damn it. As long as we're talking about video I have something else.

Oh, yeah? Go ahead. C. Newman did an unboxing video for their new cigar, the Y-U-G-U-A, Y-U-A, whatever.

Oh, really? Did you see that? No. Oh, so apparently they sent it to media people.

Right. So they clipped a thing together of all these different shows opening the cigars on their show. Yeah. We didn't get it.

Well, I mean, that's a John Oliva problem. Well, I don't know. And you know he's a listener. Yes, he is an avid listener.

Yeah. He's one of our biggest fans. So you can put him on blast right now and say, hey. Okay, here are the shows that they had the clips, that they had clips from.

They had Coop. Okay. Coop, he's the big man. Dojo?

Okay. Okay. Dojo. If you throw Dojo out there, I'm thinking, okay, well maybe we should have belonged in there.

Oh, well wait, it gets better. Cigar Obsession. Okay, so then we definitely, he's got a lot of followers. A lot of followers.

But Cigar Prop, Cigar Talk with Pat. With Pats, it says with Pats. Well, it's supposed to be with Pat, I don't, I never heard of that one. And then Blind Man's Puff.

That's been around for a long time. Has it? Mm-hmm. Oh, I'm not familiar with that show either.

Oh, audio. You touched, you touched the cord. You touched the cord. I didn't do anything.

You touched the cord. God. So anyway, I mean... Where were we on the opening?

On the opening of the box? Nothing. We didn't get nothing. We're like...

John, I want you to play this for whoever needs to hear it. I mean, we're the number one show on two different platforms now. It's crazy, it's crazy. And they still don't acknowledge you.

It's insane. No love, no love at all. I'm sorry to hear that. I was gonna say that, you know, we are working on this video and stuff, And we're constantly trying to improve it.

Yes. If you're a listener, please go check us out on YouTube, maybe hit a like or subscribe or something like that. Our views are up a little bit on YouTube. You know, just so you can kind of see what we're doing.

We always appreciate insight, so we're just trying to get better, better every day. All the time. Just for you. Just for you people, because we don't watch these.

Yeah. I watch them. Oh. So what did you do?

Did you do anything exciting over the weekend? I went to Universal. Oh! Mask?

Crowds? Crowds. Was it really? Holy shit.

Because we were thinking about doing the- It's over. Buy a ticket. Go to the state of December? Yeah.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. No, but if there's crowds. You just space it out. Like, they do a good job of keeping the spacing and stuff like that.

Right. And yelling at people if they don't cover their nose and stuff. Like, there are people for all that. Right.

But I will tell you this, when it's 95 fucking degrees outside. Oh, you went Sunday? I went Saturday. I went Saturday.

A little better. No. It was not better. It was, it was hot.

It was very hot. And then everybody's got to wear masks. And like, you know, my poor kids, they were getting, they were getting fatigued. Oh, even the kids.

So I'm like, so we called it early. I'm like, all right, let's get the hell out of here. We rode, you know, a couple of the kids rides. We didn't really get to, you know, we didn't get to do any of the adult stuff because the lines were too long.

I was going to ask, are the long lines, like, would you go to Islands or to Universal? We went to Islands. So let's just say the Hulk. How long was the ride?

70 minutes. See, that's the way it is normally. Right. 75 minutes plus.

Right. So, you're not saving any. Now, normally, like, we have an express pass that kicks in at a specific time, but we couldn't, we weren't there long enough. Gotcha.

We're like, we gotta go. Oof. But, you know, we had, I still had a good time. It was nice to get out and kind of walk around and stuff, and I felt very comfortable there, you know.

There are only a couple of times where I'm, you know, where I'm around too many people, and I'm just like, okay. Right. Only that one time at that one bar restaurant was the only time I've ever been uncomfortable. Yeah.

Now, outside with the mask is tough, we go to Home Depot a lot, we're doing some outdoor stuff, and it gets hot out there with that mask on, just walking around the Home Depot garden area. I feel like the entire world is going into Home Depot at this point. Oh, it's terribly busy. Terribly busy.

And, you know, they should have extremely high revenue numbers for this year. It should be, yes. It was there three times over the weekend, places packed each time. Yeah, I believe it.

So yeah, I did that. You know, there's a guy at My Home Depot. Yes. He's like a sweet guy.

He's like a greeter. Oh, greeter. Yeah. I don't know what happened to him.

Maybe he had a stroke or something, or something had happened to him. Yes. And you can't really hear him when he doesn't have a mask. Sometimes you can't fully understand what he's saying.

Now he's got a mask, and he's always happy. Right. Super happy guy. But it's – I'm like, goddammit, I don't know what the hell you're saying to me.

I'm like, hey. Just say hello and walk by. All right. You know.

Hey, how you doing? Yeah, but I don't want to be like – I'm sure there are other people who do that. And he's probably like, can I help you find something today? Or he's probably saying something like that.

And I was like, brr, have a good day. You know? You go to that one up on 436, 434. Yeah, 470.

That's an older one. Yeah, so. And that guy's been there since the dawn of time. Oh.

Maybe he came in the place. Maybe. They used to, the retail places get discounts for hiring people with disabilities. You get a tax discount.

I don't know if that's the case with this guy. I don't know. Like, I don't know any of the details. I just know that super happy, very outgoing.

Super. And now that he has to wear a mask, I can't understand him at all. So. Oh, poor man.

Yeah. We had an interesting scenario here at the shop with you. Oh, yeah, we might as well get that out. Let's get into this.

Let's go ahead and get that out of the way. So, the Baka Jangi. And the Pygmies. Okay, but the Jangi has not been out before.

Oh, see, I didn't know that. Yeah, this is the first time it's been released. We received three boxes, and I had people that were looking for those three boxes, and I had guaranteed them those boxes prior to the sale. Didn't tell anybody.

I didn't feel like I had to tell anybody. You should have, obviously. Because normally, I build the stuff for the site, and then it goes out, right? Well, in the process, it was going through the process when I grabbed hold of the box.

Well, the process stops, because it's something that I haven't touched, so it stays right in this section of... I guess because it had not been opened yet, so I guess, yeah. So, you went ahead and... I opened a box.

And you opened up a box. I had one. And you smoked a Jengi. Oh, it was good, too.

It was good. Yeah, I'm sure it was. Even with the guilt. I'm sure it was delicious.

Even with the guilt. I did smoke it slow, though. I was like, mmm. The funniest part is, Chet was going to have one, too, until I started getting in trouble.

He re-sellowed his and put it back in the box. Seal that up. Seal that back up. Put that back in there.

So, of the three people that I think would not be, the person that would be the least offended about this and be upset about it would be Nick Ruggiero. Yes. Call my grandma. Call my friend Nick.

So we're going to call him right now. I'll make so I can apologize. And you're going to give him the bad news. All right.

All right, let's do this. Okay. I'm very excited about this. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you are.

It's a little tied up. Oh, see, I gave it to you early and then you tangled it up. I just made it worse. Okay.

Is he busy? He could be fishing. He's been doing a lot of fishing. I don't think that he's busy.

Are you getting a text message? I am. From anybody I know, maybe? From my wife asking about an air mattress.

Oh, no. I heard you were going to get other ones. Oh, yeah, I did, from Yogurlite? Yeah.

Yeah, it looked like he sent me, like, it was 60 frames per second, like, the video they sent. Oh, I know he sent a video. Yeah, he sent a video. And then a mask emoji.

But anyways. There we go. I'll have to up it, like, because it doesn't record loud. Hello.

Nicholas. Yo, buddy. Hey, what's up, brother? Are you okay?

You got a second to talk? Yeah. Oh, okay. Hey, so we're on the, you're on the podcast right now.

Breathing heavy, everything okay? Got a big fish on the line? Nice. I was just running outside.

My wife took the kids in the pool. I just ran to go grab their best. Oh, okay. She went to her cousin's house.

Safety first. Yeah. Yeah. So, hey, so, so, hey, listen, I know that I promised you a box of Baka Jangis.

Oh, yeah, like over a year ago? Yeah, over a year ago, yeah. A year ago, yeah, he's been up my ass about it for a year to get this box of cigars. Mike Palmer had, what's that?

They came in yet? Go ahead, Mike, you take over. They came in the other day, Nick. Oh, sweet.

Tell me, I talked to you this weekend. Well, your box is one short, apparently, because I didn't know he had saved them for you, and I opened the box. Opened the box? You smoked them?

I smoked one out of the box, yes, I did. So these guys, they don't respect anything. They just kind of go ahead and do whatever the hell they want. So now you're fucked.

How do you feel about that? I don't feel too great. Especially, I've been waiting like a year. I'm smoking these pygmies.

Now I got to what? Like tape two pygmies together? They got... Oh, I can do that.

I mean, that's a different gauge. I don't think it works that way. I mean, but you have a tendency to kind of, when you purchase especially boxes, some of the new stuff, you like to keep them sealed, right? Exactly.

I feel very set up here. Let him sit a little bit, especially that I got these other ones. I haven't talked to him. He called me this weekend.

I was at Universal. " They just came in, and I haven't heard from you. " Right. You know what I'm saying?

And we spoke this weekend. You knew I was having a rough weekend. And this is the information I get to start my vacation from work. Right.

Jesus, Palmer, you're killing me. Sorry, boss. Wait, I think this happened once before, no? This is the second time?

It might be. It might be a second time. Not me. It wasn't with Palmer, though.

It wasn't with Palmer, right? Yeah. You guys are absolutely killing me. I might have to, you know, call up these other specialty realtors and see...

Retailers? Not realtors. - Retailers? - Retailers, that's what I said.

And, you know, do some shopping elsewhere. I don't think you really do that, I think you're kind of, you're fully shit. Like I said, I had two guys call me, "Oh, do you want a box? " Now you guys are fishing into the inventory as soon as they come in.

I'll put something in it to make you whole, don't worry. Oh, really? Yes. Really?

What's that? I have some rare stuff at home. I'll bring something in and I'll stick it in there where that one cigar is. He doesn't want any of that shit.

He doesn't want any. You don't know what it is. I have some rare Roma stuff. I have so many cigars here.

What do you, you know? Well, if you have so many cigars here, it's just missing one. Yeah. But he likes it sealed.

Exactly. But I like them sealed in the box like a certain way. He fucking collects the shit. Once, you know, break the seal.

You know what I'm saying? I gotcha. Sorry. He's trying to act unfazed, but he's fazed.

No, man, what else am I going to do? I've offered to put something else in it. You know, I can't reseal the box. It is what it is at this point.

Can you try calling Roma? Maybe they can send you the sticker? Sticker? He wants it resealed.

They'll be missing a cigar still. Right. Unbelievable. I can get a jingy.

I can get another jingy. Did you smoke it already, or you just took it home? No, no, no. I smoked it.

If I would have taken it out, I would have just put it back in, if I hadn't already smoked it. How were they? It was good. It's a good cigar.

You know what? As soon as you get them, you should open it and smoke one. Any different from the others? It has a little different taste to it because of the size.

The Corona's probably the best one. Yeah. So, hey, do you remember the bang bullshit that Palmer put me through? Yes.

Yeah, so you can go ahead and let him in now. I told you, it was set up in the game. Nick doesn't get that mad. Yeah, he just wants some singles.

Nick's not that guy to get that mad. So yeah, so you're in the clear, you're safe, you're safe. But I knew that I had to break your balls about this. You know what, then you should have had called one of the other two people that I don't know.

But I had to let him in on it. No, but you could have let one of the other two guys in on it, too. It would have been harder if it would have been Noggle or the other guy because I don't know them. Yeah.

I know Nick. I mean, I got him baby wipes to wipe down his rental car. I was waiting for you to lay that out. I did so many good things.

That guy. That's true. I got to give him a pass because he did help me out. He helped with the rental, the rental techniques.

The wipes. All right, so. Rosales, Steppenkevich, rental. Rental card defuncting.

Right, how to cheat. All right, Nick, we're going to let you go. It works, because I drove six hours, seven hours. I didn't get, you know, any added fees, so...

We're professionals, brother. We're professionals. We know where to look. We're a professional organization.

Well, I appreciate you playing along with us on this. Thank you very much, sir. I'll work on your order. We'll talk.

Probably tomorrow or something. Mike, make my vacation a little bit better. Yeah, make your vacation better. All right, well, now you're officially on the podcast, so… I'm ready.

Have we not called him before? All right, handsome, thanks. Enjoy the show. All right, Nick, see you, bud.

Bye. Take care, bye. Bye. I told you that… No, no, you tried.

" And I said no. Yeah, but I knew you did. Nick's not that guy to get that mad. Not over that.

I don't believe you. And he's not a collector. He smokes everything he gets. I was just texting you to see if Palmer gets upset that you keep looking at your phone while taping the podcast.

From John. From John Gerlet. We're at 20 minutes. You should have dragged that out another 10.

Could have been the whole first segment of the show. I thought it was pretty good. He should have yelled and screamed a little more or something. I felt bad.

I mean, I still feel bad that I did it. I appreciate your remorse. But if you would have taken one of the other two guys that I didn't know and done this same thing, I would have been terrible. I mean, yeah, I mean, I could have pulled that, but then I would have had to guarantee them a box, and I didn't do that to anybody.

Nobody? No. Oh, you pulled my leg in the whole thing. Actually, one guy got a box.

Oh. But yeah, you shouldn't just open stuff, Mike. That's not right. Oh, we do that stuff around all the time.

Not the new stuff. Come on, man. Work with me. The one time I do something without asking.

The one time I saw an opportunity. The one time. And it worked out pretty well. Never happened again.

I'll start getting my cigars somewhere else, just so I don't smoke anything from here. Oh, Abe's gonna be so happy. My friend Abe. Oh, did you see the thing?

Oh, okay, we got nightmares over there. Have you seen their Battle of the Bands things that they're doing? I did. I mean, I saw it, but I didn't, like, look into it.

C. Newman thing, maybe it's the same people, just about. And you weren't included. Well, okay, but nobody else, no, no, this one's okay, nobody else on the list has their own cigar shop, so he would have had to have sold something with your name on it at his shop, the Cigar Hustler podcast thing.

I mean, he could have sold, I mean, he could have carried Pestaña, he just never did. Well, that's up to you, you gotta go down there and talk to the man. I feel like people are hiding behind the lights watching us in the dark. Oh, maybe one day we have an audience.

We've had an audience before. And you'll never see them. We've had an audience before. Honestly, professional.

I'm getting a headache, though, from the lights. Are you? I think so. I don't know.

Stop looking at them. They're right there. I can't help it. Stop looking at the light.

Into the light, children. Into the light. Crossover. All right, we're going to take a go to break.

Like I said, we're going to take a commercial. We're going to hit some media stuff, hit some news. We have some news. We have some news and some information.

Very exciting. All right, guys. We'll be right back. You got to fix the audio.

Hey, it's Mike, too. Want to be part of the show? com/theCigarHustlersPodcast. We have tiers starting at just $5 a month.

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Okay, and we're back, episode 136 of Cigar Hustlers Podcast, the number one cigar show on two platforms. Actually, FM, we dropped back down to six this week, but it happens. It was a good moment. It was a good week.

It was a good week. It was a good week. All right, Michael. Cigars International has canceled Cigar Fest 2020 due to the COVID-19.

I thought this happened already. No, this one hasn't happened yet. I thought so, too. I went back and double-checked.

Another very popular consumer entertainment event has fallen victim to the COVID-19 pandemic as Cigars International decided to cancel Cigar Fest 2020. The event had originally been scheduled for May, but was supposed to run until October. Maybe that's what you're thinking about. Initial concerns over the viability of the event amidst the pandemic.

The pandemic, Pennsylvania state policies regarding large events have also made the event no longer viable according to a press release. Womp, womp. See, after much deliberation, we--oh, this is their announcement--after much deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Cigar Fest this year, said Sarah Santos, president of Cigars International. I didn't know they had a female president, did you?

Have you ever met Sarah? No. Oh. Maybe.

Maybe we should call her. Well, it was a tough call--oh, she likes to get phone calls--to make, we need to consider the expected state. The state regulations have prioritized the health and safety of all who participate in Cigar Fest. We're deeply disappointed because Cigar Fest is an exciting weekend of camaraderie amongst old and new friends, like a highlight on the calendar for many.

That's all right. Let's see, Cigar Fest original launch 2003, then 6,000 tickets, blah, blah, blah. The last two major historic consumer events of the 2020 season have been canceled. It's over, Johnny.

So, these are the last two. This is a different story. Today, Cigar Aficionario announced- Aficionado. Aficionado.

Aficionado. Aficionado. Aficionado. Aficionado.

Aficionado announced the Big Smoke Meets Whiskey Fest. Oh. And the Big Smoke Las Vegas have both been canceled. We're out.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic. Just please don't cancel the NFL, please. We have a little NFL story. Oh.

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Big Smoke Meets Whiskey Fest has been scheduled to open on April 3rd, and that's all canceled too. It's all over. It's all over.

Stay at home. The only one that is still going, that has not been canceled yet, is the Heritage Festival in Tampa in December. Oh. It has not been canceled yet.

Well, I heard that the CDC now says that you don't have to quarantine, self-quarantine 14 days when you travel. Oh, really? Yeah, official as of today. Oh.

Isn't that exciting? Wow. It still gives you the state the ability to determine exactly if they want you to quarantine for 14 days. Oh, it's up to each individual state now.

Yeah. Well, it always has been, but CDC has lifted their suggested guidelines of doing so. Oh, well, they're still selling tickets to the Heritage Festival. it's a free event that they sell tickets to there's vip oh okay vip includes food and booze uh usually where's the heritage festival it's over in ybor city in tampa in the park there oh it's a nice little thing still going on huh right now see everything let's see cigar fest 2020 was canceled rocky mountain cigar festival drew state barn smokers weasel fest 2020 lazona palooza 2020 two guys smoke shops 35th anniversary party which we were probably going to go to yeah Yeah, we should have been there.

And the Texas Cigar Festival and Smoke in the Carolinas. Oof. All have been canceled. It's tough out there.

It's a tough year. It's tough. Tough year. Tough.

All right, the court strikes down key pre-market review process for premium cigars. Oh, this is a big one. Cigar maker's victory. Hey, this is a big W.

After long, expensive battle, premium cigar manufacturers no longer have to worry about the upcoming September 9th deadline for some FDA pre-market applications. Yes. Yes. As a judge handed them victory in court today.

Yes. Striking down the process and granting them welcome regulatory relief. In his decision in the case of the Cigar Association of America versus the Food and Drug Administration, Judge Emmett P. S.

District Court of the District of Columbia wrote the agency that oversees all tobacco products violated the American Procedure Act and its handling of the substantial equivalency approval process. Yes. Yes, they did. As a result, Judge has sent that party of the FDA's final deeming rule back to the agency for further review.

Well, didn't he suspend it indefinitely? Let's see. The substantial equivalency is one of the three pathways to product approval that the FDA established when it published its final deeming rule May 2016. According to FDA, cigar manufacturer must file an SE report to show that new tobacco products have similar characteristics to a grandfathered predicate tobacco product, Or has different characteristics but doesn't raise any new questions of public health.

A predicate tobacco product is one of them in the market on February 15, 2007. Yep. Today's decision means that the substantial equivalency approval process is delayed until the agency figures out how it pertains to premium cigars. So yes, it's until further notice.

Yeah. According to some manufacturers, this could take years. Eons. Okay.

"I think it's a giant burden and weight off our back," says Rocky Patel. Game on! He's the owner of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars. Oh, good thing he owns that because it's named after him.

Yeah, I heard about that. This has been a well-thought-out and hard-fought battle for savings of premium cigar industry, and finally we can focus on what we do best. He speaks better English than I do. He's a very, very well-spoken man.

Oh, he's very well-versed. He's a highly intelligent, well-educated man. Oh, he is very smart. He used to be an attorney.

Oh, I didn't know that. Robert Levin. What did he used to do? I don't know.

Owner of Ashton Distributors, Inc. and Retailers, Holt Cigar in Pennsylvania, he agreed with Patel. I agree with Patel. That just seems like a funny thing to put into the news story.

Can they put that in that I also agree with Patel? You like that? I also agree with Patel. Well, that would be if anybody cared what we thought about it.

Please revise that. Was that Half-Wheel or Coop? That was Half-Wheel. Oh, okay.

Yeah. It stood a better chance of it being revised if it was Coop, probably. Probably. Probably so, yes.

So. J. Fernandez, Michael. J.?

Yeah. He announced price restructuring. J. Fernandez's cigar lines will see new prices next month, as some will be going down, some will be going up.

Some will go down, some will go up, but most will be staying the same. So, we're just doing some stuff. Some prices down, some prices up, some will stay the same. 98 to $24.

Wow. Remaining the same are the... Is that a stick or a box or what is that? That's a tin.

It's in the tin. Oh, it's a tin. It's a tin. We're reducing tin bits.

See, this is what is the first increase the company has taken in two years. Three sizes in the New World Oscuro line will go up as the Robusto, Toro, and Bellicoso will stay the same. I don't see. They're going up 10 cents.

The other size is going up 10 cents in the cigar. The Gordo, if it's totaled price, it stays the same. That's good. Stay the same.

Change is going to effectiveness September 15th. Oh, this is it. Let's see. " In parentheses.

Ooh. Cigars, as well as one of the least expensive original Cameroon brand cigars. In parentheses or quotations? Quotations, sorry.

In parentheses. Either one. Bang for your buck, cigars. Those are quotations.

So, every time we see AJ now, we should go bang for your buck cigar, AJ. And can we do this? Yes, air quotes, air quotes, air quotes. Let's see, foundations, way one safe, five-year anniversary scheduled for September.

Yeah. I feel he put out just for my birthday. Maybe. My friend Nick.

They look pretty good, too. Do they? Yeah. I haven't seen them.

They look like little pigs, little flying pigs. Oh, didn't they? He did KMA over the weekend. Five years, you know what, when they come, can I open them?

No. I should probably not open it off. Yeah, you should probably just leave that alone. Nicholas Malillo launched his own Cigar Company, Foundation Cigar Company, with a line called "The Way One Say" or "The El Gunzi" as most people say.

El Guaiguinis. El Guaiguinis. The El Guaiguinis. Now the company will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a special version of the El Guaiguinis.

El Guaiguinis. The five-year anniversary is a 4x34, 60 Perfecto. It seems to be a very popular shape this year. Hmm.

The Roma Craft Perfectos. These are perfectos. There's a difference. It's kind of rounded.

Oh. Nicaraguan Corojo 99 wrapper over Mexican San Andreas binder and fillers from the Esteli and Jalapa regions of Nicaragua. Like the rest of the line, it is being made at his T-A-B-S-A. Tobacco Vallada de la Japa in Esteli.

Will come in a special 20-count box that opens to reveal two wings with custom artwork from Thief Operanda. The box is similar to the Foundation Chess Collector's release for 2007. Foundation! This box is one of the most unique I've seen in all my years in the industry, said Malillo.

Malillo. In a press release, Foundation's art director, oh, that's the art director, Thief Operandi, first name is Thief, that's unusual, he did an amazing job on the artwork, perfectly compliments his rich, elegant, and complex blend. This is a true collector's piece. Prices set at $300 a box, or $15 per cigar.

It will begin shipping in late September, right around Mike Palmer's birthday, it says. Foundation! Let's see. Weywen Sey is the main character of a Nicaraguan folk dance that is performed annually during the country's San Sebastian Festival in Weywen Sey, which translates into the new wise man from the Aztec language.

You ever see his video with the with the two reggae? Yes, yes, it's like a little mini-movie. Yeah, now whenever I hear Foundation, I was gonna jam out. Foundation!

Yeah, like, "Hey! " Alright, Michael, I'm on some Florida news. " Oh, I've used an artist, I didn't mean like a painter, like you have a painter. No, I mean like, you know.

Kelly King paints. Musician. We need a musician? We have one.

Southern Gunner did our opening for the show. Yeah, it's true. I mean, he did do that. Okay, I'll give you that.

Can you do reggae, Southern Gunner? Possibly? No, reggae's not our image. Michael needs some, Michael needs some reggae.

I don't want reggae, I just want like an artist. Oh, you want some more Russian polka? Yeah, some more Russian polka. Yeah.

Franken-Skeeters, Michael. Stop reading the stories over... Franken... You know what's awesome is the font is so big, I can see...

You know what? I don't know why the printer did that. I didn't do this. More than 750 million mosquitoes have been released into Florida Keys to slow the disease spread.

The disease? The disease. The disease. More than 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes will be released into the Florida Keys over the next two years.

I'm worried about you this week. You might be having a stroke. I have a stroke every week. The disease.

With the aim of reducing the spread of diseases to humans, officials in the Florida Keys approved Tuesday the release of the engineered bugs. This is how we got love bugs. Remember? This is how we got the love bugs.

Are you sure that's true? I think, no, you know, that's just the full legend. They really came over like a fruit box or something from some other country. Oh, okay.

But yeah, the story is they were genetically made to kill, eat mosquitoes. Right. Then that didn't work. But they just give love.

Yeah. They're just so happy. And destroy your car. Yes.

Struggles to contain the outbreak of dengue fever, which has infected at least 26 people to date in 2020. Do you think Greg got it? I was about to say, is it 27 now? He had 75,000 bites on his from his camping trip.

He was a little cranky today, maybe he's got a little thingy. Oh, maybe he's got a temp running. Ooh. That would be terrible.

I'm not sure of the lighting on this. The gangy. I mean, either. But that's the fun part of this.

You know what? Next week, we should just do it all dark. And we'll get those glasses with the lights on them, the lights right up here. Oh, that'd be perfect.

Just be flashing lights on your face. Just waving around. Lasers. Lasers.

Lasers. So, this is why nobody sends us anything dope. I don't have anything to open under here. This is why no one respects us.

No one respects us at all, except the listeners. We love all of you. You saw that Coop did like a little blurp about, you shared it to me. Oh yeah, well that was from his massive show.

Yeah, but like he did a segment of, you know, he broke everybody down. He has cut each one up and has released them weekly. So I listened to me, I was like, damn, I sounded terrible. I said um like every 10 seconds.

Oh, I didn't notice. I think I did the first time, but not the second time. He was very upset that there was no dinosaur behind us. I told you he was very upset that there was nothing going on.

Yeah, we'll have to do that next time. Well, why don't you ask him if you can be on the show and we'll set something up. Okay. We should do that.

Coop, we'd like to be on the show. Yeah. Alright, Seminole County, Florida, which is just across the bridge that way. That's where I live.

Yes. A man was taken to the hospital after being bitten by an alligator in Lake Jessup Park. Oh, yeah, that happened Friday. Lake Jessup is not the place to go.

That is like the number one alligator population in the world. Now, the legend is, back in the day, when they used to catch alligators that weren't big enough to kill, that's where they put them. Oh, just put them there. So that's why there's so many now.

Apparently, if you were to drain all of Lake Jessup, you'd just see nothing but all alligators. Alligators, right, yeah. The man was being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. What were you doing?

Witnesses told police three men were alligator hunting on the side of Lake Jessup when they caught an alligator by a snatch line. You know what a snatch line is? No. That's where they put the chicken on the hook and then they wait and they come back and the alligator has snatched the chicken.

Oh, and he's stuck? Yeah, so one guy's pulling it in. The other two guys both stabbed the alligator with a, what do they call it, snatch line, let's say spears. 22 cow bullet on it or something like that.

The spears? No, there's bang sticks. No, but these guys use spears. Oh.

But they use a different word. Okay. Anyway, while they're pulling it in and it gets close to the boat, it bites the guy's arm that's pulling it in with the rope. At the forearm.

Oh. Took his arm off. Took his arm off? Yes.

Let's see, the men were able to insert two additional harpoons, that's the word we're looking for, harpoons in the alligator before grabbing more line to raise it to service to harvest it. According to the report, the alligator then launched itself upwards and partially into the boat. He was fighting for its life. And bit the man on the right arm and began to spin.

Oh, death roll. Yep. Amputating the arm in about the middle of the forearm, the report said. Oh, God.

Other people on the boat were able to force the alligator to release its bite, according to the report. They cut the harpoon lines and looked for a resident to stop for help. The man was participating in a statewide alligator harvest at the time of the incident, according to the commission. Did they look for his arm?

It's inside the alligator. But how big was that damn alligator? He had two harpoons in him, launched himself at the boat, and took the guy's arm that had the hook. That's probably a big gator.

I heard it's 12 foot. Estimated to be 12 feet. That's a big one. And an alligator swam around with two harpoons in him, in an arm.

Oh, they let him go? They didn't say if they caught them, there's no mention of ever catching the alligator. How do you not go alligator hunting with like an AK-47 or something, just in case, you know, like, hey, just want you to know, if things go sideways. We are going to unload, we are going to unleash the fury.

They needed a fourth guy who had to jump. Exactly. Never go alligator hunting with less than four people. You want to know they needed Crocodile Dundee.

He's very old now. He's still, you know, he could still do it. I believe in him. That's not enough.

Here's a story you've been with. Wow, we're going to get done early. Do you have anything? We're going to film over 38 minutes.

Oh, man. Miami Dolphins is going to allow 13,000 fans at the home opener. Wow. Yeah, the Miami Dolphins decided to allow up to 13,000 socially distanced fans to attend their home opener against the Buffalo Bills on September 20th with the approval of the state and local political leaders.

Litters. Litters. Litters. Crowd size will be about 20% of what they can normally fill at 65,326 seat capacity with the limitations imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This is the coronavirus pandemic. Are they offering season ticket holders? No. First come, first serve.

I would be irate if I was a season ticket holder. I don't know, it doesn't serve. But there are certain restrictions involved in going to the game. Yeah.

Yes. Let's see. Fans and stint players are required to wear masks. Right.

When not eating or drinking. Okay. No tailgating is allowed. Okay.

Well, I originally read the story, I read it quickly. There was no eating or drinking allowed. So you can eat and drink and just have to take out the mask. Right.

And you gotta be spaced out. Right. Yeah. That sounds fun.

That doesn't sound much fun. Is your phone going off? We're back to wearing the mask out in the heat. Not mine, mine's right here.

Oh. It's gotta be yours. Is John Jurgolette again? Trying to piss me off?

No. Gotta love John. I love John. All right.

When you're talking Miami. That's all I got. What else you got, Mike? So if you want to see the Bills whoop the shit out of Miami Dolphins.

Get in line now. Because 13,000 of you. 13,000 lucky people. I don't have anything else, Michael.

Oh, you want to call Nick again and have him fake being mad and try to fool me again? Oh! Oh! How would you like some bang energy drink, Michael?

You were fooled. I was not fooled. You were fooled. I was not fooled.

The minute he started getting upset, I was not fooled. Oh, hey, try to call, who was that we tried to call last week? Oh, Justin. Justin, yes, Justin.

I wanted to call him Wes, I don't know why, and I knew that was incorrect. Just call him, don't text him, just call him. Cuz when you're talking Miami don't. Fill the list.

I can say that as the Tampa Bay Bucs, they're, you know, did I explain what they're doing, right? Yes. Season ticket holders get access. Yeah, she went into quite depth, that was a low.

Oh, God, I want to go to that Saints game so bad. Let's see if Justin answers. A double phone call. Podcast.

Mike. Justin. What's going on, brother? What's up, bro?

Hey, you're on the podcast. Oh, what? Boom. Surprise.

I'm glad I'm prepared. I'm Johnny on the spot. There you go. So, like, yeah, I didn't want to warn you.

My co-host said that I wasn't allowed to warn you because you poo-pooed and ran away last It's always more fun that way. Just catch 'em off guard. It's a little more sporadic. So what do you got going on, brother?

You got a new diesel coming out? Yeah, man. God, we got a lot going on right now. But yeah, the last couple years I've been launching a new diesel every June.

Well, obviously this year that got pushed back. So we're launching, it'll start shipping next month, the diesel Estelipura. Ooh! Ooh!

So, yeah, I'm really excited about this, which I know I say that about everything that I make, but this one, man, this one's pretty cool. We, about three, four years ago when I went to SLE, AJ was showing me his new drip irrigation system and explaining all the money he spent into it and how state-of-the-art it was and how very few people there had it. " And so, you know, a lot of people don't know, but about 95% of the tobacco in Esteli is all binder filler. Wow, I didn't know that.

Yeah. And so we get, we get tobacco from all over Esteli, Halapo, Mondega, Ometepe, but Esteli is mostly binder filler. So anyway, every year when I was going down there, you know, towards the end of the year, I'm like, "How's the wrap? How's it going?

Oh, it's not ready. " And sure enough, man, I got the call late last year that we could use the wrapper in 2020. So this is the first cigar AJ's ever made with an Esteli wrapper that was grown and rolled in Esteli. We're going to do an unboxing video.

So it's pretty cool, man. You know, you hear a lot of stuff, you know, most poros are usually country of origin. So you've got, you know, a Dominican poro, you've got Nicaraguan poros. So this is actually, and I've had to explain it a lot, it's not just a Nicaraguan Poro, it is an Esteli Poro.

So the wrapper, binder, and filler were all grown and rolled in Esteli. That's awesome. So is it going to be one size? Is it going to be multiple sizes?

We got three sizes. We got a Robusto, a Toro, and a Gigante, so three good sizes. 25x54. Very nice.

So are you giving away a bar, or are you giving away your own drip system? A trip to Esteli. You can start growing your own tobacco. What are you doing?

We're going to do a roll your own program basically. Oh, love it. No more, no more bars, man. Those things were, they were great, but I think I, you know, I may have messed up because now every time I launch something, everybody's like, you know, looking for all the- What's the prize?

Yeah. Right? So are we getting a Justin Andrews statue with this? Something that's six or seven.

A bobblehead. Yeah. Yeah, or a bobblehead. I mean, I think everybody's got a bobblehead now.

Yeah, I think that'd be great. But, you know, you should make it a little bit bigger. Just slightly larger than everybody else's. With the size of my head, that'd have to be a pretty big bobblehead.

That's a big bobblehead. That'd be perfect. I'm a life-size bobblehead. But no, man, this is, I kind of got some people upset because we started sampling it and promoting it, you know, here in August.

So I've got retailers, everybody wants it, but it doesn't actually ship until next month. So, but I'm definitely really excited about the hype around it. Do you want me to speak to them, the people that are upset? I'll be happy to handle that.

I'll give them your number. I'm just going to direct them all to you. If you want to direct them all to you, then I can give you like a 5% commission or something. Sure.

I mean, that's great. If you want to throw that in, I'm down, you know, I mean, I've done it for free, but 5%. Yeah, I would have been happy to be customer relations. Hey, listen, calm the fuck down.

You can, yeah, you can be the complaint department because I, I, I sure do get a lot of them. Right. So, uh, so you're surviving the pandemic. Okay.

Yeah, man. Just kind of, you know, getting a little bit of cabin fever. It's weird to, to have traveled so much over the last 10 years. And then, all of a sudden, be stuck at home, it's an adjustment, big time, but yeah, we're doing the best we can, still moving on, thankfully, people are still buying and smoking cigars, so we're all still employed, as long as we can keep the production going, everybody should be pretty happy, but yeah, I'm anxious to get back out there.

But the best part of this industry is seeing people, meeting people, and traveling, and not being able to do that is kind of depressing. Kind of tough, yeah. And not to mention, I mean, 10 months, you know, staying at home really puts the relationship to the test, makes you really, you know, forge together and really build there, you know? Well, my girlfriend is, she thinks this is just the best thing ever.

Well, perfect. I'm home every night. Well, good, it could have gone the other way. Yeah, it could have.

It could have been the worst thing she's ever experienced. Yeah, she's like, this son of a bitch, I really can't stand it. I didn't realize how much of an asshole you were! Yeah, I'm already home so much, you know?

Well, to make things either worse or better, I bought a house and we've been renovating it for the last four months. So I told her, I said, look, if we can survive seeing each other every day and renovating a house, then I think we'll be pretty good for the future. Nice. So how many times have you been to Home Depot?

Oh my God. See? We've been to Home Depot. And it's not, you think, once a day, but now I've got my contractors, you know, halfway through the week, oh, we need more two-by-fours, or whatever, blah, blah, blah, so yeah, I'm VIP at the old Home Depot there.

Every project is a minimum of two and a half trips to Home Depot. Yeah, you have to at least make three visits to Home Depot. Son of a bitch, I gotta go back. The half is when you return the extra stuff you bought from the second time.

That's true. That's right. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one doing this, so, like, half the shit's sold out everywhere I go. Right.

It's a good time to be in the construction business, apparently. Yeah, no shit. Well, at least, or own Home Depot. That's, or, yeah, yeah, either or.

Cool, brother. How's everything with you guys? We're, we're surviving the times, man. You know, retail is retail.

You know, we're, we're working our asses off and, you know, our bar is closed, but we got no complaints. You know, it is what you make it, so. Right, right. Are you guys still, is it grab and go?

Or are you allowed to have people in the lounge? Well, people are allowed to be in the lounge, but they can't drink beer, so nobody wants to hang out. Oh, that sucks. Yeah, very few people want to have three cups of coffee.

Yeah. That's, that's true. Yeah, but you know, online's doing okay. Got no complaints there.

And then in-store is doing well as well, you know. Just people aren't hanging out. Yeah. Which kind of sucks, because it's always nice to harass them.

At least the regulars. You guys are one of the good retailers. There's a lot of retailers that encourage grab-and-go. They don't want you to hang out a lot.

Yeah, they're very happy with how things have turned down. Right. " It's true. That's great.

But yeah, man, it's good to hear from you guys, and I appreciate you calling me. Like I said, I hope there's a lot riding on this Esteli Porro because, again, I don't think any of the stuff I've done is gimmicky. It's a little more quirky with the barrel aging and stuff like that, but this is our true diesel core, so we're gonna build off of this and keep the momentum going, so I hope everybody likes it as much as I do. I'm excited for you, man, I can't wait to try it.

Yeah, I can't wait. And if it doesn't do well, AJ's gonna be mad at me for putting this wrapper on my cigar before he put it on his, so I've got a lot riding on it. What if it goes really well? All of a sudden, I don't know.

They're not making diesels no more. It's like, oh, hey, can't make that cigar for you. Can't make those for you no more. Check out this new AJ.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, so if November rolls around and AJ's launching a cigar with a Nestle wrapper, that'll give you an idea of how well things are going. There you go. Very cool.

All right, brother, well, we'll let you get back to home renovating. Yeah, yeah. You guys gave me a little break here for a second, so. Perfect.

It's a little reprieve, but yeah, man, thanks for giving me the call. I appreciate it. You got it. You guys be well.

All right, bro. We'll talk to you. All right, we'll talk to you. Thanks, man.

Thank you. Bye. Bye. Justin Andrews knows what Ebida is, by the way.

I'm sure he does. I now also know what it is. I use it in my everyday life. I thought you said you were going to mention it in every podcast.

No, I mentioned it on my post to Skip. Ah, that's it. I'm trying to throw that in. Ebida.

Except the other day, I just told him I loved it. I love you, Ebida. I love you, Ebida. That's right.

My love is ebbited. Consider my love ebbited, ebbited-ed-ed-ed. Yes. All right, 50 minutes, we're good, we're in Pedro time now.

We are in Pedro time. We made Pedro time. Boom. We're good.

All right, guys, this has been episode... 136. 136. I'm a Cigar Hustler Podcast.

All right, guys, we'll talk to you later. Bye-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 guests. 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 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 E-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!

I don't even have to try anything. He's not even gonna try. We're gonna, 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'd be like four cigars when I walked in a door. All right, end this.

Show Notes

This week Mikey makes a sad attempt at a bang revenge.....We get snubbed by yet another Cigar Brand and find out in an exclusive interview the first Esteli Puro!!

Listen as we Forest Gump our way thru the cigar Industry....

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