Episode 31 Hector J. Alfonso Sr. Espinosa Cigars
Episode Summary
Episode 31 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast (part one of two) features Hector J. Alfonso Sr., the man Erik Espinosa relies on for blending and operations at Espinosa Premium Cigars. The conversation opens with Espinosa's big IPCPR launch, Las 6 Provincias — a tribute to pre-revolution Cuba and the island's original six provinces, starting with Havana. Alfonso explains the artwork drawn from 1940s and '50s Havana street scenes, the limited run of 300 pivoting "swing" boxes designed around an idea from Erik's son, and the standard 10-count box that will stay in production. He's pointedly tired of "Cubanesque" marketing clichés, and frames the project as a personal nod to his and Erik's families, who left Cuba in the early 1960s.
The heart of the episode is Alfonso's own story. He joined the Army out of high school at 17, then spent 29 years with the Miami-Dade Police Department, including a stint in Internal Affairs working criminal cases against dirty cops. When the recession forced salary cuts around 2011, he took a weekend job at his local cigar shop, where he watched Erik Espinosa work the room differently than every other rep. A Facebook friend request revealed they'd grown up blocks apart in Carol City. Then came the now-legendary phone call and the meeting at a blue warehouse off the turnpike — Erik hiring him with no job description beyond "we'll figure it out," right as the E.O. Brands split with Eddie Ortega was brewing. Alfonso details the scramble to get product made at La Zona, the turning points of Bunker Buster and Laranja, and the moment Ortega came back and asked Espinosa to produce Larceny with Sean Williams.
Alfonso also pushes back on the "master blender" title, explaining that his real skill is knowing exactly what Erik likes (spice, lighter wrappers) versus his own preference (fuller flavor, dark toothy wrappers), and that Erik has final say on every blend. He walks through making a cigar at AJ Fernandez's factory — the endless pilón tours, AJ handing him the run of the tobacco room, five trial blends including Sumatra and Havana options, and landing on a four-year-old Havana 2000 wrapper plus tobaccos Espinosa had never sourced, including Ometepe. Along the way there's plenty of industry gossip: the "FTG" herf circle at Caribbean Cigars, reps like Pete Hernandez and Jack Toraño, Spencer Drake losing at ping-pong to his wife at the White Hat Distribution booth, Jeff Gruber, and where Espinosa fits among today's boutique makers.
Part two continues next week.
In This Episode
- 01Las 6 Provincias and the swing boxAlfonso unpacks Espinosa's IPCPR 2018 launch honoring pre-revolution Cuba's original six provinces, its Havana-scene artwork, and the 300 limited pivoting boxes.
- 02Cuban roots without the clichésWhy Alfonso is sick of "Cubanesque" and "Cuban seed" marketing, and how the project honors his and Erik Espinosa's parents who left Cuba in the early '60s.
- 03Industry gossip and the FTG herfReps make the best storytellers — Pete Hernandez, Jack Toraño, Spencer Drake, Casey Hogan, and Jeff Gruber all get a mention, plus ping-pong at the White Hat booth.
- 0429 years as a Miami-Dade copFrom the Army at 17 to signal security to Internal Affairs criminal cases, and how recession-era pay cuts pushed him into a weekend cigar shop job.
- 05How Erik Espinosa hired himThe Carol City connection, the cryptic phone call, and the warehouse meeting where Erik offered a job with no defined role right before the E.O. Brands split.
- 06Early Espinosa years and turning the cornerBuilding from behind the eight ball at La Zona, how Bunker Buster and Laranja changed the company's trajectory, and producing Larceny for Eddie Ortega and Sean Williams.
- 07Blending vs. the 'master blender' titleAlfonso rejects the master blender label, explaining his job is knowing what Erik likes and that Erik holds final say on every blend.
- 08Making a cigar at AJ Fernandez's factoryWhy a small factory partners with AJ for Broadleaf and Mexican material, and the trial blends that led to a four-year-old Havana 2000 wrapper and Ometepe filler.
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
Every day I'm hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin'. Every day I'm hustlin', every day I'm hustlin', every day I'm hustlin'. Welcome to a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, where we take a closer look at the people of the cigar industry. Welcome to episode 31.
This week we talk to Hector J. Alfonso from Espinosa Cigars. Hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling. Every day I'm, every day I'm, every day I'm.
Yes, it's on. Okay. You have to get closer to the microphone. Okay.
We'll move you back over to the non-hot seat. To the standard. Special Saturday night edition. To the slapdick side.
It's a Saturday night, but it's going to air on a Tuesday. Oh, wait, you know what? Your mic isn't even on. Well, is that better?
Wow. Is that better? You're number three. Number three.
Got to move you up. Son of a bitch. There you go. How do I sound now?
You sound like a professional. You know, I think my daughter's never heard the term slapdick, so she kind of, she kind of, so now I'm going to tell her, it's a colloquialism, honey. It's only a Volusia County thing. So, you don't have to worry about that until I bring you back up here again.
Right. Don't use it in school, whatever you do. Oh, that's her last year of school. I can't wait.
What's your daughter's name? Allison. The one at the game is Abigail. I have twins.
Okay. So, that's why the premature gray, you know. Right. So, yeah, twin girls.
" And she kind of looked at me like, "What the fuck? Don't talk to him. " Welcome to the cigar industry, Allison. I've heard that.
Is that true? That is his last day? Yeah, he's moving on. Moving to a different place.
Oh, not a true kid. I thought he just fucked with him. No, he's gone. I thought his last day had already happened, actually.
I was surprised he was still here. Yeah, well, I think today is, or tomorrow or something. No, I asked him. Today.
Today is? Today's the last day. All right, cool. Wow.
He'll be missed. Why are you laughing? It's that kind of show, huh? Okay.
Oh, you should just make... Oh, don't... Oh, my God. Yeah, it's a horrible soundboard.
Now I know what kind of show we're dealing with. All right. Yeah, so like, so normally we start, we talk, fuck, normally we talk briefly about, you know, kind of what we've done the week prior and stuff, and so what have you done this week, Mike? We haven't even introduced a guy.
No, we haven't started the show either. Want to? Want to do the, oh, I think he's texting. Yeah.
You're going to text me the answers to the questions? There's questions? No. Oh, there's questions.
There's questions at the end for you. Not for us. Yeah, yeah. All right.
Ready? One, two, three, go. Oh, you start now? Yeah, we'll start now.
Hi, I'm Mike. Hi, and I'm Mike too. And this is the Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Turn off that fucking bullshit thing.
Ugh, that sounds terrible. It does. It does sound terrible. I'll turn it off right there.
Like, I can always count on you to put in some fucking horrible- I can edit those back in later. Horrible thing. Like, you need a board that's linked into the board. I know.
I think I can hook the phone to the board. Anyway, you want to introduce our guest? Because he's already been talking and where you haven't said who he is. All right.
All right, so we got a special guest. I like to call him the number two of the Espinosa family, Mr. Eric Espinosa, one Hector Alfonso. Say hi, Hector.
Well, hello, Mike. Oh, very nice. I've been waiting to use the radio voice all morning. We're here on Cigar Talk Radio.
Cigar Talk. That's a great talk. 9. So, now that I introduced him, can I tell you about a little bit?
Certainly. Go right ahead. So I was painting all day. Well, not really all day.
I'm out of the yard twice because it started raining. I fucking did that too. Yeah. But I beat the rain.
" Very nice. Yes. So I finished right before I came up here. So I've showered three times today.
That's a triple shower day. I'm very clean. I'm very clean. Would you like to see the progress of the room?
So I'm painting superheroes from my kids' room. Oh, you're finally painting? Yeah, look. I'm almost done.
I'm almost done. Oh, it's very nice. Yeah, so it looks great. We're on the radio.
There you go. I don't know. I'm not an artist. Okay.
Marvel Universe, though. Yeah. Cool. So what I'm thinking is if you want to put it up on the Cigar Hustlers podcast so anybody can see it on the Instagram page or anything like that.
Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, just send that to me. That way there's a visual. Send it to me.
I will. Sometime between now and eventually. Is this the one you want me to smoke? Yes, I want you to try that.
Alright, so what am I about to smoke? You're going to smoke La Se Provincia, which was our big launch at the show. Alright. What the hell is it?
Well, this is a little ode to Cuba, pre-Revolution Cuba. Okay. Not to be involved in the romanticism of the Robinus family and the Laguito and Cohiba and all that. It's a little tribute to Cuba of our parents.
My parents came from Cuba in the early '60s. Oh, wow. Erik was born in Cuba. And what we did was we wanted to come out with the cigar to represent each of the original six provinces of the island.
Right now they're up to like 18 provinces. Oh wow. Back then they didn't need all that infrastructure, obviously. So Erik is actually Cuban?
Erik is actually Cuban. I didn't fucking know that. I thought he was like, you know. And to be honest with you, I don't think he has a green card, bro.
So if we can... I just need a couple more months to retire and get positioned at the place so we can just slide right in. - Slide right in. - Slide right in.
- And yeah. - The ice. - Our parents, you know, our parents are the ones who came, are the first ones who came. They didn't come because of finances or because they just wanted to come to the States.
They came because they had stuff to take and, you know, their dream was crushed. So we had an artist. The idea started with the son. The son had an idea about how we were going to package it.
He kept thinking of a box that swung on a pivot. So from there, we designed that, and then what's going to be the idea? Well, the idea is, let's do something, not necessarily Cubanesque, that's one of those words you get tired of hearing in the industry, Cubanesque. Right, right.
So we wanted, you know, a distinct cigar. Fine Cuban seed. Yeah, you know, I'm so tired of all this Cuban seed, you know, touched by a Cuban guy at the airport, which makes it Cuban. Right.
Blessed by a Cuban priest. Blessed by a Cuban priest. So we got a local artist, he did some scenes from Havana, which was the first province. So there's six of them, Havana's the first province, so if you look at the artwork of the box, On the band you can't, but on the artwork of the box, which we have too, we have the swing box, which we made 300 of those, and then we have the regular 10-count box, which will never go out of production, there are scenes from Havana from the '50s, the '40s, the '50s, you're not going to see any statues to chair, any revolutionary crap in any of the art we're going to do, that's just our feeling.
All right, so that's the plug that you get, but that's not what the show's about. I drove 300 miles, give me a gig. Thank you, Henry, for coming in. Thank you, that was the opinion of me, not them, the station and/or it's mine.
So the podcast is mainly about, you know, the people of the industry. Oh, cool. Right? " Oh, I taste cedar.
Right. Yeah, I agree with you. So here's what's really cool about having you on the show. One, you are a part of the inner circle of the Fuck That Guy, the FTG group in Caribbean Cigars.
Oh, he's part of the sewing circle. I am part of the sewing circle. I hate to toot Mount Horn, but I'm one of the original members. I heard last week it was on like a Thursday or something, though.
We had a huge crowd last week. Huge crowd. And the best guests are not manufacturers, as much as I hate to tell you that, being that we're both manufacturers and now are brand people. Right.
It's the reps. Oh, yeah. The reps are the best. " He goes, "That guy's sleeping with that guy.
" Oh, that is fantastic. And we have the reps down there. I mean, they're not a lot of independent reps, but the reps, you know, like Pete Hernandez. Right.
On Alfred. Alfred looks like he's a little slow, like he's on the small bus. Right. But Alfred knows shit.
And Jack's a yenta. I mean, there is no bigger. There is no bigger yenta than Jack. And it's not that he tells you things.
Because he's a little tight on stuff. But everybody tells him. So they look at him. " And Jack holds it for like 30 minutes.
Then it's out. " One of them is obviously Jack Taranio. Yeah, you've told me that before. And then number two is Spencer Drake.
Oh, I love the Drake, though. The Drake is good. The Drake is good. The Drake came to the store about three months ago.
It was a great night. The Drake was there, and so was the guy from Tatua, his brother, Casey. Casey was there, and Casey Hogan was there. And then Jeff Gruber was there, and he got Jeff Gruber drunk, which was great.
Jeff Gruber drunk is hilarious, because he looks at you like, you know, and he's, and you know, and I try to, and I say this as heterosexual as I can, he's just a pretty motherfucker, can you bat a curse on here, he's just a pretty motherfucker, so you know, I'm like, I wouldn't be stuck, if I had to be stuck in prison, all the people to be stuck with, you know, not the Spence, not the Drake, no, no, no, no, yeah, the Drake's too hairy and he looks 60, he's old, he's like 10 years younger than me, he looks like 20 years older than me. He's had a hard life. He's wild, man. Texas is rough on people, I heard.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I saw him play ping-pong. Did you watch him play ping-pong?
Yeah. We were right between them. Yeah, we had a good angle of it. We had a good angle of it.
His wife's good. His wife was kicking his ass. So at the IPCPR, the Hiroshi Robot, oh, I'm sorry, the White Hat Distribution Company. I didn't see a single white hat there, by the way.
Not one white hat amongst them. Not one white hat amongst them. However, they had a ping-pong table that they used to keep themselves occupied. - That's different.
- Yeah, Spence's wife is really pretty good at it, and I glanced over her a couple of times, and you could see that Spence was getting fucking peeved, and he like chucked the ball right at her a couple of times out of anger. " - From what I understand, she played tennis. She was a collegiate star. That's the rumor you heard.
I didn't get to watch a lot of the games. Every time I looked over, Spence was retrieving a ball. So that's the way I look at it, I'm going to assume my hypothesis is that he got his ass whipped. Man, did he marry up.
Plus, she put a spike on him, a ball bounced and went like beyond the, he had to walk down to the carpet area, then he came back, "Well, I've got a client, I've got somebody here to see me," you know, so I walked over and wrote on the ball, "In your face," she was nasty on his ass. " No, well, yeah, yeah, you can do whatever you want, 60 questions, right? No, so that's what's, you know, this is, it's very open form, right, you get to talk about whatever you want to talk about, but, you know, we also, it's important to us that we get a little bit of your story too, and kind of, you know, some of the shit that you did in life and how you found yourself into the fucking cigar industry, right, as well as working with Espinosa. Well, I'll tell you, it's, uh, I, as, as Mike, are you Mike 1 or Mike 2?
And I think that we gotta have, I gotta be honest, I think we're 10 minutes in and I'm already like, when can we get Hector back on the show? I can remote from the studio, if you guys need me. Uh, well, let's see, I, uh, I'm, I'm gonna be 52, I just turned 52, so I joined the Army when I was young, got out, finished high school at 17, joined the Army, got out of the Army, uh, I worked in the signal security as soon as I got out. I started to look for a job in law enforcement.
That's what I wanted to do. So I had to wait a few months and got hired by Miami-Dade Police. And I've been with them ever since. 29 years.
You're technically still with them. Still with them. I have another... I can leave in May of next year.
I'll have 30 years. I can leave. However, my choice to leave is kind of held up by our current situation with the real fuck those guys, which is the FDA. So, you know, I just can't, you can't give up a career and the benefits and the retirement, not knowing where we stand.
So, around 2011, when the, I think the, right in the very middle of the recession that hit in South Florida, the housing boom took a shit, tourism was bad, the mayor decided to balance the budget on the back of his employees. Another message from me, not the station and the response. And I look at this, what's he going to do? I can leave.
By the time he gets the paperwork, then I'm out. So we took salary cuts. Everybody took salary cuts. And then there was no more overtime.
And at that time, I was working in probably the best assignment I'd had. I worked in internal affairs, but I worked on the criminal side. Which was, we didn't do cases like, oh, this officer was rude and mean to me, or he gave me a ticket. We were like, hey, this guy's dealing drugs, or this guy's protecting drug dealers, or this guy's running numbers.
So we were working real cases where we were arresting people, so I had to take a second job. I mean, I'm just not svelte enough to do home invasions, you know, so I had, even though I had access, we couldn't. " I said, I can do that. So it's not going to make up for the 10% to 12% that I lost.
I mean, I'm talking $15,000, $16,000. But it was enough that on the weekends I'd work. And after a couple years, I met Eric Espinosa. And Eric came into the shop.
It's funny. He was one of those weird reps. Because I watched reps come in, and reps would work. Well, I'm telling you, reps would work you.
Hey, look at this. Look at this. And look at this. Or the guy who sits with the booklet.
And he goes, I have 13. Oh, I don't want to talk about Jeff. All right, I have a lot of lines. I have a lot of lines, man.
" I go, "He's playing dominoes. " He goes, "No, that guy reps Rocky Patel on Drew Estate. " And absolutely, the owner went over and said, "Alright, I need T-52 at a number nine. " And he did all the Rocky stuff.
And then Erik would say, "Hey, I don't see any 601 on the show. Yeah, let me take some 601. " And Erik would put his stuff in. " I mean, to be honest with you.
So about a year and a half goes by. He does an event. I look on Facebook. As a fanboy would, I friend him on Facebook, and I'm like, man, we know a lot of the same people.
So I tell him, I go, how do we, and not from the industry, from high school, how do we know these people? He goes, I live in Carroll City. I said, so did I. Well, the fun thing is he lived on 47th Avenue and 190.
He lived on 44th and like 198. And I lived on 47th and 168th. The 47th was a divider in Dade County for two different schools. If you lived west, you went to American High, if you lived east, you went to Carroll City.
So we had friends that went to the theater schools, and then some went to Carroll City, and some went to American, like I did. I never met him, I'm a year older than him, he would have been class of '80, Erik was class of '85, I'm class of '84. I just want you to know that was the same year I was born, just throwing that out there. I was class of '85.
I'll comment on that, I'll comment on that later. We've still got time on the show, I don't want to get fucked up. We've got a whole time in the world. I don't want to get bounced off here, you know, shit, I just got on.
He's already talking about bringing me back again, he's like, no, fucker, you know, you're out. So, you know, a year goes by or so, and he calls me one day, and I'm leaving the station. And he calls me, and if you've never talked to Erik, it's great to talk to him on the phone. His phone calls are like Western Union telegrams.
Right. He's short, concise. Bro, you heard it? All right.
What did this fucking guy call me for? I don't know what just happened. I think I might have got a job. I have no idea.
I place an order. You could have just sent me a text message for that. Right. " text messages and then nothing else for like four weeks.
" He goes, "Uh, hey bro, this is February of 2012. Yo, meet me at the Home Depot on 27 right off the turnpike. I'm like, alright, I get in the car, I drive, and I go, this is-- He's got a dead hooker in the trunk. I said, this is-- And then I was thinking as I was driving there, it's an unusual place to want to meet someone.
But I said, you know, it's-- I got my service piece, I'm okay. Well, funny you should say that. So I get there, I go, alright, where are you? He goes, alright, I want you to leave there, go out of there, make a right, and go about a mile.
And then on the right-hand side, I'm like, "Oh, this is how they whack Joe Pesci. Fuck that. I'm not falling for that shit. I saw that guy.
" So when I get to these blue warehouses, he's there. I pull in. I park like five or six smart spaces away from him. And then I'm wearing a t-shirt with a shirt over the top.
So when I get out, I open up my t-shirt so he can see that if there's any funny business, he's gonna get lit up. So I go, hey, what's up? So we kind of look at each other. Okay.
Why the fuck are we here? Is there something that we need to bury? But the thing is, at the point, in that point in our relationship, even though it had that been, we weren't at that level of boys yet. Right.
Like, Mike, I've met you 10 or 12 times. Right. We're not burying a hooker together. Right, right.
I'm going to tell you, look, I'm not going to say shit. Good luck. Right. So, I mean, we weren't boys.
You called me. I'm honored, but I'm glad I was the first guy that you thought would help you, however, I'm not that guy. I mean, you know, so he's like, this is going to be the new Espinosa cigars. At the time, he was going, they hadn't announced, but they were going to do the breakup of E&O.
Him and Eddie had decided to part ways, so I'm like, oh, well, Mazel Tov, because I like Eric, I go, hey man, congratulations, what can I help you with, what do you need? What do you need from me? I thought it was going to be, hey, you know, inspectors or, you know, and he would have been out of gas. He was in the city of Highly Gardens, there's a shit I could do there.
But I felt honored, you know, I'm open. How can I help you? He goes, I want you to come work for me. I was already working at the store.
I was working seven days a week anyway. So I'm like, well, what do you do? I don't have a free day. What do you need?
What do you want to do? What do you want me to do? He goes, I will figure it out. We figure it out.
We figure it out. I figured out, and he always talks, and he always leaves things kind of open-ended like that, which always makes me think back to my days in the IA, where I'm like, yeah, people get in trouble when they always say, hey, we'll think about it, you know, I like concrete and concise things, so we, you know, I said, sure, bro, whatever you need, I don't know, he gave me a key, that's very, an empty warehouse, he gave me a key, of course, after he left, I opened it up, just to make sure there wasn't anything I'd need, just to make sure he wasn't getting ahead of the marijuana stuff, you know, what's going on here, I came in with a black light, there was no blood, everything was good. So I was like, okay, what are we gonna do? We'll figure it out.
So, at the point, at that moment, they weren't sure he was gonna break up, what do you know? They weren't sure that there was gonna be a dissolution of the company. He wanted to open that up as a bundled business for his son, and he wanted an older guy, somebody to help him, somebody who could be there and support him. Right, a little more seasoned, a little more business strategy.
Yeah, he wanted to give his kids, his kids worked in a cigar store until he was 16 years old. The kid knows retail, the kid now, he's learned a lot in the last seven or eight years, six years, seven years we've been together, so I said, sure, whatever you need, and then a couple of weeks later, we find out Eddie puts out a cigar, Eddie already had a cigar in the chamber. Shots fired. Yeah, there were shots fired, and then we had to hustle, and then we found the guy at Lizona, and we got everything done by May, and then we were always behind the eight ball for the first couple of years.
But we, you know, the Bunker Buster really kind of started, turned, helped us turn the corner, and then Laranja was the one that really, that's what really put us ahead, and then as funny as you would think, Eddie came to us two years in and asked us to do a cigar for him, him and Sean Williams put out a cigar called Larceny, and he asked us to make it, which I thought was, and I know he felt good about that, so. That's a big win. That's a big win for him, and I'll tell you what, he's, we're night and day kind of guys. I mean, I'm organized, I'm, you know, I'm A to Z, and he's A to D, D to Q, you know, he's back and forth, and I'm not like that, I'm super structured, I've been in law enforcement and the military, that's all I know, this is how it goes, you have a problem, you've seen that flow chart, does it work, yes, don't fuck with it, that's my, that's my, no, did you break it, no, okay, no problem, don't fuck with it, that's my, No, he's kind of all over the place.
And I think it all comes down to the fact that I've never been in the business. He's in the business, and he's a salesman. And salesmen shoot from the hip, bro. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
He's light on his feet, man. He's always thinking about how to make the deal, make the deal. And I wasn't ready for that. It really wasn't what I knew.
But, you know, we've been together now. Well, let's see, about a year, about six months in, he says, I need to go to Nicaragua. Because we went to Nicaragua once, and we blended a cigar. And he tells me, he goes, I want you to go back to Nicaragua, and I need you to go to Nicaragua.
And I go, well, when are we leaving? He goes, no, just you. Yeah, I need to go to Nicaragua. Yeah, yeah, you've got a good palate.
I like where your head's at with that, and go work with them. And that's been my thing ever since. And just like our friend Skip, that master blender thing bothers the shit out of me. I'm not a master blender.
I know what he likes. Right. And I know what the guys who we make cigars for like. Right.
Which makes it a lot easier. Don't get me wrong. Now, working with AJ, it's a little more eyes awake, you know, like that cigar we made at AJ's. I mean, it has two tobaccos that we've never sourced before, and a wrapper that we've never used.
We've never used Solano 2000. So, you know, and he's… It's really fucking good, by the way. Thanks. Yeah.
Can we replay that when the pitch comes later? All right. I'm going to do what Groover's never got to do, dog. I'm going to put that… I love you, Jeff.
So, you know, now things are a little different. Now, you know, look, I was on a podcast a couple of months ago. I was on it with Coop. You ever seen Coop smoke?
Yeah. Yeah, I have a theory that... Can we go off topic all the time, right? Whatever you want to do.
In about 10 years, they're gonna crack a cold case. Somewhere between North Carolina and Las Vegas where they're gonna find a string of bodies that only happen in June and July. And it's Coop who's been killing people on the trade back and forth, and it's going to happen, he's probably going to find an RC can with some DNA on it, and Coop will be in a retirement home, you know, and they won't be able to do anything to him, but, you know, I'm sure Coop will probably count for 40, 45 bodies by the end of this, by the time I retire, you know, and I love Coop, Coop's the best, so, where were we? Oh yeah, so, you know, that's what it is, you know, I go, a lot of the, he has final say on all the blends.
Right. It's hard to kind of, if people don't understand that, you know, it's like trying to explain what your job is. Sometimes people don't get it. Look, I'll go to Nicaragua.
I'll work on these blends. If it's for you, you have final say. Right. And if it's for us, he has final say.
Right. Hey, Hector, bro, you know what? This is good, but you know what I'd like? I'd like a little more sweetness than this.
He assisted in the blending process. So it's hard to, you know, but people don't, you don't want to run across, I mean, I know the guys in the media don't want to meet a manufacturer. They have 18 blenders, you know, they want to know who's the most, who's the main guy, yeah, and that's fine, I'm the main guy, and Erik has no problem with that, but he has final say on everything. Well, what's kind of crazy to me is, you know, I think that a lot of the most successful businesses in, definitely in the cigar industry, but as well as, you know, kind of blanketing, has your systematic individual and your sales individual, right?
I agree with you completely. And it makes a big difference when you have that, you know, system between the two of them. Right. Look, I made it a point to learn what he likes.
And then, you know, the blending part is easy. Right. Will he like this? Look, we're two different guys.
I like a little fuller cigar, a little less body. I like toothy wrappers, you know, I like dark wrappers. Erik likes spice, he likes a lighter wrapper. It's not that hard, you know, it's not that hard when we're doing stuff for him.
So, the key is, the key has always been to try to make something different, and there's just so many, I mean, Jesus Christ, there's so many, so many. So, you make this at AJ's factory? We make that at AJ's factory. So, why did you decide to go ahead and make a cigar at a different factory when you guys own your own?
AJ and Erik are, if I told you they were friends, it would be underestimating, it would be minimizing their relationship. They're boys. So they're like a married couple? Not that kind of boys.
I mean, they would run a cell block together, but they wouldn't be together. You know what I'm saying? No, they're friends. I mean, they're kind of similar guys.
They're both alpha guys. They're both talk, they talk good, they talk of the game, and they're both competitive. So they're peas in a pod. So at Lozono, Lozono's a small factory.
We're a small factory. " It's a 15 minute tour! Yeah, but you know, the patio is bar none. Oh, nothing beats the patio.
The only view better than our patio is Drew Estates. Right. And they have, you know, Avila, which we don't have. So, we're a small factory.
I like how you digress. Yeah, let's get back to that. I mean, that estate at Swisher is beautiful. I told you we got to have Hector on again.
I don't want to be the Barry Stein on the show, just so you know. No, that's never going to happen. Don't let the similarity fool you, because I'm not going to park the car and have a yacht for that. All right, so we're a small factory, man.
We don't source a lot of different tobaccos. We source what we like, what we use for our stuff. Right. " You know, stuff with Broadleaf, the stuff with Mexican, the stuff with the material that costs you more, it's going to cost you less for me to make it than for you to buy the material and make it.
You can't really turn your back on that. You can't turn your back on that. AJ's got access to some great cigars. And let me tell you something, when it's time to make that cigar, so I get there on a Monday, because you've got to go see him, and if you've ever been to go see AJ, there's no such thing as the half hour visit.
And I'm like, I'm gonna, I told Eric, I'm gonna pop in, I'll pop out, he goes, yeah, okay. " He's so involved, I'm telling you, he's so entranced in his place. That it's just, you know, he wants to show you that, and what do you think? " "I've had better people than you call me.
" I've been insulted about better people than you. So, no, AJ really offers us a chance to do it there, and then, you know, so I get there on a Monday, I said, "Look, how about Wednesday? " 'Cause Erik said, "Hey, you go to his place. " He doesn't say this in English.
He says it's all in Spanish, by the way. " So I get there Wednesday, and I meet the little Nicaraugan guy, and when I mean he's a little guy, I mean he's like two-thirds of a guy, but this guy's got like no body fat, and he's, let me tell you what, if you had the scrap of this guy, you better think about it. This guy, he goes, Don Hector, he shows me around, he shows me all this, this is this, and this is that, and this is that, and this is that, and I'm like, great. I go, where's the stuff for me to use?
He goes, no. All of this. All of this. Well, let's start with that ometepe right there, never used that before.
I was like, what's that? That's the Hochi Hochi, drink that? Yeah, right. So the guy brought everything, we did some blends right there on the table, I said these are good, make me 40 of those, 40 of those, 40 of those, five blends, make me 40 of those each.
We had two with Sumatra that we weren't going to use, but we may use for a later project, and it was three blends with Hawana. And then there was a lighter version, the Hawana was a little lighter than this, it wasn't 2000, but then the second version, you know, when he sent samples back, he goes, oh yeah, look, try this, this wrapper. This Havana 2000 is four years old. You should try this.
Which is not, hey, you should try this. You should try this. Okay, I guess we're making it there. We should try this.
And, you know, I thought it was delicious. Eric would probably have preferred a lighter wrapper. But at the end of the day, the final result was, I mean, come on. I think that cigar is great.
I'm super impressed by it. It got such great buzz at the show. Because it wasn't one of those releases at the show. And Eric's like, did you tell anybody about the cigar at the show?
I told a few people, but I didn't want to get caught up in Drew Estate trying to own the show, because Drew Estate must have released 300 SKUs at the show, must have released everything at the show, and then, you know, Sokka had a lot of positive spin on his cigar, so I didn't want to get caught up in that, I just waited until the show, put it in the right hands, and create some post-show buzz, and it's done really well, I mean, I'm very impressed by it, I'm very responsive by it. I think we've gotten to that level now that actually people come seek us out, we don't have to send guys walking through the corridor to body snatch salespeople, body snatch store owners to come to the booth. Come in, take this out. So we're, you know, that's how it's been.
And, you know, I'm very happy to be there. I owe it all to him. I mean, I could have, he could have called somebody else. I always refer to the, did you guys watch Night Court when you were young?
Yeah, the bull. All right. There was an episode of Night Court where the guy asked John, he asked the judge, he goes, how did you become a judge? I heard you were 138th on the list.
He goes, I was home. When they rang, when the phone rang, I was home. And that's it. I answered the phone.
Had I not answered the phone, there would have been somebody else here. Right. So, you know, I've always said I'm very loyal to the guy. You know, I love working for him.
Is it easy? Yeah, not always. But you know what? That's what makes it interesting.
It's a yin and a yang. He listens to me. He takes my advice. He at least listens to you.
And so far, we've had a pretty good couple of years. I'd say the last three years have been really good for us. The first three years, we were kind of flying a little blind because we started off behind the eight ball. We didn't have a cigar ready, but boom, we didn't have a booth for the first show in 2002.
Luckily, Eric, somebody gave us a booth. So we've come a long way. Finding your footing is definitely hard. We're finding our footing, and I'm happy for us to be clumped in with those five or six or seven boutique manufacturers.
I know a lot of guys hate the word boutique, but what do you want to call it? Small? Small? I think boutique has a much nicer panache to it.
It has a nicer ring to it, yeah. That's a good word. Yeah, it has a lot more panache. We seem to be in that conversation when they talk about Mulatto stuff, and they talk about Socket stuff, and they talk about our Skip stuff, and they talk about James Brown stuff, And they talk about, we're in that conversation, you know, and now Robert Halseyguy is in that conversation.
I mean, he's had a really good year, you know, so I think that's an honor, I consider, if you're going to be in company, that's a good company to be in. Yeah, he blew up pretty quick too, for sure. Well, he came out with some good cigars. I think that he is coming out with good cigars and making stuff that's different.
I mean, yeah, you know, you have your sweet spot, you know what you like, but every once in a while you've got to do something a little different. And then, you know, you just got to get, you know... Okay, this is going so well. And he's such an interesting man to talk to.
We're going to go ahead and stop part one right here. And then you'll have to come back next week for part two of Hector Alfonso, Sr. This is the Operator with a collect ball from... To accept the charges, press one, now.
All right, that's it, folks. Show's over. If you have any questions or suggestions for guests, leave them on our Facebook page, @CigarHustlersPodcast. You can follow the show on Instagram @acigarhustlerspodcast.
You can follow Mikey @cigarhustler, or you can follow me, Mike @flora_cigar_club, or you can follow me, Mike @flora_cigar_club. Mike. Please rate, review, and subscribe on whichever of our providers you use. I said we, 'cause I'm here, you can.
Yeah. Uh. Some places we can go. Some places we can go.
Do you wanna ride? Yeah. Ride with me. With me.
Your spot is reserved, family. Do you wanna ride? Cigarette boats, yachts. Outro Music.
Show Notes
This week we have an amazing show! Hector J. Alfonso Sr. the #2 man at Espinosa Cigars came into town for a soccer game and we have him for what turned out to be an unbelievable 2 part show!
He talks about his life in the Military, working for the Miami Dade County Sheriffs Office and then finally how he became the #2 Man behind Eric Espinosa at Espinosa Cigars!
We hear more about the Sowing Circle at Caribbean Cigars, and who is the one person you tell if you want everyone to know your secrets!
You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, Mikey @cigarhustler and Mike @floridacigarclub_mike.
As always please rate, review and subscribe on whatever provider you listen to the show on!
Make sure to join our FB group "Hustlers Keep Hustlin" for exclusive show pics and information!