Episode 57 Where all have we gone!!!

Episode Summary

Episode 57 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a catch-up show after a two-week gap, with Mike and Mikey trading stories from the road. Mikey covers his week working the Florida Panhandle — stops between Pensacola and Tallahassee including Harbour Cigars, Cordova Cigars in Pensacola, and a tiny beach shop in Rosemary Beach tied to Luke Bryan that stocks mostly Avo and Davidoff — plus his first time working the other side of the table as a vendor at The Great Smoke in Florida. He talks about the odd dynamic of multi-vendor events (the endless "what do you have for free?" requests), and meeting or crossing paths with Matt Booth, Robert Caldwell, Steve Saka, Terence Reilly, Pete Johnson, Jerry Grover and his rep Destiny Valentine, Alfredo Cruz, and Nick "Lock Nick Monster."

The back half is Mike's trip report from Esteli, Nicaragua, staying at Skip Martin's house with Jeff Moutet of Riverside. He covers the logistics — TSA rummaging through both checked bags, hauling down groceries, canned chicken, trail mix and pralines, gifts for Fiorella and the factory crew, a rental car with bad power steering, cab rides for two bucks near Los Arcos, and a $15-a-week gym with all the machine pins stolen. More substantively, he talks about the long, unhurried conversations with Skip that changed how he's approaching retail and wholesale events (including a new trivia format for the upcoming RoMa Craft event), and doing small-vitola test blending work and learning how raw, sharp tobacco mellows over time.

The guys also touch on the industry news that Jesse has left Drew Estate, meeting the SDG/Diesel crew including Justin and Hector Alfonso, a hellish customs experience in Houston over 200 cigars (a $10 duty), and a shout-out to the Hot Ticket Podcast for their review of the Powstanie Habano Perfecto and the SBC. They close with upcoming events: a Friday night RoMa Craft event with Mike Rosales and Danny, a Powstanie appearance at Prime Cigars in Miami with Jeremy Fundy, and notes on Cordova picking up Chogüi alongside Florinata.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Catching Up After Two Weeks Off
   The hosts explain the gap between episodes, plus the usual banter about stuffy noses, chewed-up glasses and a toddler eating a $20 bill.
2. 02
   Florida Panhandle Shop Run
   Mikey recaps sales calls from Pensacola to Tallahassee, including Harbour Cigars, Cordova Cigars and a Luke Bryan-affiliated shop in Rosemary Beach.
3. 03
   Working The Great Smoke as a Vendor
   His first multi-vendor event from behind the table — freebie hunters, autopilot handshakes, and running into Matt Booth, Robert Caldwell, Steve Saka, Pete Johnson and Jerry Grover.
4. 04
   A Week in Esteli with Skip Martin
   Travel logistics, hauling down groceries, gifts for the factory, sketchy rental cars and cab rides, and life on Skip's nocturnal schedule.
5. 05
   Business Lessons and Test Blending
   Long conversations with Skip that are reshaping the shop's event strategy, plus small-vitola test blends and how raw tobacco mellows out.
6. 06
   Industry Notes and the Ride Home
   Jesse leaving Drew Estate, meeting the SDG/Diesel crew and Hector Alfonso, and a customs shakedown in Houston over 200 cigars.
7. 07
   Hot Ticket Podcast Review of Powstanie
   The guys react to Hot Ticket's review of the Powstanie Habano Perfecto and the SBC.
8. 08
   Upcoming Events
   A RoMa Craft trivia night with Mike Rosales and Danny, and a Powstanie event at Prime Cigars in Miami.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 57 of Cigar Hustlers podcast, this week Mikey and I sit down, we get caught up on what's been going on, where we've been, and all the fun we've had. Thanks and enjoy the show! Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike squared, squared, squared. Are you done?

Are you ready now? I've been waiting on you, brother. This is my third time here today. It's on.

It's recording. I figured it was. Make yourself a star. You're such a crybaby.

Make yourself a star. You're so busy. I cry a lot. You cry a lot.

You're a whiny bastard. I'm not really that whiny. Yes, you are. I don't believe you.

That's it. Show's over. That's it. We're done.

Taking my show and leaving. Oh. So. So.

I saw your IM post on Facebook. You did the IM. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we got a review.

We've been missing the entire week. It's been two weeks. Two weeks. It's been two weeks.

Two weeks. So, the Jack Taranio answer home. I thought that was funny. Always late.

Yeah. I fucking fell out of my chair. That was fucking nice. Yeah.

Joke's over, Jack. Time to move on. Shit. That was spot on.

That was fantastic. So, what's going on in your life, Michael? How are things? How are the kids?

Kids are good. Everything's fine. Y'all did eat my glasses this morning. Yeah?

Ate $300 pair of glasses and a $20 bill. That's nice. Yeah. Did he eat the $20 before or after the $300?

Before. And it was on a pile of more than one, but luckily he just took the one off the top. So it started with the 20s and... I'm just not full yet.

How can I... Oh look, Daddy's glasses are on the nightstand. Let me eat those. How can I really fuck up your day?

And just went deep in... So the glasses you're wearing now, are they new? No, no, these are the backup magnifying cheaters I keep here at the shop. Ah, the just-in-case.

Yes. I did order a five set of just-in-cases. I'm not paying $300 for another pair of glasses. In bulk.

You brought them in bulk. Well, one pair is even shaded. I don't know. Would you magnify where you drive?

Sounds dangerous. I don't know. I can't even walk with these things on without running into something. That's fantastic.

So. Finally, wear the glasses for reading. So I listened to the last podcast and I think my nose was a little stuffy. So like I could hear me breathe.

Frustrated the fuck out of me. Oh, really? I didn't notice. I listened to it twice last week.

Oh, I noticed it. So now I'm like not going to breathe. Oh, and yesterday. This entire time.

I'm going to step away and be like. Is that William Brie? Okay, here we go. Yeah, no, I could hear it.

I don't know. It drove me nuts. Like, I knew that I was, my nose is stuffy or whatever the hell. Oh.

I'm still a little congested. Did you sound like this, baby? Just a little stuff. No, I'm still a little congested, but I think I'll be okay.

Yeah, the Nicaraguan flu? No, I think, you know, if anything, it's, I think it's like allergies or some shit, 'cause I don't think I had any of it down there. Do you have to get shots now like your brother? I probably should get shots.

However, that's not, that's not on my agenda. That's the coolest thing, that EpiBlock thing on his desk, we learned how to use it today, it has verbal recorded commands to tell you how to do it. Really? Like you pull the bottom off, and then it tells you what to do, you're about to die, please remove the emergency cover now.

Sounds a bit overpriced, if you ask me. Nice. So how was Nicaragua? You seemed to survive.

I was talking about you, I mean, you know. Well, I spent a week in a pan now. Okay. It went okay, opened up a couple.

Marvin, Harbour Cigars. I liked Harbour Cigars. I could have stayed there all day. Yeah, and just listened to stories.

Yeah, there were some good stories. A couple of guys from the music industry, a retired doctor. It's a good little shop. And you went to Cordova.

I went to Cordova first thing Monday morning. I liked James and Spence. They were very nice. Opened them up also.

Good squad there, for sure. Yes. If it's a boutique, they carry it. And that's not entirely true.

Anyways, if it's a good boutique, they carry it. Oh, that's not true either, 'cause they picked up Florinata. See, you wanna throw fuckin' jabs? I'll fuckin' jab back, motherfucker.

So where else you go? If there's a shot between Pensacola and Tallahassee, I was there. Did you really? Yeah.

So you just stopped at the one, then? The one place? I should've just stopped at the one place. You know, I did, like, down in, like, Rosemary Beach or something like that, You know, look at that.

The Shore Thing. Yeah, you mentioned that on your-- I mean, they only carry Avvo and Davidoff and some crown head that Luke Bryant first smoked when he was 12 or something. Oh, is that Luke Bryant's place? That's Luke Bryant's place.

Ah. I didn't touch Luke Bryant's locker. Oh, yeah? He's got his locker there.

That sounded-- I should have taken my picture of the locker. He was standing there and going-- That's very strange. That's funny. It's a real neat little shop.

It's a tiny little building, all made out of cinder block. block but when you walk in it's it's fancy yeah fancy beach and then cam newton just opened up a spot quarterback for the carolina panthers up in uh georgia i think oh i didn't go to georgia well that's next for you i mean you've at this at this point you have beaten your fucking head into the wall hitting all of the shops in florida why not up the abuse let's turn this up add another state let's keep going hotlanta there's a lot of spots in hotlanta i could spend a month Oh, for sure. And of that month, you could probably open up like three accounts. Probably.

Exactly. So, yeah. So, what else you do? Is that it?

No, this past Saturday, I did The Great Smoke, my first multi-vendor event, being a multi-vendor. Oh, yeah. Being a vendor. I saw your pictures on the Insta.

Yeah. Nice. It was a good time. You got to hang out with Lognik Monster.

Got to hang out. He was not the booth next to, but the one over. But his boy Alfredo Cruz was right next to me with a Lucian. Oh, yeah?

And he was on the other side of a Lucian. Hashtag, we hung out. Hashtag, we hung out. Yeah.

I even told him we took the picture. But he said, Nick said, no. Hashtag, Locke Nick Monster. Oh, he did say it.

He did. He has embraced the monster. So it's coming along. It's popped up a couple of times now.

It's an ash, it's an ash. It's trending. We're trendsetters here in the Cigar Hustles Podcast. I did meet Matt Booth.

Yeah? It's Boofy Baby? So, like, you don't, I mean, you could get one of two different, I've gotten two versions of Matt Booth. Okay, because I have some observations from some of the people I met.

Yeah? Yeah. Was it Crazy Matt Booth, or was it Standard Matt Booth? Well, the first time I've met him, so I feel that it was not Crazy Matt Booth.

Okay, did you walk away and say, "This fucker is crazy"? No, no. He was sitting down, and we walked up. Gabby Caffey knew him from before.

They had met before or something, you know, all those guys know each other. " I mean, just like I was one of the thousands of people walking around. Right. And then a couple of niceties, and then he shook my hand again and sat back down.

Oh, yeah, he's a good guy. He was on autopilot. I mean, you know, I can't blame the guy. No, no, you do enough of those things.

And then Robert Caldwell was sitting in the booth next to him, sitting there looking at his phone, and like, you know, He had to get up, walk over, shake her hand, the fake smile on his face. It's hard, man, it's hard. Those guys must hate doing that all the time. " It's like, "Fuck you, that's what I have for free.

" Yeah, we had two cigars, so you get to pick which one you wanted. Well, I want both. Right. No, you can't have both.

You only paid for the one. I'd go, "Nope, Abe won't let us. " That's crazy. And then they come back around when it's done.

You got any leftover cigars? You got anything left? You got any swag you want to get rid of? No, we're taking all this shit with us!

He paid for this stuff! Good times, man. Good times had by all. So give me some free shit.

Exactly. That's what I want. But it was fun. It was a different perspective.

I've never, you know, been on the other side of the table. " Right. Because people love that shit. They do.

They do. So, yeah, man, that was cool. You had a good time. I'm proud of you.

You know, you're out there crushing it. You're out there. I met Terrence Riley. Steve Saka was there.

Yeah. Did he get to talk? Yeah, briefly. Don't, don't.

Get that away. You make a difference. I'm sorry. That inference, everybody just heard?

That was Mikey with his pen poking the board. Did he remember you? No. You know who also didn't remember me and I was very disappointed?

Who? Your boy John Carney. " You know, you're out of your element, I'll just defend him a little bit, you don't, he's been in here twice. Everybody fucking knows you, it can be rough, I get it, I get it.

I didn't even approach him, because he looked at me a couple of times and you could tell just nothing, he didn't know who I was. " So I'd like, my point is that, you know, when you're out of that element, when you're not looking, you don't think about those things, so... Right. I mean, soccer just doesn't fucking like you, probably.

I'm just kidding. Probably. Probably. I look like a slightly thinner Saka, anyway.

A little bit of resemblance. I can tell you that I've met David Lafferty for the first time five times, and now that he's in charge of, I can't wait to meet him for the first time again, now that he's working for Dunbarton Tobacco. It's going to be amazing. Looking forward to it.

Pete Hernandez was there, and he came over to give me a big hug. Oh, yeah. Went over and kissed Groover's ring. That's nice.

Jerry? Jerry Grooper? There, it's Mr. Groover.

Oh, he's a professional. He had like a row of five or six booths, and his new girl, Destiny Valentine, she's very nice, but the booth she got stuck in was on the other side of the little complex, so he was trying to move my father's cigars to move his boutique brand over. Can we just get out of here? You can just bang up your shit and move, please.

Do you know who I am? I'm Jerry Grooper. I'm Jerry Grooper. That's pretty awesome.

So I did make sure I, you know, bent the knee and kissed the ring, coming and going with Mr. Groovers. That's fantastic. He should just hire you.

You should work for him. I just took it out of me. What the hell? Learn the ins and outs.

He doesn't have anybody in Orlando. Learn the tricks of the trade and then bow out. There's not a shop you can't go into in the state of Florida that doesn't have his shit in it. My Lord.

Yeah. Everywhere. So what else you got going on? Is that it?

Yeah, that's all that's been going on. Okay. Oh, fancy stuff, so you go, how was Esteli? I survived.

Obviously. I survived the Esteli trip. You are. I have questions for your trip.

Oh, Jesus. From the listeners. Okay, so, well, I mean, I could tell you that... But tell me your trip first.

It was kind of a, you know... How was the flight? Start at the very beginning. How was the flight?

So, things were going my way. You got first class? 5 pounds. What's the max?

50. And they let them both slide. I'd let them go. I was like, whew.

Got in. Took my flights. Had no issues with my flights. Arrived, you know, with Skip and Jeff Moutet of Riverside.

Yes. Both of my bags were searched through TSA or whatever. It's a picture of half a pound. I mean, I still had my lighters and shit.

They didn't take any of that stuff, but they had to check it out. So that was, that was, that's always entertaining as long as they didn't take anything. Or maybe they did take something. Did they search it there in front of you?

No, no, no. That's, you know, when it's- You had that little postcard in there. " Right. It's like, "Oh, God.

" Maybe just make it a list. Here, we took this. " But I didn't notice anything gone, so- That's how they get it. They're very good.

He won't miss this. They took like a pair of socks. Some guy sniffing your underwear. Yeah, hey, good for them.

You know, whatever floats their boat, whatever. As long as they're happy. If they're happy, I'm happy. I would make it a game if I was them.

Just sort of rearrange stuff. So we arrive. Put the underwear in all the pants and look like it's missing. " I mean, I feel like you could be entertained doing that for like the first week of you working at two, and then at that point you're like, "My fucking life sucks," and you're just fucking miserable.

And, you know, I mean, as much of a hard time as everybody gives a TSA, you gotta feel for those guys. I mean, holy shit. Well, I'm glad they're there. I feel safer.

Their job's gonna suck. It does. And then they, you know, they took a look at my jar of mayonnaise that I brought down. I don't know.

Fuck. So, um... Why is this guy such a large jar of Vaseline? Wait, what's he shop at Costco?

Yes, I do. I buy in bulk. So, um... Did you take a bag of food?

I brought a bunch of things, yeah. Why? You don't travel with food. It's Esteli, bro.

Groceries, you know. Okay, I gotta tell you. I watched my friend's Robert Holt video driving from Managua to Esteli, I believe what it was. I think he passed a Costco, a Target.

No way. Get the fuck out of here. There was some very sufficient looking convenience type stores he passed. Looks like you could find just about anything.

That's a complete lie. Maybe a Managua, but you're not hanging out in Managua. I don't know where he was, but he was somewhere between the two. No.

No, no. Yes. That's not true. Yes.

It looked like a full-scale Amaco. Maybe he was in Texas when he acted like he was in Esteli. " Come on, man. No, the music.

It was Hispanic music. You could tell he was in Nicaragua. Oh, he's playing in the background. Very nice.

" Well, I can assure you that the things that I brought are not easy to obtain, especially in Esteli. I mean, in Managua maybe, but you're not hanging out there. Did you leave leftovers? I left all of it, of course.

So how much of it did you not eat? I ate a lot of it. I'd say I probably ate 60 or 70 percent of it. I've seen the way Skip cooks.

Yeah? Just eat that, as long as you brought Rolaids. No, it isn't a question of the food content that's there, it's just a question of the availability of food. There's a political upheaval right now.

So you thought Skip would have no food? No, I just brought stuff to make sure that, whatever. So did you bring rice and beans? No, that would be stupid.

What did you bring? Popsicles? Oh, well, I bring, like, canned chicken for me to eat that I didn't eat. They have live chickens.

Yeah. They kill them. And we ate the live chickens for Super Bowl Sunday. You know, I don't know, bread, cool bread.

The bread there isn't the same. I don't know, they make it on those rocks. Yeah, that sounds like fun. Sounds like a good time.

It's good bread. I don't know, trail mix. I fucking love my trail mix, gotta bring that shit everywhere. I brought, like, this jar of pecans.

Pecans. Pecans. That are like roasted. Fancy roasted pralines.

Those things. They had like sugar glazed. Excuse me, sir. These are my sugar glazed pralines.

Those things didn't stand a fucking chance. Murderballed those. I mean, and then I brought gifts. For one, Danny fucking showed me up last time, and Esteli brought a little Kinder Egg for Fiorella.

Sometimes it's hard for Fiorella to warm up to you. So that shit wasn't happening this time around. " And she hands me a ton of shit. " So one bag was just all gifts for her.

Well, gifts, and then, you know, I brought a bottle of wine for Arlen, brought some t-shirts for the guys in the factory, like, you know. Oh, did you take a picture with them on? Yeah. I saw them with those Hustler shirts on, but I figured the other ones were coming or something, the nice stuff.

I sent the cigar... You're a dick. I sent the cigar hustler ones. Asshole.

So, we rented a car in Esteli, and... Wait, you can rent a car in Esteli, but you can't find canned chicken? I'm sorry. We rented a car in Managua when he left the airport, and there was a problem with the power steering, so because of the fact that the car was fucked up, Skip, like, did the speed limit the entire time.

It was crazy. So, did you ask for the fuck? Excuse me, this is crazy amigo here. Loco.

Loco and la capilla. If you could give us a car that's kind of fucked up. Driveable very fast, though. I mean, I don't mind the driving of the very fast, but I'm just letting everybody know.

You're right sitting there, eyes bugging out, eating your glaze. He's like, son of a bitch. Don't kill me. Don't kill me.

Don't kill me. Please don't kill me. No, but it went well. He drove.

No, no, no. Don't pass! We survived. Linea continuum.

We survived. We survived, my friend. So, I mean, the conversations that you have with Skip, When you're there, just fucking amazing, you know, especially if you have a conversation where you have like a kind of an open mind and you listen to shit and I mean, you know, the stuff that I brought back and the information, I'm already utilizing a lot of it in different avenues of our business, you know, on the wholesale level, on the retail level, you know, he kind of fucking hammered me about some of our events have been, you know, just your standard cigar events. So I'm trying to work on stepping that up.

I don't, you know, every once in a while you kind of fall short, right? So this upcoming Roma Crafts event, which will be Friday, we're going to do, we're testing out a trivia. Yes, I did enjoy that. Which I think is going to be a lot of fucking fun.

Actually, you know, we're talking about the event at lunch and like, well, you know, I got to do the podcast beforehand, but I don't know if we'll stay or not because, you know, you just, you know, I don't take advantage of the specials and stuff. So, I already know Mike and Danny, and they need to talk to the people that they don't get to talk to. But now you get to partake. Well, now there's a game.

Now you have to stay. Yeah, there's a game. Well, she won't know any of those answers. Every 20 minutes, there's a new question.

What's that? She won't know the answers to any of those questions. Who? Adrian.

So? Well, you already, you know, so what? It'll be fun. And you can't play.

You're damn right I'm going to play. No, you can't get all the answers. It's not fair. Whatever, fine, I won't play.

None of your employees can play. So, okay, yes, that's fine, they won't play. But the conversations that you have there, and my point is that, you know, you work on, if you listen to the fucking guy, you can actually... Well, he knows what he's talking about.

Right. He does. You know, he knows a lot about a lot. So, it was really cool, you know, and that doesn't really get to happen often.

And because of the fact that I was there for so long, you know, you really get to sit and chill. Well, I'm sure there's a lot of downtime. There's a tremendous amount of downtime. Right.

So that was like the big, the coolest part about it. I found a gym. I saw that on your Insta. And I went and worked out.

They don't stack, they don't re-stack their weights there either. It's a national problem. No, it's a worldwide problem. So I walked into this gym and I'm like, "Wow, they got machines and shit.

This is pretty cool for us to leave. " Yeah, man. But no canned chicken. So I was like, okay.

Oh, look, there's a Nautilus machine, but no canned chicken. So I said, okay, that's cool. This gym looks good. How much is it for a week?

And she's like, it's expensive. In Spanish, it's expensive. It's $15 for the week. " $15.

American. American dollars. So here you go. You know, here's $15.

And, you know, then... They're all talking about you. "Did you see the rich American? " No, that's not true, man.

So then Skip and Jeff... " Are you done? " You're a fucking idiot. So Skip and Jeff were kind of breaking my balls, like, Oh, you're gonna go, you're gonna go, so, you know.

Could you walk there? I, well, it was kind of far, it was a little over a mile, but yes, so I walked there. You walked there every day. I didn't go every day, I went, I think, three or four times, something like that.

I wish I had gone every time, but... But that walk. So, I walk the first day, and I go there, and I go to jump on one of the machines. There's no fucking pins for the weights.

Oh. So they got, somebody ganked them, somebody stole the pins. Somebody stole the pins. So like, you go to look for, go to another machine, maybe there'll be another pin, there's no pins.

They've stolen all the pins, or they took the pins because people do steal them. No, I'm sure the other gym in the area took the fucking pins. Oh, you want the pins, sir? That's another $15.

So, you know, then... 15, 40 weeks? So that was kind of a bummer. 540 pins.

That was definitely a bummer. You know, it cut down... Did you put a stick in or bring a big screw in the factory? And, you know, you just go back to your dumbbell stuff and, you know, you adapt and kind of go from there.

But, like, you couldn't do, like, the preacher bench, the curl bar machine, there was no clips for the side of the weights. You had to keep perfectly good form the entire time, yeah, you couldn't, yeah, there was no pushing yourself on that, I can assure you. That's why everything looks so nice, nobody can ever use it. But there's a couple of guys in there that are fuckin' were jacked.

Did you ask them if they had pins? Maybe they had their own pins. They probably did have their own pins, and they obviously had their own supply of steroids, because they were fuckin' gigantic. They eat the natural chicken that doesn't come in a can, Michael.

In Esteli, Nicaragua, seeing people of that size, I was like, "You guys, what are you doing? " "We eat the old chicken egg and all. " So, you know, for one, my Spanish is fuckin' terrible. And I had, you know, some communication errors at first with the person behind the counter, and then like somebody tried to, I wanted to ask somebody if I could use their machine, and I didn't understand what the fuck they said.

Did you use the machine to get your ass kicked? No, I just walked away. He was too big. I just walked, it wasn't worth the battle.

He probably would have let me, but... So, you know, 5'5", 350 pounds of solid muscle. So, you know, I ignored like Hans and Franz with a Spanish accent. Oh, no.

Yeah, exactly. And they were definitely there. They weren't. They pumped me up.

They pumped themselves up. Pumped you up, American. So I go to this other machine and this kid kind of walks up and he starts speaking Spanish to not understand him. I said, you know, I got the pins.

So I was like, you know, I don't understand. You know, sorry, I don't understand. So he busts out his phone, hits the Google Translate button. Yeah.

And he says, first time at the gym. And I go, yeah, first time in the fucking gym. So it's just kind of funny how, like, you know, like the younger kids, they'll put in. They don't know how to get by.

They'll be like, yeah, we can figure this out. Right. Whereas a lot of other people are like, oh, you don't understand me? Okay.

No, it's not my problem. So in China shopping, everybody has a calculator. Yeah. So when you ask them what something is.

You talk to them in numbers? Ask them what something is. They just punch it on a calculator and they show it to you. Then you look like you're terribly upset.

You go, oh, no, no, no. You take the calculator, punch it a real, like, half. " And then it becomes this little game. Oh, that sounds like fun.

Taxi drivers do the same thing. I hate taking taxis in China. I negotiate with a taxi driver. What, you can still when you get out?

I don't know where the fuck I'm at. So I took the cab home a couple of times after the gym. They have cabs, they have gyms. But no chicken in a can.

Dude, they probably do have chicken in a can. But, like, I brought all these things. things i just brought what i normally eat and stuff and stuff for everybody else god so you know like one time i gave the guy two bucks and he's like okay and the next time i gave the guy two bucks and he looked at me like that's not enough what the fuck it's a mile dude i heard you paid the 15 dollars at the gym it's not like i'm the only person in the cab the cab is fucking filled with people i'm in the front there's like three or four more people in the back It's like a little bus. And he's looking at me like I got six fucking heads.

How did you know where to get out? How did you tell him where you were going? Oh, well, so Skip's house is close to Los Arcos, so I just say Los Arcos Hotel. And then when they get close, I go, "Here's good.

" Just tuck and roll. Tuck and roll, American. Jump out the truck. No, they usually stop.

They usually stop, which is nice. They're like the little rope where you ding. " No, I go, "Aquí es bien. Here is good.

" So did you give him another dollar? Yeah, I did! " Like, two dollars is more than enough, but for a mile. He's goosing you for a little more money.

Yeah, he's, you know... He saw you had canned chicken. I can't knock that hustle, so I gave him an extra buck. You can't knock that hustle.

So my Spanish is so bad that there was one day I was talking with Esteban and Anthony, his son, was there. This is pretty funny. So, you know, he says something in Spanish, and I think that he's talking about the cigar that I'm smoking, which is one of the, like, something that we were messing around with, like a test blend. And I'm like, yeah, no, it's really good.

And then Anthony looks at me and goes, he asked, how was your breakfast? It was pretty good, too. I know exactly what he asked. Yeah, of course.

Of course. That's what he said. Yeah, it was good, so I really got a kick out of that. Psst, he wants to know if you like the cereal.

So we got to do some test blending stuff with the smaller Vitola like we did with the 326 and more, that was fun. Got to learn a little bit more about how some tobacco, when it's really, really raw, it's really sharp and it mellows out tremendously. That was pretty cool. You know, just overall being there is always really fantastic.

Just getting there is what sucks. And then when you're there, you have a good time. You know, got to watch the Super Bowl. Got to watch the three commercials that they had for the Super Bowl.

Was it in Spanish, all the commentary? Oh, yeah. Well, they actually had an English one, but we didn't have it upstairs. So we just dealt with it.

You know, it was fine by me. I mean, you really just turned the volume off. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Jesse, who now formerly of Drew Estate, came by and hung out with us, which is cool. Can you say what he's going to be doing? I have no idea. He didn't say?

No. No, he didn't say anything. There was some reference to Southwest Airlines in an interview I saw, but I don't know, what's he going to do? Paint the planes?

Maybe. I could see that would be something they would do. I mean, the guy's talented. More than qualified.

Yep, that story broke when you were gone. Mm-hmm. Did it? I thought it happened last week.

No, because I talked to Greg about it. Oh. Well, you know what? Maybe I was here and you weren't.

Yeah. Because that was really recent. It had to have been Monday or Tuesday then. Yeah.

No, wait. What was that? No, I wasn't here at all last week. I left Sunday.

I don't know what to tell you. It had to be the week before. I saw it this week, or last week. Either way, it doesn't matter.

So, Esteli was obviously a lot of fun. I had a good time. It's a good time. Oh, my roommate?

My roommate, Jeff Moutet. Oh, that's one of the questions. Does Jeff Moutet snore? I don't know.

Does he like to be the big spoon or the little spoon? I think so. He's a holder. He likes to be the big spoon.

He's a cuddler? Yeah, it's nice. Oh, that's nice. It was very comfortable.

What kind of pajamas do Skip wear? That's another question. He was in... Who the fuck asked these questions?

So, you know, he was in, like, Fiorella's room is pretty much open. So, he was in Fiorella's bed, and I had my own air mattress there. Wait, where was Fiorella? In Skips.

Oh, it was Skips, right? Yeah. You know, catering to the guests. Right.

It's very nice. I couldn't tell you what kind of pajamas Skips wear. You didn't see him in the morning on his pajamas? m.

You're gone before he gets up. Well, that's another question. Does he really not sleep? Oh, yeah.

He's up till 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. Well, he sleeps. He just sleeps at a different time. Daytime?

Is he a vampire? No, he's out during the day. He's out during the day. He said he's up until like 3 or 4, sun comes up, Skip disappears, we don't know what happens.

That's it, and he won't eat garlic for some reason. And then he won't eat garlic and he comes back out towards the evening. So, um, he, I mean, yeah, he just, it's easier for him to do some of the work that he does when it's kind of quiet and chill and you know. I would imagine, you can get more done when people aren't asking you questions all the time.

Yeah, so he hangs out on the patio, smokes a couple cigars, watches some movies and shit, catches up and does his thing. So then you don't know what he has for breakfast? He probably does like normal eggs and shit like everybody else. No, just wondering because it's such an odd time.

People ask questions, I'm just passing them along. You're just, you're just the platform. I'm, exactly, I'm just the asker. Okay, does he have any shoes that are closed-toe or are they all flip-flops?

I think I've only seen Skip in, I don't even think I've ever seen Skip in shoes. I've never seen Skip in any of flip-flops. Is he not wearing any shoes at all the factory? He's got like three or four different pairs of flip-flops.

Alright. What other fucking ridiculous questions do you have? That's all the ridiculous questions. That was it.

It was, what does Skip wear? What does Skip eat? What kind of pajamas? What are his pajamas?

What's eating your breakfast? And is Jeff a cuddler? Well, does he snore? I added the big spoon, the little spoon, I was curious.

Was that your question? Who asked the snore question? I'm gonna tell you who asked the question. I can look this shit up.

No, you can't. I mean, it's probably on Facebook. They didn't privately message us. Yes, they did.

Hey, so, I gotta know. I gotta know. Does Jeff Boutet snore? No, I told you the Jeff Boutet question was mine.

Oh, that was your question? That was my question. That's a horrible question. Well, no, because I snore when we travel, so I was curious if he was a better travel partner.

Oh. I would say yes. He's a better travel partner. " He goes, "Where's Mikey?

" Oh, no, I'm sorry, Mike, he's not here. This is a Cigar Hustlers Podcast at Smokin' Great Smoke. Smokin' Great Smoke. We are live.

We are live right here on the floor. So tell me, Lockneck Monster. Why can't we hang the fuck out? A lot of the guys we've interviewed were there, that's right.

Yeah, you could just walk around on the mic. Walk around on the mic. Hey, so how's it going? Boom, boom.

Send a little message to Mikey. Because he's not here, apparently. What? Nothing.

I'm doing my own show over here. I got to meet some of the SDG guys, which is pretty cool. Justin, who runs Diesel, and I guess used to be Jack Terhondo's boss. Not anymore.

Not anymore. But he was a really cool guy. Another guy, Alex, was really nice. So I hitched a ride back with them.

I was going to ask how you got back. Which was interesting, because as we were driving, we were about an hour in, And then all of a sudden the car comes to a complete stop. And they said, "Put out or get out"? So, I was with Hector, too.

I got a shout-out to Hector Alfonso. Hector was there? Oh, yeah, we got the fucking... Oh, that's good.

It was good. Yeah, we had a good time. What? oh, yeah, he did, that he was down there.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking of the wedding, but the wedding was his past weekend. So, he set me up for the ride home, which was really nice, and as we're driving, the fucking car stops.

i'm like oh we're so fucked and um i guess hector knows more about cars than you know obviously me because i don't know shit about cars but he's like oh uh it looks like you're the transmission fluid so in esteli or you know when they maintain these vehicles they just dump the fucking fluid into whatever level so the transmission fluid was over full so because And then because you're going down the mountain, the car didn't want to move. Oh. It was crazy. Because it was overfull?

You'd think if it was underfull it would slosh to maybe where it wouldn't. Right. No, it was overfull. Hmm.

That's weird. So we waited a few minutes and then phew, thank God, it started back up and we kept going. Everybody moved to the back of the car. We need to level this thing out.

Son of a bitch. So that was definitely interesting. And then the flight's back. Fucking sucked.

Fucking suck. Bumpy. They didn't have the right pillow for you. No, so I got through customs, or I got through the checkpoint in Managua, no problem.

Right? Said my goodbyes to Justin and Hector. Jumped on the plane there. Goodbye, Justin.

Goodbye, Hector. Exactly. Fuyo con Dios, my amigos. Flew back into Houston, and that flight was okay, I slept a little bit.

" blah, blah, blah. I go, yeah. Oh, tobacco? Well, what do you have?

Is this tobacco? And I'm like, I don't know, probably like 200 cigars. 200 cigars? 200?

Who could possibly smoke 200 cigars? I was like, yeah, you know, normally I bring like 300 or 400, but yeah, no, this time... I'm cutting back. This time I only could smoke so much.

So I thought for sure that nobody was going to give me a hard time about 200 sticks. I'm like, yeah, 200 for my own personal consumption, you know. It'll last me about three days. And he goes, how many cigars do you smoke?

I go, I don't know, four to six a day on average? And he's like, oh, you're gonna have to go, you're gonna have to, oh, sorry, you're gonna have to go with this guy. So I had to wait for somebody to grab me, bring me down to the custom section. And I'm like, oh, fuck, I'm gonna miss my flight, my connecting flight to Orlando, so I'm starting this fucking stress.

There's a, you wait in line, they tell you, okay, you go get your bags and go to whatever, slot one or some shit like that. So, I'm in slot one, and there's an entire group of, there's a whole Chinese family in front of me, and they all have to be separated, and whatever, I don't know what they're bringing in, was it entire meals, or- Chicken to put in cans! Well, if it was canned chicken, they wouldn't have a problem, Michael. So, nobody speaks Chinese, or Mandarin, or whatever the hell it was, so- Not anybody in customs there.

Nobody there. I think they have somebody. It was after five o'clock, so I'm like, oh fuck. Jeremy Trasler went home at four, guys, I'm like, I'm totally fucked, I'm thinking, this is, this is a shit show.

You go, I need a phone, I need a phone. Palmer, Palmer, I need to talk to you, there's a guy here. No, there's no, you're not allowed to, oh, no cell phones. That's why you yelled for a phone.

But you're not allowed to use your cell phones. No, you were asking permission. Right. I got this, I got this.

You don't speak Chinese. I got a local person that does that. Oh, okay. Hold on, we're connecting you right now, we're connecting you right now.

Press 1 for Spanish, 2 for Chinese, 3. " I don't know, dude. I have no idea. I was like, "I got 200 cigars on me, bro," and, you know, I don't know.

" Was it Bob? I fucking hate Bob. " Okay, so, you owe me like 10 bucks, I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? 10 fucking dollars?

Did you take cash? I got it right here. No, no, I gave him cash, I gave him 10 singles. One, two, do you get it in Spanish?

No, no, the guy was really, the guy downstairs was really nice, the guy upstairs was a complete asshole, you know, like, really not necessary for 10 bucks, right? And if I had missed my flight, I would have been fucking totally fucked, stuck in Houston for a night, you know. There'd be another flight to Orlando. Maybe, I guess, but that would have sucked.

I got in close to 1am. I guess you would have panicked. I wouldn't have panicked. You would have panicked.

I don't think I would have panicked. I would have been pissed. I feel you would have panicked. I don't think so.

I feel like you don't know me. I would. So the night after, when I got home, we went to Universal Studios. Yes, I saw that.

A little Mardi Gras action. Bush was in town, which is really cool. Which Bush? The Bush.

There's only one Bush. Gavin Rosdale. Oh, they meant like George. Like George W?

Yeah. No, he's not in a band. I didn't know you meant the band. Yeah, so Mardi Gras bands at university.

Saturday, Air Force One was at the West Palm Beach Airport. Oh, yeah? Was it Bush? No, no.

I don't think so. Like George W? But it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Yeah?

I thought it would be much bigger. It was like an Air Force Two, maybe? No, it was Air Force One. Yeah, it said Air Force One, painted like it's supposed to be.

I could have threw a rock and hit it. Oh, I would have been shot at that point, but I mean, I was that close. You could have flown a drone over there. Oh yeah, they love that.

All the kids are doing it these days. You could even drive down to it because they had the concrete barriers up. I mean, you could even go down the road that would take you to the road, to the hangar that it was behind. I mean, that sounds like, you know, protocol.

That's from where I'm sitting to the gas station. I mean, that's how close the highway goes to it. Really? It seemed completely inappropriate.

Well? Backing up that highway where I could sit there with a Stinger missile or something. I mean, that just sounds a bit... Not that I'm going to do that.

For one, why are you carrying around a Stinger? I mean, how okay. Doesn't everybody have one of those in their Nissan Versa? No, I can't say.

I don't think it would fit in my Nissan Versa. I can't say that that's a regularly going thing, you know, but sure, sure. And that's an industrial area where that airport is down there. Yeah.

So a lot of big warehouses and things. Huh. Didn't seem safe at all. I don't think they were worried.

Maybe it was maintenance. Who knows. I don't think he was down there because something was going on in DC. Maybe they leave a plane there because he's got Miralago.

" I'm leaving this here. That's it. That's it, I'm done. Make America better or whatever.

So, what the hell was I talking about? Oh, so yeah. So I saw the band George W. " The guy's gone for like 10 fucking minutes, and I'm like, "Okay, was it Is this really that hard of a fucking question?

So he comes back and he says, hey, hey. They didn't have Biggie, but I got something for you. You're really going to like it. It's going to be great.

That'll be $10. I said, okay, cool. Thanks, man. You know, a few songs go by and then all of a sudden the song kicks on.

It's like, this is for you. It's fucking Tupac, California Love. That's the exact fucking opposite of Biggie. Do you know the whole?

I have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, my God. Yeah, so there's a huge rivalry between Tupac, so it's like, how do you draw that parallel? Was it a 50-year-old white guy?

No, he was like my age. And there's a DJ upstairs, or wherever. Are those the earbuds that you lost? No, these are my wife's.

Mine are missing. Your band has a thing to hold them? That's kind of neat. Yeah.

Do you even care when I talk anymore? Yes, I just saw that. I'm sorry. " I'm like, "Thanks, man.

Awesome. " Oh, really? Yeah, one more though. You need to get two.

That's why I got to give you more than one. Yeah, you got a port of a tank of gas in my car. " For fuck's sake. So, that's my story, and that's all I got for you.

Wow, you really need to know how to do this better. Okay, that's it. Bye. So, I don't know, like you just kind of took the wind out of my sails by not caring about me.

Biggie and Tupac, well I didn't know what they were talking about. No, I don't understand that, check out your watch band. Well, they were missing earlier. They're still missing.

I thought, certainly, they can't be the lost ones who are stuck to his watch band. They're still lost. I almost ordered a new one today. That would be set number three for you.

Set number three on my AirPods. I think my kids stole them. Is he home with them in his ear? Is he in school?

Not listening to the teacher at all today because he's listening to music? So my three-year-old and my five-year-old were up earlier than we were on Sunday. And, you know, they just kind of do whatever the hell they want to do, turn on their iPads or whatever, and, you know, they have a good time. And, uh, throughout the day, you get up, they're sitting there smoking coffee on the patio, they both have a secundo that they've got lit up.

Life is good, you know, just kind of- Both of them have one of your earpods in their ear. Just take it on the day. One's listening to Biggie, the other's listening to Tupac, and they're both going, you just don't understand me. It's perfectly acceptable to understand, to listen to both of those, you know, guys, right?

Right. However, if somebody asks for one- You don't give them the other. You can't play the other. Like, that's fucking stupid.

So I couldn't believe that shit happened, but yeah, so I couldn't find my AirPods all day. The kids go to bed, and I'm like, son of a bitch, they were on my nightstand. So woke up this morning, asked Justice, my youngest, three, and said, did you take Daddy's AirPods yesterday? Yes.

Where'd you put them? The toilet. And then he says, I ate them. You didn't fucking eat them.

Where'd you put them? Over here on the counter. They're not on the counter, dude. So were they in the little charging case?

Yeah. That's a little spaceship to him. Oh, I'm sure. So I think that he hijacked them, and they're somewhere.

Somewhere in the house. Hopefully. Between a cushion or under his bed. I don't know, man.

That little guy. Gave it to the dog. That guy. Here, treat for you.

Eat. He's a trip. So we're going through letters with him, and he just doesn't care. He doesn't give a shit.

So we go through books. A, you know, and I show him, and I draw out the A. I go, see, A. He goes, A.

It was like an alligator or something. I'm like, alligator. He goes, yeah, alligator. And you go, okay.

What's the letter? Alligator. I don't know is what he says. You don't know.

We just did the letter. I don't know. It's A. A.

Oh, my God. So he gets it. He's not stupid. He just doesn't care.

He doesn't care. He says, fuck you, Dad. Fuck you, man. I get enough of this shit at school.

Yeah, this is bullshit. You get the F and you go, fuck. And he goes, "No, fuck you, Dan. " No, there's no fucking way that I'm gonna do this with you.

That's what the F is for. That's what the F is for. That's what that letter that I don't know is for. Where's Poopy Mommy with my dudes?

Poopy Mommy. So, yeah. So, that's what I came home to. We've been working on her better service.

Where is she? So ridiculous. So, that's it. We got an event coming up, February 22nd?

Yeah, time to display is the event. It'll just go up tomorrow. It'll be this Friday. So this Friday night, we have Mike Rosales.

Is Danny making the trip? Danny is making the trip after his series of unfortunate events. Yes. I'm just going to say that he got mugged or something.

Yeah. It's a good story. Are you going to the Panhill with him, too? I don't know.

I don't know exactly how it's all going to play out. Because they have an event scheduled up there, too. For some reason, people ask me these things when I go into certain shops. With Cordova?

Cordova asked, yeah. Cordova asked, what, if you're going? No, no, no, if I was going, um, that they were coming. Oh.

They told me they were coming. Yeah. Because they carry some of your stuff there. Well, now they carry, they just took on...

Chogui. Chogui, yeah. They had two boxes. That just happened.

Yeah, that's what he told me. Which is exciting. So now he's putting my stuff right next to it. The Dominican section.

The Florinata. Yeah. Florinata, Dominican section. Nice.

But you're going down to Miami. Well, there's an event at Prime Cigars on Saturday, and Greg will be there. This Greg? This Greg.

Oh. My brother. That's not gonna go well. What do you mean?

He's very charismatic and he's lovely. He doesn't like people. He does like people. He doesn't like people.

He does like people. But everybody, please go. It'll be great. Go now.

Go. Go. Jeremy Fondy's calling me now. Jeremy Fondy.

He works at the Prime Cigars. He's a manager there now, isn't he? Yeah. Why did you tell me his name was Mike on Saturday?

I didn't tell you that. What the hell are you talking about? Who was at the booth next to me? The booth next to you?

At the show. I asked you for a guy's name, you said his name was Mike. I didn't remember his name. I have no idea what you're talking about.

Cigar cartel guy. He was here and he watched a show one time. Is his name Mike? His name's not Mike.

No. It's Jeremy Fundy. I feel like you need to do something with your memory. You need to eat some...

I can show you the text message. Ginkgo biloba or something. If I can show you that it's garlic pills, I can take garlic, then Skip can never talk to me because he's a vampire. So yeah, that's what we got going on this week.

Yeah, you guys are going to Jeremy's place. He asked me if I was coming down there. I was like, no. Yeah.

Alright, cool. So, hopefully we'll get them on the show. A little recap. Do you know what time they're coming?

Here? Who knows? Who knows? Hopefully I'll meet up with them beforehand, so I'll get you a better idea.

Okay. Well, this concludes the show. This concludes the show. This is episode...

This is episode 755 Niner. Oh, do you want to talk about the podcast that talked about your cigar last week? Oh, the Hot Ticket? The Hot Ticket guys.

Chris and Corey? Yeah. Alan? Yeah.

The brothers? The brothers. I mean, it was really cool. They did an awesome little review there for the Postanya.

The Hot Ticket podcast review. Not Powstanie, Powstanie. Powstanie. Habano Perfecto.

And it's not the Spring Break Cigar. The Spring Break, the SBC. SBC. I mean, I fucking laughed my ass off that.

That was a great episode. They did a great review. They did. They did.

But they said you don't make a Perfecto, do you? Yeah, it's a Perfecto. Oh. Now Melbourne, Florida.

I'm very popular right now. All I gotta do is jump on the podcast and the phone starts ringing. Maybe that's Erica. Maybe.

Maybe. We need to do a live. I don't know how we can do a live, though. We need to get some video.

Yeah, we need videos. So. All right, everybody, that's it. Now we're just talking.

Now we're just rambling. We can do this without recording it. All right. Love you all.

All right, guys. Thank you very much. Oh, we're at like 1,200 followers now. Nice.

On Podbean. On Podbean, over 10,000 downloads. Hey. We're doing all right.

Still number two in the cigar category. Yeah. And number one in your booty. Number one in your booty.

In your booty. Just because you and Mootay cuddled. You're just jealous. All right, guys.

Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you later. Bye. Bye.

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Show Notes

Welcome Home guys!  This week the Two Mikes talk about their recent travels...Multi Vendor Events and why Mikey is Fancy!

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As always they welcome your thoughts comments and show ideas on the FB page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast".  You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, Mikey @cigarhustlers and Mike Too @fcc_Mike.

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Enjoy the show!!