Felix Assouline Origin Series Episode 17

Episode Summary

Origin Series Episode 17 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast features Felix Assouline of Felix Assouline Cigars, who walks Mike and Mike through one of the more unusual origin stories in the business. A film-school screenwriter running a credit card processing company in Los Angeles, Assouline was talked into trying cigars by his cousin — one creamy Davidoff robusto later, he was flying to Miami with cash in hand, knocking on doors until Puros Indios finally sold him product. He returned to LA with $50,000 in cigars and realized the smarter play was wholesaling to shops that couldn't get inventory during the boom, eventually relocating to South Florida and opening four Cigarros del Mundo retail stores in Dania Beach, Las Olas and a cart at the Hard Rock.

The conversation covers his wholesale years moving General, Altadis, Fuente, Ashton, Bahia and gray-market Davidoff, then his move into manufacturing: opening the Omega Tabacos factory in Danlí, Honduras (across the street from Camacho), spending six months learning to blend, running 150 employees, and launching CSB and Ego. He later bought farmland in Jamastran and is now acquiring fields in Jalapa, Nicaragua. After selling everything around 2007 to spend five years with his family — including a handicapped son — he returned to the industry, and a chance conversation with an old box supplier landed him in Estelí, where he bought his own building. Today the operation is heavily vertically integrated: own building, own tobacco, own boxes, own band design, and roughly 800,000 cigars aging in inventory.

Assouline also explains how his pre-2007 predicate brands (Ego, CSB, Havana Sunrise) let him grow lines under FDA rules — Ego Blue, Black, White and a forthcoming Ego Gold. The hosts smoke the Ego Black (with notes on the Ego Red) and discuss strength versus flavor, box pressing, and why a cigar shouldn't be boring. Standout stories include making cigars for Arnold Schwarzenegger's weekly cigar dinners at Schatzi's with the Doña Saro brand (and refusing to hand them over free), plus his partnership with Frederick of Two Saints — the S.T. DuPont custom lighter artisan behind a Guinness-record half-million-dollar lighter — which produced the French-named La Douce Nuit, La Nuit Blanche and La Petite Mort blends. The episode closes with the show's standard four questions: Clint Eastwood as his dream smoking companion, his father's advice to never dirty his name, and Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong from John Land's novels as his fictional pick.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Cold open: sick kids, road trips and shop shoutouts
   The Mikes catch up on a China trip, a household stomach virus, and events in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Romacraft's Skip Rosales, BNB, Leaf & Bean and Philadelphia Cigar Club.
2. 02
   From screenwriting to $50,000 in cigars
   How a Davidoff robusto from his cousin led Felix from AFI film school and credit card processing into knocking on Miami doors until Puros Indios sold him cigars.
3. 03
   Boom-era wholesaling and Cigarros del Mundo
   Selling General, Altadis, Fuente, Ashton, Bahia and hard-to-get Davidoff, then opening four South Florida retail stores including a Hard Rock cart.
4. 04
   Building Omega Tabacos in Danlí, Honduras
   Opening a 150-person factory across from Camacho, taking six months to learn blending, and launching the CSB and Ego brands.
5. 05
   Growing tobacco and going vertical in Estelí
   Buying farmland in Jamastran and Jalapa, owning his own Estelí building, making his own boxes and bands, and aging roughly 800,000 cigars.
6. 06
   Stepping away and coming back
   Selling everything around 2007 to spend five years with family, a failed detour into accounting services, and an IPCPR visit that convinced him to return.
7. 07
   Ego Black on the table and FDA predicate strategy
   Tasting notes on Ego Black versus Ego Red, thoughts on strength versus flavor and box pressing, and how pre-2007 predicate status lets Ego, CSB and Havana Sunrise expand.
8. 08
   Schwarzenegger, Two Saints and the four questions
   The Doña Saro cigars at Arnold Schwarzenegger's Schatzi's dinners, the S.T. DuPont-linked Two Saints collaboration, and answers on Clint Eastwood, reputation and Caitlin Strong.

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 hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling. Every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling. Welcome to a Cigar Hustlers podcast, where we take a closer look at the people of the cigar industry, with your host, Mike and Mike. Hey Mike.

Hey Mike. How you been? It's been a long time since I've seen you. I've missed you tremendously my friend.

Oh you're so sweet. I feel like it's been a couple weeks. Yeah because I was in China and then when I got back you were gone. How was China?

Smelly dirty lot of people just like always. Smelly dirty lot of people. Weird food. Sounds like a place to be.

Yeah well it was a good trip. I got everything done I was supposed to do. You know your brother came along he had a great time. Yes.

And then you guys went ahead and did a It's not a podcast without me. Yeah, that didn't go as well. Well, you know, listen, it's a talent. Well, we've developed a give and take, as you know, with this, and your brother didn't want to give any, and I took all I could take.

The sad part about that is that Mr. Island Jim, he's got some fucking stories, and he didn't get anything out of them. No, before he sat down, he said, "I hate doing these, I'm not going to enjoy this," and that's pretty much how it went after that. So, because I know Island Jim fairly well, there's a trick to having him on a podcast, which I probably should have given you the information.

Is it the seven beers before you started? It's correct. Yeah, yeah. I would say it's about five.

Five? You got to make sure that you have plenty of Heinekens, at least four or five, and then you'll get the absolute truth, nothing. com. Which is pretty cool.

That was a good start. But it was a very short story. com, we went for pizza, and then she never left. And that'll be it, so I can just go outside now.

Yeah, are we done? No, I'm done, I can go back outside. So, I'm obviously, I obviously have a raspy voice. I thought it was a new thing.

I don't know if you noticed. Yeah, it's a thing that I'm going for. It's a knob I adjusted over here on the board. My eldest son brought home a stomach virus from school, which was then passed to my youngest son, which then consecutively blew up my wife and myself all the same fucking time.

That's the way it works. When they get older, you don't have that problem because when they're sick, you just lock them in the room. Well, I mean, at this point, they, you know, they were in charge of the house, so they were kind of, they just did whatever they wanted. We, we are in control.

Now it worked. Uncle Greg brought the McDonald's. I'm like, fuck it. Did he just throw it in the door and shut it?

He just, he didn't even throw it in the door. He left it at the front door and then bailed and then called me when he was in the car saying, hey. It's safe now. Open the door.

Hey, the food's at the door. I was like, thanks so much, man. So, prior to me dying, I went, I was obviously out and about with Mr. Rosales of Romacraft, hit a few shops, did a couple of events out in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Shout out to my boys at BNB, Mr. Vince Hill. It looked like you had a good time. Yeah, photos and stuff.

Dude, you know, we had a, there's a great squad there. Nick at Nick's to Graham and came out and joined us from New York, which is pretty badass. Oh, he's a big supporter of the show. Yeah, he's a good egg.

You know, and Ellis Philly is like a main fucking stay at that shop, which is really cool. And then, you know, what's really cool about this industry is you get kind of developed with guys that are all over the place and they'll come in and see you and hang out with you. Like, my boy Moe came in from Jersey. You know, Tatlatmoe, shout out to Tatlatmoe.

I'm trying to make sure I cover everybody, but I'm not going to. And then, of course, my original, my first friend in the cigar industry, Mr. Jacques Smith, came out from Baltimore, Maryland, and drove all the way up. He started the Cigar Hustler Cigar Club with me.

Oh, that guy, okay. Eight years ago, so I never met the guy, but you know, we've had correspondence, obviously, forever. What's going on with your phone, everything? I don't know, no, I don't know, I can't tell what's going on.

So yeah, so I mean, that was really, that's what's really cool for me about the cigar industry, is you know, you get to meet everybody from all different walks of life, And they go out of the way to hang out with you, and you go out of the way to hang out with them. Right. Well, that's what the cigars are about. Right.

So, I apologize for everybody who I did not include on my trip. I also went to Leaf & Bean. Oh yeah, that was the day when Jim was here, you were there. In Pittsburgh.

He said you were in charge of his shop while he was here. Horrible life decision for me, because it's like a five-hour drive from Philly to Pittsburgh. Oh. And I literally drove just for his event and then drove back to another event at Philadelphia Cigar Club.

The next day. So 10 hours in the car? Oh, just spend the night there? Yeah, I spent the night there so I'd get up early, do the event, and then commit suicide.

You ever do 100 in a Ford Escape? Not on purpose. Yeah, I don't think it was fully intentional for me either. " It was definitely very, very interesting, to say the very least.

Is it hot in here? It seems hot in here today. I think that you're just on crack or something. Hope I'm not getting your illness.

Maybe too much cocaine. Wow, wow. Okay. Well, well.

I hope you get the illness. That fine line. It would make me really happy if you got the illness. I mean, for Heather and Felix, not so much.

I wouldn't be happy for them. But, you know. So, are you ready to do the intro? Let's go.

All right. Hi, I'm Mike. And I'm Mike, too. And this is a Cigar Hustlers podcast.

I did it with your brother. It was much fun. No, but it was cool. I listened to the intro.

It was nice. All right. Okay. Introduce Mr.

Felix. We have a Mr. Felix. I'm going to totally murderball your last name, but it's okay because you would murderball my last name, too.

How do I say it? Asseline? Asseline. Oh, very good.

Not bad. Not bad. What's the name of your cigar company? It's Felix Asseline Cigars.

Okay. We need to get a little closer to the mic there, Felix, please. Perfect. Thank you.

Alright, so we're going to kind of get to know you and annoy the shit out of you until you're like, alright, why the hell did I get on this podcast? And why did Heather bring me here? Yeah, thank you so much for it. So they were actually supposed to be here yesterday, but I was deathly ill, so I appreciate you hanging out and sticking around for another day and then coming over.

That's very nice of you. Our pleasure. So the first note that I have here is in 1997, you started as a retailer? Yes.

Okay. So where did you start? Well, actually, retailer and distributor. Okay.

Where at? First in Los Angeles. A.? A.

And my cousin had talked me into trying cigars, and I liked them very much. I didn't like them very much, and then we decided to open a store, so I started calling up all these manufacturers, and no one wanted to open an account, so I flew down to Miami and knocked on doors until I bought cigars. No shit. Yeah.

In fact, the first person that sold me cigars was Puros Indios. No kidding. Yeah. So, in fact, when I was in the store, he said, "No, I'm not opening anybody, I'm not selling any cigars," and there was a gentleman there from Canada, And I speak French, so we were talking to each other, he says don't leave, just stay here, talk to him, he'll sell you cigars.

So we ended up buying cigars, and I came back to Los Angeles with $50,000 worth of cigars, and I'm thinking, wait a second, why should I open a store where nobody has cigars? Let me sell it to them. So that's what we did, we sold them to all the stores that had no cigars. So you started, so you got a distributor's license, I guess, because LA, California is kind of okay, right?

I mean, I know it's definitely weird now, I don't know exactly how weird it was back in 1997. Actually, it was very good, because I had hotels and bars, all kinds of, we had a very, very nice clientele, and I realized that something was going to be happening, so we moved to Miami, and three months later, all, there was a lot that passed, no cigars, no hotels, no bars, so all that business went away, so we just had, so I'm glad we did that. So you got in during the boom, where you could sell anything, right? Which we didn't, thank God, because we ended up, when the boom ended, I ended up with a lot of good cigars, but even though I paid much more for it, I could sell, whereas some of these strange brands just died in cigars that you couldn't give away.

Okay, so what made you decide to get into the cigar industry? Let me ask you that. Well, it's exactly what I told you before, what happened is that my cousin kept tall. Okay, so what did you do before that?

What I did? Well, I actually opened up a credit card processing company. Oh, shit. Yeah, I did that.

That's quite the jump from credit cards to cigars. Well, in that time, between, I was actually in school at the AFI, American Film Institute, in Los Angeles, writing screenplays. Oh, wow. So that's why I had a lot of, you know, I was writing.

So he said, "Well, you know what? " So he finally kept talking to me about trying cigars, and I said, "Listen, stop bothering me. I don't smoke cigars. I don't smoke cigars.

" And he says, so finally, I told him, "Listen, give me a cigar. If I like it, we'll talk. " So he gave me a really good cigar. He gave me a Robusto Davidoff.

It was really creamy. It was delicious. " So then I was interested in, we found a location, and then I started calling up people that I was saying to you before, and I couldn't find any way to open up a cigar, so I took a bunch of cash and came down to Miami and started knocking on doors. So, now, the tax system back then in LA and California, was it just as screwed up as it is now?

No, it was very negative. At the time, there's still 30%, but it was, you could live with it. Right, 30% is nothing, is not bad now. So it's very hard for people to have stores there, because someone that goes in there and buys $7 a guy that we can buy here, they're buying it for $12 over there, so you know they're going to eventually go online and buy it, and now they don't really believe that it's a store, that it's a state.

They believe it's a store trying to jack them up, but it's not. Right. Yeah, nobody understands that. Yeah, it's kind of ironic that, you know, we actually deal with some stores over in that region that actually do better selling online than they do in store and vice versa.

So, you know, you got cigars that are leaving the state, going to other states, and then you got cigars that are coming in from other states, which is pretty fascinating. So, you said that you were working on, you had, so you didn't have any retail stores at all? At the time, no, but then when we came to Miami, we opened up four stores eventually. All right, so it just kind of dried up over in California, it just, you didn't, it didn't work out?

Like, you had a few locations? I just had an instinct, you know what, if I'm still going to be in wholesale, I could do wholesale much better in Miami by buying cigars directly there and then shipping them everywhere. Gotcha. So it was, so it was not that I wasn't stuck to an actual Brigham order place that couldn't move.

Right, okay, so then-- That makes sense. I mean, you're right here where the cigars are coming in. Right. So, you decided to open up your own retail shops as well?

Right. And we called them Cigarros del Mundo, which is Cigarros of the World. Okay. Where's that at?

Down in Miami, or? Yes, it was in, well, no, Miami. It was more like Dania Beach, which is right by Fort Lauderdale Airport. We had one in Las Olas.

Oh, those are, that's two good spots. And then we had also, we had a cart in the Hard Rock Cafe, which we did very well with. The Fort Lauderdale one? Yeah, Fort Lauderdale.

Yeah, Fort Laundale. Very cool. Have you been down there recently? No, I haven't.

I know they're changing. They're even building a hotel from a guitar. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

This thing is huge. It's fucking... I don't know if you've seen it at all, Mike, but it's like... No.

So, they have a big, a huge hotel right now, and now they're building this hotel that looks like a guitar that makes the other thing look like... A guitar going up? Yeah. Oh, wow.

It's gigantic. Well, if it was down, nobody would see it. Oh, good point. Yeah, I guess you're right.

" Oh, you see it from the Turnpike, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's gigantic, man. It makes the other hotel look super small.

Very cool. Well, that's the violin compared to it. Exactly, exactly. Alright, so you got a few shops going, and then what happens?

Well, I learned how to smoke cigars. Okay. So, that's actually, people don't know, but it's actually almost like an art to learn how to smoke cigars and to learn the nuances of it. Thank you.

That's what I'm here for. Mike just moved the mic because I was moving. And then I learned how to sell other people's cigars. And I did, thank God I did very well with that.

So I decided, you know what, now it's time to see if I can make my own. Because I get bored with things, so I wanted to see if I can make my own. So we went to Danley, which I realized a lot of, Danley Honduras, I realized that a lot of companies had their factories there. And I liked what I saw, so we opened the factory there to make cigars.

Okay, so, let me slow you down one second. What was the cigar, what was the manufacturer that you worked with the best back then that you sold the most? Let me ask you that. Our biggest was General, Altadiz, Fuente.

Okay, so you worked with some big dogs. Bahia, we sold a lot of it at the time. It was a huge cigar. We sold Davidoff.

And you wholesaled all of those? Yes, and Davidoff, I was buying it out of the country, so... No shit. They weren't too happy with it then.

Yeah. Hey man, it's a hustle. You got to do what you got to do. Well, I was known for getting hard to get cigars in a boom era.

Right. And even though I was charging more because I was paying more for it, they were able to sell it. At least they can say, "Oh, it's on my shelf. " You know, we were selling it a little more, but it's there.

We had also, we did a lot of business with Ashton. We did a lot of business with all the guys, really. Okay. Okay.

I knew all of them, from Rocky to Kaizat, all of them. So you did a lot of the core line brands back in the day. Was that around 2000, 2003? 2000, yeah.

And then from the '98 all the way up until 2005, 2006. When you decided to get into making your own. Right. Well, I was still selling other people cigars.

Right. But I was just making my own at the time, also. So where did you go to make your own cigars? Well, we opened a factory in Denley, which was right across the street.

Which was right across the street from Camacho factory. In Honduras? In Honduras, in Denli. And then it took me six months to actually learn how to blend a cigar.

Right. And it's not just taking a couple of leaves and putting them together. It's basically learning the nuances of each leaf, half a leaf here, and how a whole wrapper would change 60% of the cigar. Right.

So every month or every two weeks, I would go down to Honduras, blend the cigar, bring it back to Miami, Give it to my friends, we'd smoke it, go back and forth for six months until I learned basically how to do it. So, opening a factory from the ground up has got to be difficult, right? I mean, you have to have pairs, right? You've got to have a guy that's running the whole factory.

How did you go about acquiring all those people? Well, it was very strange because here I don't speak Spanish. I found someone that spoke English and Spanish to translate for me and we hired, we had over 150 people working at the time. Oh, shit.

And it's a podcast nobody really can see, but Heather is actually smoking one of the cigars that we made over 15 years ago. Ah, no shit. Yeah, the CSBs, and they're absolutely delicious. We sell them, we have people selling them online now for anywhere from $15 to $8, $21, $20, $25 a piece.

Oh, shit. She's smoking the profits over there. Yeah. Yeah, her husband's out in the lounge and she saw it too, or he saw it too, and he's like, "Oh, what's that?

" Yeah. No, because yesterday, we were at an event. We had a very nice event. And -- What was -- -- tap room?

There you go. Yeah. Yeah. And I brought three Salamones, Connecticut, which was a seven and -- seven and a half inch by 58.

And we -- she smoked one, John smoked one, her husband, and I did. And it was absolutely incredible. " A good cigar ages well with time and becomes even better, but a bad cigar stays bad no matter how long you have it. Yeah, that's true.

That's very true. That's my line, by the way, you guys can't steal it. Damn it. I was just writing that down.

I gotta record it. Oh, good. Oh, good. That's right.

So, you opened your own factory, and at that point, the cigars were called Felix? No. Our factory was called Omega Tabacos. Okay.

And we were selling them under our company here, under CDM, which is Cigarro de Mundo. And we had two brands at the time. We had CSB, and we opened up also Ego brand, and I was buying tobacco from Nicaragua and Honduras. Okay.

And then after a while, I was like, you know what? My next step should be really growing my own tobacco. Right. So we bought land in Hamashrong, which is a really fertile, amazing place.

To grow tobacco. And that's what we started doing. So you actually owned your own fields too? Yeah, no, we still do.

We have our own fields in Amashran, and now we are buying fields in Jalapa, Nicaragua. No shit. I mean, that's gotta be tough to come across. I mean, is it easy to buy fields right now in Nicaragua?

Yes, it is very easy. Maybe lately, because nobody wants to go there at the moment. That's like, that happened this week. Well, you can also rent per season.

You can rent as many manzanas, which is a little bit bigger than an acre. You can rent them for the season and you can rent them twice a year if you want. So you can grow as much as you want. That's pretty cool.

That's kind of neat to know. So what happens next? So you have your own factory and then you're acquiring some fields. Around 2007 you decided to get out of the industry?

Well, what happened is that I have a son who's handicapped, so we needed a lot of our time, and my wife's mom passed away, so I was, you know what, time is wasting, it's good to be with your family, so I sold everything and spent five years with my family. That's, I mean, that's gotta be hard, dude. I don't know how, how you do. Hard to do what?

Do with family? No, this is easy. Take care, you know, just to deal with, you know, a son that's not, that's handicapped, you know? It is, but you know what?

He's a treasure, so I love being with him, and we have five children, so I had the greatest time being with my family, and eventually it was, I knew that eventually I would have to do something because, you know, how long can you stay at home with your family, even though we had a great time going around and visiting, and after a while I needed to do something, and then an opportunity came to open another business, and I tried something else, and I didn't, it wasn't my fit. Right, so what was that? It was actually setting up a company for accounting. Okay.

So I'm good at putting things together like that. Right. But then I love putting things together, but afterwards I figured, wait, you know what, I'm going to have to actually work at this. This is like a full-time job.

Yeah, full-time job. Who the fuck wants that? So I said no. And then I was like, well, let's do cigars.

And I'm like, cigars? Again? We already did that shit. Been there, done that, honey.

Let's think of something else. But you did it so well, though. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.

It's a tremendous business because this is a business where, first of all, two strangers can meet from different walks of life and all of a sudden you're friends by smoking a cigar. And then also, who goes to buy a cigar? Now when they're depressed, now when they're unhappy, they want to go smoke a cigar to relax, to enjoy themselves. So it's a very, very interesting business in that point of view.

And then you see people, it's also, people don't realize how small of an industry it is, people know each other. Oh yeah, it's super small. Super small. So, I may not know you, but you know someone that I know, and then they know me, so eventually we all know each other.

Of course. It's like Kevin Bacon. Right, the six degrees of separation, yeah. Well, I know Jack Tarano, and Jack Tarano knows everybody.

That's all that matters, right? It's a true story. All right, so obviously accounting and all that wasn't going to be your fit, so you decided to start making cigars in Esteli? No, actually what I decided to say, I said, you know what, even though I really don't need them or I don't need their approval, let me go back and see how I'm going to be accepted by the people in the industry.

So it just happened that there was an IPCPR two, three weeks later. So I said, let me go. So I did. And there was, I was welcomed so well, and so, uh, uh, uh, like a warm, very warm, so I was like, you know what?

Yeah, it's good. Let's do it. So, and, uh, I wanted to go back to Dan Lee and open the factory there, because that's what I knew, and that's where I had the field. And every time, just how, uh, coincidences and things happened, every time that I tried to get a reservation, for some reason, something happened in, uh, in terms of, uh, of, uh, conflict.

So then I decided, you know what, why don't we just go to Managua and just drive across, because that's what I used to do, drive across Nica 1. And you end up eventually, past Esteli, two hours later, you end up in Los Manos, which is the Honduran border, which is what I used to do all the time. And then going to Denley, which is an hour later. And we ended up in Esteli, met a friend of mine, who I used to know very well, who used to make boxes and tubes for me.

And he said to me, Felix, why are you going there? I said, well, I'm going to go to Denley where I was. No, stay here. You always came here.

You like it. People, you can, you have a lot of people, you used to come here to buy tobacco, you used to come here to make boxes, stay here. So, he introduced me to someone who actually showed me a building, which I loved, and we bought it, so that's how. No shit.

Yeah, so we ended up in Italy. Just like that. Just like that. When it's meant, it's meant.

Yeah, I guess so, that's very true. So, you still don't speak a lick of Spanish? No, no, I understand. You understand enough?

I understand enough to know that if you're translating for me, I know what you're saying, what I just said to you. Right, this guy's trying to sell me bananas, I don't want bananas, I don't want tobacco. That's good. So, okay, so you actually own your own building in Esteli.

Yes, I'm very paranoid that way in terms of we own our own building, we grow our own tobacco, we have certain farmers that we deal exclusively with, we make our own boxes, we design our own bands. So your boxes are made in the same building? Right now it was, now we are acquiring another building to make our boxes. We make our boxes.

Yes, we design our boxes, we make our boxes. Wow, that's crazy, man. I mean, that in itself is a tremendous undertaking. It's crazy that, you know, you've got all this stuff going on, and like, I really, I've never, I don't know anything about you.

You know, and that's definitely on me, right? Well, no, it's not on news. A lot of people say that they don't know, they don't know who I am, but I did a lot of business for many, many years, very quietly, so people knew what. Right.

They weren't advertising that they were able to get cigars that they couldn't get from their manufacturers. manufacturers they were not telling anybody so uh so it was uh so it was always a good well-known secret for a long time plus i made cigars for a lot of private people right and i they don't want me mentioning their names and i don't want to mention their names so uh but eventually well where's the fun in that well the fun is very discreet by the way you guys are smoking an ego black yes and you haven't said one word about it i'm very very surprised we get to that later We can say it now. That's why I asked you about the agenda earlier. I asked you about the agenda.

He didn't tell you. All right. Okay. We like to leave it up in the air.

I mean, see, if you listen to the podcast, you would know exactly what's going to happen, which we don't want you to know. We'd rather keep you totally guessing. So that was a dig, right, that I didn't listen to the podcast? No, not at all.

Not at all. No, nobody listens. You know, the podcast for us is just a toy. It's just something that we like to do.

Well, it looks like you're doing it very well, so you must know how to play. way yeah we do pretty we're doing we're learning as we go we're getting better at it and better at it all the time you know we first couple episodes were terrible well the first one was really bad we had one microphone in the middle of the table right so you share it yeah there was five of us in here and we all shared yeah if you if you go on to the podcast and listen to episode one we did not give z and amil a fair shake at all and then i decided you know what fuck it we should throw a bunch of money at this and you know we got a i hired a producer he's very expensive He's expensive, and when I say expensive, he's free, and, you know, we just got all these mics and this board that we don't know what we're doing, but everything's turned up, so that's why the sound's probably crazy, but we'll eventually get it right. We have a guy coming in. Yeah.

We have a guy. So, all right, so you started making your own cigars. Well, let's go ahead and talk about what we're smoking, so we'll make Felix warm and comfortable. Yes, indeed.

We're all smoking the Ego Black. Which is really good, by the way. It is really good. I had the red one the other day, as you know, it was, I really enjoyed the red one.

You had the red one also. Yes. When did you make these? That was about three years ago.

Yeah, because when I pulled it off, I saw the cellophane and it was super yellow. I'm like, oh, this is going to be delicious. Yeah. The red one was even darker.

Yeah? Yeah. It was very good. Well, what I like to do is actually make, when I make a blend, when I decide on a blend, we just make that cigar for a long time.

And then once I make another blend, I just put them in the humidor and start aging them. And then we just knock off from there. So we have a lot of cigars always aging. Right.

Now we have almost 800,000 cigars just aging. Well, that's smart. So, how often are you down in the factory? When we're in production, I'm there once a week out of a month, sometimes two.

But if I'm not in production, then I might go there every once every two months. So you have somebody there that's overseeing everything else when you're not there? Oh, yeah, absolutely. We have a few people that I choose.

Are they like a partner, or are they just... No, no, just people I work with. But to me, I feel that anyone that works with you is a partner. Right.

And also part of the family, because I see some of these people from 10 to 12 hours a day where I wish I could see my family that much. Right. So if I don't like the people that I'm working with, then why have them around? And if you don't trust them, then why have them around also?

That's true. That's true. Because, I mean, I saw knock off Eagle Blacks. I'm just kidding.

I think you'll taste them right away. Yeah, right. Exactly. You would know for sure.

For sure. Well, that's pretty crazy, man, that you've got 800,000 sticks, that you've got your own factory, that you've done a lot of stuff. I also want to say that you have had a cigar in your hand this entire time, but you haven't lit it yet, which is kind of like, you know, whenever we have somebody on the podcast, if they light it, they don't get to smoke it anyways, which is pretty funny. Well, you told me earlier not to make any noise or anything else, so I know I'm going to be puffing.

Puffing's okay. That's kind of like, you know. I can just enjoy it later on. Right.

It's actually one of our new blends, and this is the first time that I'm actually sharing some of our new blends within a month and a half of me making the cigars. Oh, really? So, actually, I send them, we had on our few cigar sites that we work with, I actually send people, I told people that if they review one of our cigars that they smoked, when they bought, I will send them one of our new blends. So we had a tremendous expectation, we had a tremendous return for that.

That's cool, yeah, you kind of start building a hype. Are you concerned about FDA at all, or anything like that, with the newer blends? If I said I wasn't, I would be a fool. Right.

And if I said I was, then I would still be a fool, because no one knows exactly what the FDA is doing. " So now that's why we're building up the egos because they were pre-2007. So we have Ego Blue, we have Ego Black, we have Ego White, we're coming out with an Ego Gold. So I can make, so I can grow that brand, I can grow the brand of CSB, I can grow the brand of Havana Sunrise and all the other brands that we had prior to that.

Right, because that's all predicate tape. Right. Okay, very cool. Oh, you just hit a button over there.

Yeah, I cigar- He wasn't recording all this time, he wasn't recording all this time, right? Mike, my cigar had the end of my microphone, so I turned it off so I could wipe it off. Oh, very nice. I hit it with the ash.

So, we got a couple of questions. That was the first time you saw me hit a button. " He hit a button on the motherboard. He hit a button.

It was the record button, right, Mike? Exactly. Now we're starting. Now this is it.

We had that problem early on, too. Poor Pedro. Yeah, yeah. That was a good interview, too.

So, anyways, we have a few questions that we like to ask all of our interview. What do we call people that we interview? Interviewees? Guests?

Guests. Guests. All our prisoners. All our prisoners?

All our prisoners? Yep. Subjects? All right.

We have the same four questions, everybody. And they have to be in a certain order. See, that's very sneaky, because I asked you before. Do you have an agenda?

No, we don't have an agenda. We're just going loose. That's why we sneak these in. Now he's opening up the book.

Number one, number two, number three. See, we act like we don't have our shit together. Yeah, exactly. But we really do.

All right. First question. What one person, living or dead, would you like to have a cigar with? That's a very hard question.

I know. Yes. Because if they were dead, I don't really want to have a cigar with them. Well, we'd bring them back to life, just for you.

Okay. Yeah, dead guys don't smoke. And right now, thank God, I really smoke with the people I love the most. And we have a really wonderful cadre of friends that started out as customers, became friends.

Every week we get together at a local place, and a Cuban cigar, a Cuban restaurant that we can actually smoke outside. They come into my house to smoke a cigar on a Saturday night, so I think I'm okay with, I smoke with the best people in the world. So is there somebody famous that kind of shaped you as an individual in life that you'd say that if you could go back? Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood? Sure. Okay. I grew up with Clint Eastwood.

So that's your dude, huh? Yeah. That's what Jim said too, right? No, he didn't say, John Wayne.

Oh. That's like the same person. No. I think John Wayne could kick Clint Eastwood's ass.

Alright, Clint Eastwood. Well, I grew up in Morocco, so there, the Spaghetti Western was very, very strong, so he had for a few dollars more, for a fistful of dollars, for good, the bad, and the ugly, so, and he had that, I mean, I knew nothing about cigars then, because I was a little boy, but at the time, he had that chirrut that he moved around, you know that when he moved it from one end of the mouth to the other side, somebody's getting killed, so that was cool. Awesome. So, you don't make any chirrudes yet, right?

No, no. I think they're good to look at. I don't know if anybody wants to smoke them. Yeah, that's true.

I mean, it really depends on the tobacco, I guess. And you're really kind of limited in size. Alright, next question. Best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?

Best piece of... See, you should have given me these questions before. No, then you think about them. That would give you a good answer.

" Well, the best piece of advice that anyone had given me would be my father, and my father said to me, "You know what? " And at the time, I was young, I didn't understand it, and eventually I understood, yeah, my name is Felix Asseline, so if I do something wrong to one person, he's going to remember that, and he's going to tell you, and he's going to tell the other person, so you dirty your name, so the best thing to do is to leave your name clean. Always protect your reputation. Very good.

Alright, what's your favorite cigar? That's my own. Which one? The last one I smoked.

Which is? Which is, well, I guess it was CSB. Today it's Ego. Okay.

The last cigar I smoked. So, other than your brand, obviously, what's the cigar that you like the most? I used, well, I told you before that I used to smoke Davidoff, and again, I guess I'm a cigar snob, where I had many of my friends that I grew up in the business with, They all gave me good cigars to smoke, and I enjoyed a lot of cigars, but then, as I said to you before, learning how to smoke, you actually start picking up the nuances of each cigar, so sometimes a leaf may, something may bother you about a cigar that you think is a great cigar, and then all of a sudden it's like, you know what, let me try something else, and something that nobody knows turns out to be an amazing cigar. Right.

And the problem with cigars, as you know, is the blend changes with time, because obviously tobacco can't always be the same tobacco as a crop may change the total blend of the cigar, so sometimes a cigar that you had two years ago may be a little different than you had today, so you can't say, well, that was the best cigar because it's different. Right. So I feel like you should really just give up cigars as a whole and just become a politician, because you didn't fucking answer the question at all. No, I did.

I answered that. I said I smoked the CSB and I smoked the Eagle. Come on, Mike, I answered my question. That's my question.

Okay? But if there was a cigar. He sort of hinted at the Davidoff. Yeah.

But he rolled it out very nicely. Yeah, he did. It was very nicely done. Very well.

We're not letting you off the hook, unfortunately. Because I'm completely lost. I have no idea. So, if there was a particular Davidoff that you could smoke for the rest of your life.

" Or maybe something had occurred. Well, they came out with a very dark, heavy wrapper at the time. Yeah. At the time, about 10 years ago, that was delicious that I used to smoke that all the time.

Right. Now, let's just dab it off. Now, I don't want to say, "Oh, yeah, that's because it's an expensive cigar," but I used to... It doesn't matter.

Well, you know what I actually loved smoking is a friend of mine that worked for Fuente. They gave me a box of Candelas. Yeah? Yeah.

And those cigars are very strange to smoke. And I used to smoke two or three a day, and it would give me the biggest headache. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah, they give you a headache right in the middle of your forehead.

Well, for me, anyway. And I enjoyed smoking a green cigar. And it was a green cigar. It was really cool.

So I know a lot of people are not used to it, and it's not a very popular popper, but at the time, I enjoyed it tremendously. Even though it gave you a headache, you still kept smoking them? Well, it gave me a headache. You take an aspirin, the next day you smoke a new one.

If it tastes good. You know? Those are the sacrifices you gotta make. I mean, look, you get hammered drunk, wake up in the morning, wake up in the morning.

The next day it's like, you know, I gotta get a drink, and I feel better. I'm never gonna do that again until in the morning when it's time for a Bloody Mary or some shit. All right, next. I hate that book, by the way.

I love that book. What fictional character would you like to have a cigar with? A fictional character? A movie character, from a book, TV show.

Oh, I know. It's Caitlin Strong. Who's that? I can see.

I don't know. That's why we're here. You said Caitlin. I thought he was going Caitlyn Jenner.

No, it's not. It's Caitlin Strong. It's actually a series of books by this man called John Land, And she's a badass Texas Ranger. - Yeah?

- Oh, wow. - Yeah, so it's very, very cool, so she blows people away, she's very, very cool. So I wouldn't mind hanging out with her and her boyfriend and smoking a couple cigars, that would be cool. - So do you read a lot of books?

- Oh yeah, that's my sickness. - A lot of fictional stuff? - Everything, everything. I love reading, I'm a Jew, so I read a lot of Torah, and I read a lot of fictional books, and I read about self-help, I just love reading books.

And I think it's funny because I go to the library a couple weeks to get books for my kids, and I always pick up 20 to 30 books. No shit. Oh yeah, every year, a couple weeks for my kids. And the people behind it, it's like, this is what you did for your children.

It's amazing because they love their books, and they're always, you know, we have like five kids, so each one has a set of books waiting for them at the library because they order online, and I go pick them up for them. Oh, that is awesome. That's nice. So what was, uh, other than the Torah, what book do you think, um, changed your life the most?

If you read fictional and non-fictional, and you like personal development books? I'm a big personal development guy. Well, I can see that. Because I think, you know, uh, besides that, you're saying?

Yeah, you can't, I mean, you know, if you throw the Torah or the Bible in any of it, it's like, okay, that's a given. " So it was very cool. So I actually bought it when I came back from Amazon and it's an amazing book because then it tells you that, you know, you're supposed to exercise, you're supposed to eat well, you're supposed to do this. So that was a, that was something that- A unique take on the tour.

Yeah. That's awesome. You know what's kind of cool is you kind of sound like a cross between, you kind of sound like Schwarzenegger to me, you know, like he's doing the impressions and he's getting aggressive. It's pretty impressive.

You're waving your hands around a lot, which is pretty cool. I mean, I'm getting a little scared, to be honest. I'm sorry, Felix. I don't know what I did.

You should have a video, then you could see me... We're not there yet. We're not there yet. It's on the list.

The office isn't quite at the level where we could really put a video up. We only had this one wall painted. Yeah. The painter quit after the one time.

She didn't quit. We ran out of too much stuff. No, I put a couple of curtains in, you did. You did.

That's true. But we need to do it. That's all the questions. Actually, I did a few, not you mention him, I did a few dinners with Schwarzenegger.

No shit? Yeah, at his restaurant in Shotzi's. I've got a good story if you want to hear it. I would love to hear it.

Oh yeah, please. So, at the time, he had a monthly, I'm sorry, a weekly dinner event where for $75 you get a dinner and you get two or three cigars with your meal, and obviously Schwarzenegger would be there, Arnold would be there, and his wife, And sometimes, you know, James Cameron, who did the Terminator movie and everything else, all these bunch, you know, these Hollywood people would be there. And I don't even remember exactly how I was invited to be there, and so I went and I had given them a cigar that we had made at the time called Doña Saro, which is named after my wife. " So he said, "Well, come back.

" So a week later, he called me. He says, "Okay, yeah, he liked it. " Oh, shit. I said, "Okay, well, let me send you an invoice.

" He says, "No, no, no invoice. " We don't pay. Arnold does not pay for cigars. " No.

I said, "Well, then I can't give you cigars. Because I work for a living. They cost me. " And somebody, they called me a few days later.

He says, "No, Arnold liked them. " So, yeah, they actually paid for our cigars. No shit. And then about a month later, they invited me again, and they did another event with her.

And they paid again for the cigars. That's awesome. You've done set the standard. Yeah, that's a cool story, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Did you get to meet him? Yes, yes, I got to meet him. " I'll be back there, very good.

That's really cool. That is really cool. You never heard that story, right, Hannah? Yeah.

She just wrote it down, that's in her next... Oh, she has a picture of him with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh, no shit. Yes, he is actually...

Is he handing you the check? That's the check he's handing you for this guy. T. DuPont.

And they take a DuPont lighter, which is expensive to begin with. Right. And he puts skulls and bronze and silver around it, and their lighters is $5,000 to $15,000 to $20,000, and he actually sold the most expensive lighter ever and is in Guinness World Records for half a million dollars to a casino in, I forget exactly what it was, but that's a-- No shit! And now, that's how we came up with Two Saints.

Two Saints. He actually, Frederick came, went around. Oh, wow. They're showing me pictures of the ST DuPonts that are done.

That's really badass. Wow, those are very cool. Wow. Do you want to hear another story, Mike?

I love stories. Please, we love stories. Okay. Well, Frederick had, the first year that we were at the IPCPR, Frederick from Two Saints, who was actually working with ST DuPont, when that was right across the aisle from us, came around and said, And he said, do you mind if I try one of your cigars?

He said, but I don't like heavy cigars because I don't like a strong cigar that you can't feel. I said, well, then try this. So we gave him something special. And he went away, came back.

He said, I liked it. Let me try something else. So I gave him a Havana Sunrise. Then he really liked the Ringo because he wanted to try the Ringo because he also has some Western motif in his lines.

And he came back and said, okay, well, you know what? I'll try it tomorrow. Let me try it. The one that you said was really strong.

So I gave him an ego and he came back. He loved it. And at the end of the show, he bought four boxes to take back with him. And then when he went back to France, he called me and says, Felix, I've been looking for three years for someone to make a cigar with us.

And I'd like you to make a cigar with us. So I said, OK, let me blend the cigar. Let me send it to you and see what you think. So I did.

I blended a cigar and I sent it to him. And he absolutely loved it. And he was like very enthusiastic. Let's call this one with the F.

Let's call this one this. I'm like, "Frederick, we're coming out with these amazing cigars. Let's call them some cool names. You speak French.

I speak French. Give them some French names. So I gave them La Deuce Nuit, which means a sweet night. And I gave them La Nuit Blanche, which is a white night.

And we came up with one called La Petite Mort, which means the little death. " So we came up with those and now they're doing very well. This year, I didn't go to the IPCPR for the last couple of years because of the FDA problems, but this year he said, "Felix, you have to come here. I want to bring all my stuff from France, and I want you to," because I know they're going to be asking me for the cigar.

And if you're not there, they're going to be like, "Where is he? " So I'm back at the IPCPR with Frederick and our stuff. That's awesome. , or is it just… No, no, no.

We sell it nationally. It's our cigar that we sell nationally to Saints, which is a heavy body cigar that we make with a Ligero wrapper from our land, and it's an all Honduran wrapper, a Honduran cigar, which is the one that you're smoking is all Honduran. We roll it in Nicaragua. S.

and France, or are there other countries outside of the United States that you sell to? Well, we've been sending cigars to a lot of countries, so hopefully, but it's very hard to get into a country because there's a lot of politics and the customs, and so I think little by little people are asking for the cigars and they want it there, so it's, we've already, we were approved for France, and we were approved for Germany, and now we're working with a company in Estonia, so it's, you know, different places. So it sounds like you're expanding, man. You know, no matter what I say about a cigar.

Right. No matter what, I can tell you, it's the greatest cigar, it's made with, you know, we have virgins, you know, rolling them on this and that. And I can give you the biggest story. Which is really hard on a box press.

On a box press, right. Well, no, because first you roll it round, and then you box press it. So the flavors are still there. Gotcha, gotcha.

So they don't box press it on the leg. On the leg, right. I mean, that's just stupid. So, no matter what I say, I always say, you know what, the final result, no matter what I can tout the biggest, The biggest, the best things about a cigar, but the best test is to put in your mouth and to puff on it, and you'll know whether you like it, or I'm, either it's good or I'm just giving you stories.

Right, absolutely. Well, I mean, this is really good. I'm really impressed with the stick. What about you, Mike?

Yeah, it wasn't good. It's my second one, because I had the red one, too, but yeah. What do you think between the red and the black? The black one is definitely stronger.

Well, yeah, that comes from our land. The other one's from our love. But you see, again, the misconception about strength. I don't want a cigar.

I don't want to make a cigar that's just trying to just hit you in the back of your throat. It's like, oh, because I want to have the biggest and the baddest and the strongest cigar. No, I think I believe... No, it had good flavor also.

Right. I believe a cigar should not be boring. It should change. Right.

Because I'm here, especially like right now. I'm not letting a cigar because I'm afraid of it since you told me not to make any noise. But in terms of a cigar, you should have a cigar that's not boring. I mean, you have a relationship with it just like you have a relationship with friends.

Right. If I'm here sitting and having a drink with you and talking to you for a couple of hours, I'm smoking a cigar, if it's boring, I'm not enjoying myself. Right. So, it's something that you want, and cigars are definitely a social animal.

Yeah, for sure. Exactly. That's what they're made for. Oh, good.

Brought the ladder back. Yep. He took the ladder away from me. I didn't put it down.

So, was that the final question, Michael? That was the final question, other than Felix liked to tell people how to get a hold of you. Yes. Email, social media, Heather's phone number.

com, or we have different websites that we work with that sell our cigars, obviously, and we have many brick and mortar stores. What was the other question you wanted? If you want to give any of them a shout-out, you can go ahead, any of the retailers online, so people can try on your cigars. Any places where you can find your cigars, all that kind of stuff.

com, and we have, Heather can give you a full list of retails that we have. Okay. we have a... You have an Instagram name?

What's the name of our group? Felix Sassaline Cigar Family. There you go. Felix Sassaline Cigar Family.

And we have some very loyal people on there. And that's on Facebook? That's on Facebook, yes. We take pictures of every step of the way they're smoking the cigar, send it to us, and make comments, and they bomb each other with cigars, which I think is an amazing, amazing thing.

Yeah, absolutely. So, but you don't have an Instagram name or anything like that? Yes. Yeah, yeah, he does.

Felix Asseline, I've heard it. Yeah, Felix Asseline. At Felix Asseline? Yes.

Okay. Awesome. Is that it? That's it.

That's everything we got, but I'm so glad you're back. It's so hard to run this and do your job at the same time. Right? You missed me.

Well, I just wanted to know I'd be lost without you, too, because I don't know what the fuck you're doing over there, but it looks important. Well, I just want to say that Mike said to me that I could curse all I want before, so I didn't, so he's doing it for me. Right, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you try and make the intro because you want to make sure that everybody knows what they're doing, you know, or what they're permitted to say and what they're not permitted to say, right?

Some people are comfortable doing it. Some people aren't. I'm not a huge cursor myself, but Mikey likes to drop the word. Occasional.

Occasional word. I like to work it in. Yeah, it's part of the repertoire. Exactly.

Yeah, it is part of the industry also, so. Exactly. Okay, well, hey, Felix, you know, I really appreciate you coming on the show, and again. Yeah, coming back the second day, we appreciate that.

Yeah, you're taking the time out of your schedule because I know it's not easy being on the road and then holding off an extra day to come out and stay just for the podcast and smoke cigars with us, you know. Well, we had a really nice event yesterday at Ash Tap Room. Ash Tap Room. Patrick and the guys.

Right. We really had a great time. So it was late, so there's no way I could have left anyway unless I wanted to drive another five hours back. And so I was very happy that Heather said, "You know what?

" So it was really good for me to be here, I appreciate it, thank you. And, you know, we wish you nothing but, you know, the most success in the industry, it seems like, you know, you got your shit together, you've been through a lot so far in the industry. Very, what, vertical, is that the word? I mean, he's doing everything.

Vertical integration, yeah. Yeah, synergy, it's all about synergy, so. Buzzwords, just going to drop buzzwords now. Right.

And I guess that'll conclude this podcast. All right, folks, that's it, show's over. If you like what we're doing, please tell your friends about us. We always like to hear if you like the show or not, or if you have any suggestions for guests that we might possibly bring on at a later date, you can find us on our Facebook page at ACigarHustlersPodcast, or you can follow us on Instagram at CigarHustlersPodcast.

Thanks for listening. They told them, don't you ever come around here. Don't want to see your face, you better disappear. The fire's in their eyes and their works are really clear.

So feed it, just feed it. You better run, you better do what you can. Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada Thank you.

Show Notes

Felix Assouline was nice enough to come to this rescheduled inteview after Mikey's illness and Mike's traveling got them both back in the studio at the same time.

Listen in and learn how he gave it all up for the love of family and now is rebuilding his cigar business.  Felix shares with us a very funny story with Arnold Swartznegger and his time as a Screen Writer, and his views on why owing is always better then renting or leasing a cigar factory!

As always we welcome your thoughts, comments and guest suggestions on our FB page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast".  You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast.  Or Mikey @cigarhustler and Mike @floridacigarclub_mike.

Thans for listening and please subscribe on Podbean, Itunes and Googleplay