Joan Mi Rodriguez Florynata Cigars Episode 19

Episode Summary

Episode 19 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is billed as a "redemption" episode: hosts Mike and Mike bring back Joan Manuel Rodriguez, owner of Florynata Cigars, after an early attempt at his interview went so badly it was never aired. This time he tells his full story, and the result is a genuinely interesting look at how a Dominican outsider breaks into the cigar business.

Joan grew up in Santiago, Dominican Republic, in a family business culture — his Spanish immigrant grandfather founded a hardware store 62 years ago, his father ran a roofing company importing Decra-style asphalt tiles adapted for the Dominican market, and his mother ran a pet shop and bred show dogs. He talks about climbing roofs to do estimates, the "cheap, fast, or good — pick two" philosophy, and why he couldn't do a nine-to-six job. Before cigars, he nearly invested $250,000 in a frozen fruit pulp import business to Miami, and walked away from it because the risk was too high. Ironically, it was on those Miami trips that his customs broker handed him a Fernando León Toro and reignited a cigar habit that started when he sneaked one of his father's Davidoffs at age eight.

The heart of the episode is the apprenticeship: through a friend's uncle "Chico," a veteran Dominican manufacturer with 35 years of experience who works behind the scenes for several brands, Joan spent two years at a micro-factory, twelve hours a day, smoking two cigars a day and learning the difference between whether a cigar is good and whether you personally like it. Out of that came Florynata — a name given to him by his father — followed by the higher-priced Noxia, though he admits most smokers still prefer the Florynata. He describes a brutal 2015 IPCPR where nobody stopped at his booth, landing his first U.S. account at Smoke Ring in Webster, Texas, then the tougher New York market, and the friendships that carried him: Victor of Chubby Cigars and Jerry Cruz of La Palina.

The show closes with the hosts' standard questions. Joan would share a final cigar with Samuel Mendez, a late friend who worked at Arturo Fuente and who died the same day the FDA's 499-page regulations dropped. His advice: don't leave for tomorrow what you can do today, and give without expecting and you'll receive more than you hoped. His favorite cigar besides his own is the discontinued Tres Calaveras made for Hispaniola in New Jersey, and his fictional smoking partner would be Snake from Metal Gear Solid — he's a hardcore gamer and former drummer turned analog synth hobbyist.

In This Episode

1. 01
   The Redemption Episode
   Mike and Mike explain why Joan's first interview was never aired and why they wanted to give him a fair second shot.
2. 02
   Santiago Roots: Hardware, Roofing and a Pet Shop
   Joan's grandfather's 62-year-old hardware store, his father's roofing company, and his mother's pet shop and show-dog breeding.
3. 03
   The Frozen Fruit Pulp Business That Never Happened
   Why Joan walked away from a $250,000 fruit pulp import venture into Miami — and how those trips led him to cigars.
4. 04
   First Cigars: Davidoff at Eight, Fernando León at Twenty-Four
   The Davidoff he sneaked from his father as a kid and the Fernando León Toro from his customs broker that brought him back.
5. 05
   Two Years at the Factory with Chico
   Twelve-hour days, two cigars daily, and the lesson that knowing if a cigar is good is different from knowing if you like it.
6. 06
   Creating Florynata and Noxia
   How the Florynata name came from his father, the initial 5,000-cigar run in Corona, Robusto and Toro, and the higher-end Noxia line.
7. 07
   Breaking Into the U.S. Market
   A money-losing 2015 IPCPR, a first account at Smoke Ring in Webster, Texas, and the harder fight in New York.
8. 08
   The Questions: Samuel Mendez, Advice and Tres Calaveras
   Joan on the friend he'd share a last cigar with, the FDA's 499 pages, his favorite non-house cigar, and Snake from Metal Gear Solid.

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. Redemption?

Are we ready for Redemption? We're ready for Redemption. Redemption Podcast. You know, this feeling, I used to be a drummer until I was 21, and I had the same feeling before going to the stage, like, everyone is expecting what you have to say or you have to, like, play, but at the moment that you get flowing, it runs through.

You're gonna be good to go. Yeah. I believe in you. I hope you guys are recording.

We are recording. This is our little pre-show. Yes, this is the pre-show. The pre-show, the pre-show, mumbo-jumbo.

So, Backporsh Palmer, and Shijijiju Pankiewicz. That's right. Shijiju Pankiewicz. He could be Cro-Magnum if we're gonna do the t-shirt.

I'm not gonna promo it under brand, I'm sorry. I know that. That's dirty. Okay, so, um...

What do you want to talk about? Because we did a podcast recently. Yesterday. Yesterday.

So, here, I got one for you. Go ahead. So, what did you get for Mother's Day? Oh, it'll, well, first, she's not my mother.

Okay, so, So you bought something for your wife. And all my kids are older. Right. But you still have a mom.

Yes, no, we're having lunch with mom, we're having breakfast with mom, we're spending the weekend, actually, with mom and dad. That's nice. We don't have a gift planned yet for mom. How do you get some money?

I mean, I've been getting their gifts for 50-something years, just sort of run out of stuff. But at that point, don't they qualify for, like, card? Yeah, well, yeah. Like, some flowers or some shit?

Please get the card, yeah. Happy Mother's Day. So your kids are still the age where you have to buy the present for them. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we're gonna go buy some today. Yeah. Cupcakes? Oh no.

Don't mess up again. You can't afford to mess up. This is gonna be a good one. This is a redemption podcast, redemption gift.

It's a double redemption. A double redemption. So, should we just go into the intro? What do you think?

Uh, sure. All right. Hi, I'm Mike. And I'm Mike, too.

And this is the Cigar Hustlers Podcast. It's really getting old. I don't know why. I fucking love it.

It doesn't get old for me. Um, we have We have a very good friend of ours for the show and of our shop. The gentleman's name is Joan, but I'm gonna call him Johan throughout the entire interview. Johan is the owner of Florinata Cigars, and I'm gonna tell you why this is the redemption podcast.

Because before you got started, like when we were just kind of wet behind the ears, you know, like episode one or two, we had Joan come on, Johan, I'm sorry, Johan come on. Makes him sound Swiss. It was an absolute catastrophe. I mean, all the way around.

We had to take things out of his hands. Yeah, he moved a bunch of stuff. He doesn't like microphones. Obviously, I have a good relationship.

That's why I'm breaking his balls. But yeah, it was tough. And I didn't want to air it because I don't feel like we gave him a fair shake. And we're going to try our best to do that today.

You're serializing that, right? Yes, yeah. I'll take ownership to it. If you're any further away from the microphone, you'll be in the other room.

Just so you know. I'm telling you that I don't like these guys. I don't like it, it's a big stink near my face. It won't bite you, it will not bite you.

And that's a brand new thing on the end, so it's very fresh. We've removed all cellophane from them. You know, I know you guys are amateurs because you don't have like this trunk thing that most other people do. We have these instead.

There's an option, it's one or the other. I mean, we're in an office in a cigar shop. How the fuck would we not be amateurs? They should not be amateurs.

I don't know, you guys are the one that-- But we're gonna put like egg crate shit up on the wall and make it look a little more professional. Okay, good, good. We're working on it. Just make sure that you get that where you get a VFP over here.

Where we have Victor over or something? Is there show boys cigars? He says he'll only do it if we all do it in the nude. That's fine.

That's totally fine, we'll go with that. There's no videos here. We have to be naked, we have to be naked, it is what it is. Gotta be comfortable with it, you know?

So, hi, Johan, say hi. Hello. How you guys doing? It's good to see.

I'm grateful that I could do my trip without smoking a cigar in my car, because I had a flu for the last six days, and not be—I wasn't able to smoke a cigar, but I think today I'll be smoking one tonight. Oh good, so we're in an enclosed room and you had the flu. Thank you very much for that. That's nice.

You guys have already told us that before. And that'll conclude the podcast. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

Thank you very much. We have to boil the microphones and get rid of the microphone. You know, it's gone already, so I'm just on the final stage. Ah, okay, good.

I feel pretty comfortable with you guys smoking here. Yeah. Because otherwise, the podcast will have to be outside. Yeah.

Outside. I mean, the sound of the industry is challenging. Yeah. Well, people do it all the time, you know, it's like a...

Fuck those guys. Those are professional guys. So, um... We're very established that we're unprofessional.

It's not like that I hate them, but it's just my way to express love to them. So, you guys don't get afraid. So, Johan, put the can down. So, you have a cigar brand, right?

Yes, I do. And it's Florinata Cigars, correct? Yeah. And, um...

Isn't this podcast to be about myself, not my cigars? It is. It's about both. It is.

Well, they're kinda... You're gonna be confused because first time you was... Oh, it's... Oh, we're still gonna get into all that.

You just... You have me traumatized here, you know? I hear that. So, I'm sweating a little bit.

You gotta be... Put down the can. He's gonna start flicking the lid on the can. You're gonna be okay.

Yeah, let's put that down. I'm good. I'm good. I put that coffee down.

Is it this time already? No, I'm not drinking coffee. I didn't have, I just have my coffee. Maybe he said too much.

You wanted coffee today. That was an American joke. That was an American joke. Okay.

Okay. So anyways. So, Florinata Cigars, right? Florinata Cigars.

So, what did you do before you got into the cigar industry? I worked with my father. Okay. In a roofing company.

Oh, very nice. Yeah. In the... In the New Island?

The Dominican Republic? Yeah, it was in the Dominican. Okay. Yeah, I graduated, then I started, I moved to Santo Domingo, I started looking for jobs, but I didn't like any jobs over there because I didn't like the city, so I went back to Santiago, where I'm from, and I started working with my father.

It was the best thing I could do because it teach me a lot of things that if I'll be just doing a regular job, I will not learn. Right. And those things have helped me a lot, especially here that I'm a business owner now. It gave me a vision of what I should do to oversee the details of handling a small company, you know?

Because the roofing company that he has over there is fairly small to what we had before. Right, so the roofing, I mean, like what's roofing in the Dominican Republic like? Is it all tile? Bamboo.

Bamboo? - Bamboo pump runs. - That's nice. - No, actually, no, actually.

- There he goes, there he goes, go fucking with the can. - Jesus Christ, put the can down. - What's gorgeous thing I say, because my throat is hurting me. - Okay, so what are we doing with that tab?

You want to just rip the tab off? Just do it. - No, no, no. - All right, 'cause...

- I'm good. - Okay, take a drink. Take a drink. - So good.

- Putting the can down. - So good. - This is already going. - This is gonna be my favorite one.

- This is my favorite episode already. - This is certainly red. - I'm having a great time. This is hilarious.

- Your rating is going to get through the roof, man. - Through the roof. - I'm telling you, you should be videotaping. - We're going off subject here.

- So what does roofing entail in the Dominican Republic? - No, no, no. Over there, they do it all in concrete, but if you want an extra finish on the house, you put tiles on it. - Okay.

- It can be ceramic tiles. It can be different steel tiles, plastic tiles. Of those kind of roofing. So, we import a brand from the United States to the Dominican, and it's called Dekra, and it was asphaltic tiles, so they have different colors, and my job was just to go.

Oh, shingles. It's like shingles, but it was with a different pattern. Dominican shingles. Dominican shingles.

Yeah, it has to be for the Dominican market, because it's not the same as the shingles that we use over here. So, you didn't do the roof work, though? I went visiting houses, climbing to the roof of the houses in the middle of the day, just measuring everything. That was my job.

Yeah, the estimates and things. But did you do sales, too, or no? Yeah, but the sales over there are different. Most of the people, they would just call to see if they can get someone to get an estimate, and they would just go with the one.

Sometimes they go with the lower ones, and sometimes they know what they're buying, you know? Gotcha. So, basically, the sale was to tell them, like, this is the product that we have, and if you want to see the product, we have a showroom, which was designed by me, and it was pretty cool, by the way. Yeah?

Yeah. Very nice. Well, we have a saying that kind of floats around the shop. I think my brother actually started it.

I don't know where the hell he heard it from, but, like, you know, as far as pricing is concerned, there's three things that you can do in any kind of line of business you can do cheap fast or good and of those three you can only get two so if you want it done cheap then it's either going to be done good or cheap and fast right right it's like done good it's not going to be cheap it's not going to be cheap right so but now where so how the hell did you guys kind of get into the the roofing Where did you guys start before that? Well, my family, they come from a hardware store business, which was founded 62 years ago. From where? 62 years ago.

62 years ago? That's it? Is that what you said? Oh, 62 years.

Yeah, it was founded 62 years ago by my grandfather. That's on the side of my father. Right. So, he was a Spaniard immigrant, and he moved to Santo Domingo first.

Then he went to Santiago, and he started this company in a very, very, very traditional way, and he started hiding people. He was good to the people, and people laughing. So what do you mean traditional? Old school way of thinking, like as, you know, in Spain, there's a lot of idiosyncrasy involved with the religion and things.

He was very correct and very sharp. He went out of sin when he was 15 to work. It's a very hard-working culture. And they're smart, also.

Otherwise, they'll not be so successful as they were on Santiago, you know? Right. But the most important part is that, you know, he knew what he wanted, he had discipline, and he'd teach my father the most important thing, that all the work has to be done with, you know, In Spanish, we say that you have to work good, you have to get the ethics, you know? Right, not fast or cheap?

Not fast or cheap. Right. And in the Dominican, there's a lot of fast and cheap. Okay.

Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. Right. And...

So, like, 62 years ago, what did you sell, like, fucking a hammer and some chisels? Like, that's, I mean... Yeah, how big of the hardware industry have been back then? Just the basic stuff.

But it eventually kind of develops. Handmade tools, maybe. Tools. Of course, tools.

But nothing electric. No, 62 years ago. Yeah, you get electric things. Yeah.

But in the Dominican? Yeah. I'm picking, like, the drill with the little fashion crank. No, no, no.

Come on. 62 years ago. No slam in Dominican Republic. We're in 2018, right?

My dad had a drill that had the crank thing in the middle. I mean, we have Ferraris and Lamborghinis over there. What do you think we have? Well, you did in 62 years ago, though.

Well, maybe there's the one guy. The one guy. He owned the entire island. Do you know who Porfirio Ruizoso was?

No. No. Okay, there's a book of him. Oh, right.

He was alive like 62 years ago. Did he have a Ferrari? Yeah. And evidently power tools.

Yeah, he was the first Playboy. Really? Of the whole story. Yeah, he used to go to Cuba and drive race cars and play polo.

No shit. Yeah, there's a book of it. You should read him. All right.

Okay, we'll put it on the list. Yeah, I'll have to get this actual name, because… The cheese thing that… So, we're getting off topic here. Who moved my cheese? We're getting off topic here.

Excuse me to get back here to the point. You're right. I'm sorry. That's my job, but you're right.

It's okay. So, hardware… So, the hardware… But the thing that made us unique was that most of the hardware stores, they will specialize selling something, but we have almost everything. Like a Home Depot type thing. Yeah, it was like that, but it's more… That thing isn't bad in my family.

Like, you go to my grandmother's house or my father's house, if you ask for anything, it could be a lighter, it could be a flashlight, it could be the most remote thing, and they will have it. I'm going to go visit grandma and I'm going to ask for a Nestle. Do they have a scissor lift? Is there a scissor lift in the garage?

Anything that you want. Even a panda. You want a panda? They have a panda.

They have a panda? A panda? They have a panda? Dominican pandas.

See? And this is why we give you the- That's why there's nothing left to tell. This is how you earned your nickname of #DominicanWealth. Because they have their own panda.

Because your family- And a scissor lift. Your family owns pandas. And scissor lifts. So how many- so how many hardware stores did your family have at its peak, Ralph?

They- well, there's uh, the first one, it was uh- I'm using fire. You're- what are you doing? He's trying to- Well, when I light it, it takes over the mic. They're trying to light up the storm and fire just for insurance purposes.

I have a mute button if you want to light and then I can hit your mute button. Should I cue you? How do we're going to have to work on this? When you pick up the lighter.

Okay. No, no, because you pick it up all the time. There you go. And then I'll mute you.

Okay. So everything started in the center of the city was Santiago, by that time it was a very, very small city. Right. It was roughly maybe 300,000 people.

And that's when he started? Yeah. That's where he started? No, he started over there.

And it was a two-floor building, and I was born over there, I mean, I was born in Santiago, but it was raised until I was three, on the top of the business. You know, you know that most of the... You had like an apartment. Yeah, it was an apartment on the top.

Right. And I was raised over there until three, but after that we moved to a new house, because it wasn't the most secure of the areas over there. It was a little bit dangerous, like people were chopping heads. Oh, chopping heads, I'd say that's dangerous.

Yeah. Yeah. Brings on the property values. Can you mute me?

I need to cough. Just go. Just go and cough. You're good.

Beautiful. Great. Didn't even get it. Wasn't even on.

Like, it never happened. Okay. You're so far away from the microphone. That's what you say.

That's what you say. Pick up on that. So go ahead. Sorry.

Yeah, I don't want your microphone to use. Relax, put your arms down. Relax. I am.

I'm just thinking about what I'm gonna say, because I have to be very focused, because I'm telling a story, my story. So heads are getting chopped off. Did we find out how many stores they had? No, we didn't get there yet, we went back.

It was the first one, and then they did a new one, which was really big. And was that in a better location? Yeah, it was a better location. No heads.

Where's that at? In Santiago, also. All of them are in Santiago. And then they have a couple of warehouses, Uh-huh.

And that's it. After my family got out of the business, they sold the business. So they had two locations and three warehouses? They had two locations and three warehouses.

Okay. And then they sold the business. Gotcha. And a couple of years later, the business got fired.

Right. And they have a new location now. Okay. So now they have three locations.

They have a... No, one of them burned down. No, the one that burned down is not there anymore. Right.

So they made a new location? But other people own it now. Yeah. Okay.

My father has two sisters, one of them is still in the business. Ah, so it was like sold to the family? Yeah. Gotcha.

Okay. So your kind of origin is where you start off as your family is running hardware stores in the Dominican Republic? Hardware stores, but meanwhile, my mother, when I was nine, she opened up a pet shop store. Okay.

That's where they get the pandas. It was something really fun, at least for me, because I've been always around animals. Right. Oh, a nine-year-old and got your own pet store to play in?

Yeah. It was really fun. I didn't like working on Sundays. Right.

But I had to do it. I had to clean up the whole fish. We had fish ponds. Right.

It was a display for fish that I had to clean on the Sundays. Right. I was cleaning it because there were dead fish in it, so it was like, ugh, you know, let's go and do it. Was there another animal in the shop that you could have fed the dead fish?

And we started doing trips to buy merchandise to Santo Domingo, like we bought toys for dogs and for cats, and we bought cats, and then I got my first expensive cat, it's like Nola Viralata, how do you say that? I have no idea. You have no idea what that was? It's like a legit cat, you know?

A legit cat? Yeah. It's like a cat with a brand that has a pedigree on it. Oh, that's cool.

Okay, good. Do we have that here? I have no idea what he said. A pedigree cat?

A cat with like a lineage? Oh, there's cats with like, yeah, papers, you know, like a dog. Yeah, yeah, it's like dogs. Yeah, you know, like a Siamese cat and, well, those are street cats.

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. I used to have street cats and street dogs, but, you know, we went... He's the first dog, the first cat with a pedigree, pedigree, right, over the top, and we got pretty big dogs and pretty big cats and, right. The high-end pets.

And then my mother started, my, I started like a, how do you say, I tried to get this word into my head, when you get, when, breed. Breed, oh she was breeding animals, gotcha. To breed dogs, and then she used to sell those dogs over there. Right.

And come to the States for the dog shows. Very nice. Very nice. And there was a lot of traveling involved, and that community is huge.

Yeah. I went to Kentucky to a dog show, it was amazing when I was 18, and we got like three or four dogs from the show to the Dominican and we sold them. No kidding. You just recently went to a dog show, right?

Yeah, you were at the one in Florida, weren't you? There was one here in Orlando or something? Not long ago? No, I was...

Your mother was at one or something. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I remember, yeah, she was here in Orlando a couple months ago, she was a doctor, but I didn't went with her because I was visiting you guys. Right, which we appreciate. Yes, that's very nice.

Thank you for coming by. I'm like, you got cigars and dogs in one hand, which are gonna take, of course. Cigars, dogs, dogs. I'm working with cigars.

Maybe a cigar smoking dog. All right, so hardware store's gone, roofing is done, pet store is obviously still in existence today, right? Yeah, but she sold the location that she had, then she moved to another location, and she was even more successful, but she was tired because I didn't want to get into the business, so she needed some help, but she got tired, people, the time passed, so she sold that location, and now she has an adeptum. If you go back to the house, that she takes care of it, it's like a mini-bed job.

Right. Something for her to do. Like a side hobby. A little extra income.

It has income, you know? Right. Side hustle. I understand that.

I mean, you know, you just went on a month's vacation to Paris and somebody's got to pay for it. You have to say that on radio. Of course I do. People will not buy cigars for me.

Nobody listens. Don't worry about it. Why wouldn't they buy cigars for me? You put up all sorts of patches.

They don't think they have money on the screen. So what? Skip and Mike do fucking pictures all the time when they're in fucking Europe for like 700 days. With their watches, and their strategic watch placement.

I don't know, I'm more like... See, we're losing him now, see we made that one comment, he's fucking, he's into the can again. No, no, no, but I got it here. Right.

It's not making even a noise. I understand. I'll pay you in cigars if you hear something. Okay.

Blink. Can you hear that in cigars, please? No, the thing is, I am a very conservative person, because I was traced like that. Yeah, but man, did you get in the wrong industry if you're gonna be fucking conservative.

We gotta shake you up a little. Okay. You gotta be a little aggressive. Right?

I'm doing my... Go. Go. Go.

Okay, go. So, um, where were we at? I got completely lost. 'Cause he went to Paris.

Go ahead. Yeah, it's because I was, you know... So... That was not smooth at all.

So your parents still do... Yeah, the whole mute thing is just an epic fail. Just let the fucking flame hit the goddamn mic. So, um...

Alright, so... Oh, meanwhile... Dog show's still going on, but... I don't know what's going on, but I'm just kind of, so how do you kind of find your way at that point into the cigar industry, right?

So, I mean, you know, nails doesn't breed tobacco, hamsters, no tobacco. So, like, how do you find tobacco? I mean, the Dominican Republic makes sense. Yeah, but it's a fun story.

Good. It's a very fun story. Fun story. Even if it doesn't sound fun, it was fun to me.

So, I graduated from college, right? " Because my parents wanted me to get a job before doing anything else, so I got experience, blah, blah, blah. Which was, okay, I'm a little bit controversial and I think a little bit different than most of the people. Because you got two types of people.

You got people that follow and people that lead. I'm not the people that follow. I'm sorry, I cannot do a nine to six job. I could do it, but it's not my sense.

I'm something different. I like, I'm very imposing, if you can say that word. I like challenges, I like new trails and, you know, an office job. It's not threatening, it's really boring.

Right. Not for you. I like challenges. I like interpersonal challenges.

I like money challenges. I like all those kind of things. Right. I went back to Santiago because I knew my father was running a business.

So I wanted to run a business. Meanwhile, I was helping him. I had ideas on my head because I was getting tired of the Dominican, which was a turning point in my life. Right.

Because things were getting dangerous over there, I wasn't feeling safe, I had a stable relationship with a girl that I made and she's now my wife, so I was thinking serious. Oh, that's good. So I was thinking, I gotta get out of here. I cannot stay because I want to have family and I want my family to, you know, be in the wild without having to be with all the barriers that you have to get over there in order to be safe.

So, I started looking for things to do, and it happens that I have a good eye when it comes to the things with really high quality. Okay. And I started off with a... Bougie.

No, no, no, no, no, no. You snuck that right in. You had to slide that right in. Bougie.

Dominican wealth. Undertone to Dominican wealth. I like fruits. You like fruits?

Yeah. Okay. So I went to Miami to see how was the fruit market. Oh, okay.

I started doing research because Dominican has a lot of fruit. Right. Which, due to bad administration, is not being exploited correctly. Right.

So I'm giving you a heads up. I'm gonna charge you... That's good. A couple hundred thousand dollars on this podcast.

That's nice. I'm going to write you a check, and it's going to be postated out of state, and, you know, you just go ahead and try and deposit that, and that'll be fine. Okay. So, anyways, go ahead.

So you're trying to do fruit? Trying to do fruit into Miami. Yeah, and I had the factory, because I tried with fruits first, but it was too dangerous because it's an appreciable product. Right.

So I went with something less dangerous, which was still fruit, but it was frozen fruit pulp. Okay. And I got the factory, I got the labeling, I got the contract, I got everything, but I was afraid, I was afraid to do the investment. Right.

Now what is an investment like that? What did you kind of figure at the time that it would cost you to do? 250 grand. That's my first business.

That's your estimate of a quarter of a million dollars. Yeah. That's a big, that's a lot of pulp. That's a lot of fruit.

That's a lot of frozen pulp. That's a lot of bananas. Actually, no. Right.

No, it's not a lot of bananas. 250k will be maybe five containers. Okay. Because we're talking about 44 containers that are the one that's going to be refrigerated.

Right. So I was thinking about flooding the whole industry with that. Right. But you got nervous?

Man, I was still young, but I was younger. I mean, like, I'm going to put that capital investment in your risk, and I'm going to take those risks, I mean, as far as I know, I'm not wearing a buffet, so I have no experience, I have, you know, I have the backing, but... Right, you're going into the United States market. You're going to the United States market, it took me, like, seven or ten trips to get through all the regulations and all the lab tests and all those things, but I was really afraid, I mean, like, it was a...

It was a really high amount of money, at least for me. Right. It was like a house, you're going to bet with a house. Yeah, it's a high amount of money for anybody.

Right, so it's going to be my first mistake, bang, I gotta play it a little bit lower, so I keep doing my research, and meanwhile on those trips to Miami, I get to smoke cigars. Okay. With the guy that was going to be my custom broker. Okay.

He, uh, it happens to be that he is the custom broker for a couple of cigar guys in the industry. So, he started. So, what did he give you? What was the cigar that he gave you?

The first cigar that he gave me in 2011, it was, uh, he was, I think it was 2012, I'm sorry. Okay. It was a Fernando León Toro. Okay.

Which was really amazing in that time. Yeah. " Yeah, I used to smoke cigars a couple of years ago, but I could not find them anymore because it was really hard to get cigars into the Dominican by that time. So he gave me this cigar and I got the cigar and light it up and it was really interesting because the last cigar I had before that, it was like maybe 2004, 2005.

I can't remember what cigar I was. How old were you at this point? Because you don't look that old. I'm 30.

30? Yeah. 2005, I must be like 19. Okay.

But I started smoking cigars when I was 8 or 9. You didn't look 8 or 9? Yeah. Actually, I remember my first cigar.

Yeah, I guess you're right. It's a totally different animal. No, no, but let me tell you something. By that time, it was really, really hard to find cigars in Dominican.

Right. And one of the places that sold cigars, Santiago was El Gran Almirante, and Santo Domingo was Arturo Fuentes Cigar Club, maybe at their airport, so it was a really expensive thing to do. But my father, you know, in Santiago everyone knows everyone, and he had, when I was eight, he had those Davidoff, I think it was the Millennium Blend, or 2000 Series, I forgot, because he still had the boxes. Davidoff or Padrón?

Davidoff? Yeah, and I remember that cigar numbed my mouth, but I really, for some reason, I fell in love with that, I mean, I was really young, and nobody knew I was smoking that cigar, but when I was thinking like, "Shit, I gotta do this again, I gotta find a way to have more," but I was a kid, it was, you know, but it was in my, it was in my blood, I felt it, so I kept smoking, like, occasional cigars, and when I was 15, 18, I mean, like, have a couple cigars a year, then I kept smoking, but cigars were really, really hard to get, or they were very expensive, and I didn't have the money to actually spend 15 to 20 bucks on a cigar at that time. " Yeah, so, like, the opportunity there, no, no, I didn't, at that point, I didn't decide that. Right, but you decided that you're out of pulp.

Yeah. I was out of the through business. It's too risky. Okay.

We're talking about a pre-show product that is going to be frozen. Right. But what happens if, let's say, customs, the diesel motor on one of those containers goes out and then you get 50 grand down just one container because somebody forgot to put diesel in it. Right.

And you got to put insurance on those, for example, you know, and there's a mistake on a paperwork. Right. And they'll sit the container there for weeks. Right.

You know how hard it is to earn that money? It's really hard. So, I was out of pulp. You're out of pulp, yeah.

So, I went back to the DR. Oh, I'm sorry. One cigar. One cigar.

Yeah, I didn't specify them all. 75 boxes a ding. So, I went back to the DR with the tail behind my legs. Like, down, but I didn't, you know, I wanted It was something to do with the United States, but at that time, I didn't know I was going to actually move to the States, but my wife, she gave me a good note, some good news that she was doing paperwork to be leaving in the States, and she told me, like, "Listen, we should do the paperwork and we should actually move there.

" And we'll talk about it later. So, it happens that my best girlfriend, her uncle, he works with three cigar factories, and he has a microfactory that he uses for hobby. Gotcha. Yeah.

So... What's his name? Chico. That's the guy, right?

Eh? That's the guy, right? That's the guy. Everybody knows a Chico.

- I was just trying to elaborate on, he's the owner of the factory, right? - Yeah, he's the owner of the factory, so he's, you know, he has 35 years of experience, he works with a lot of different guys, he prepares the tobacco. - He's pretty well known in the industry. - Yeah, in the industry, yeah.

But more on the manufacturing side than the retail side, you know, he's one of those guys that are solving problems on the background more than the people see, more back end than the front end. So you got, well, that's the beautiful thing about social media and podcasts and all this other stuff is the world kind of gets smaller and people kind of learn and affiliate people with the factory as well as, you know, the faces of the brands and, you know, just, not just the overall consumption of, or the breakdown of the blend, right? So, so you got a friend who hooked you up with Chico. Yeah, and I got there one day, and he got me two torpedoes, two cigar torpedoes, like, the first thing that he asked me, why do you smoke?

I smoked like, I used to smoke my father, I used to smoke, you know, the basic stuff, and by that time, I smoked a couple of Fromacraft. Ooh. Yeah. Because it was a brand that was building up, and I saw the ring and the concept, it was like, those guys have like a really concept of what we need on this thing.

So did you steal it from Victor? Say what? Where'd you get the ring from? No, no, no.

Victor doesn't come to play until a few years later. Oh, okay. All right. So this is like 2014?

No, we're talking about 2013, 2012. Okay. It was really fast. Okay, right.

" and smoking like this and this, "Okay, I got you something. " So, I went down to the house, I saw the, you know, first I was at the factory, I saw how he worked, what he was, and the most important thing is that she, my best friend, she told me, like, This is the guy that you should see. And she's not one of those persons that talks for talking. Right.

If you say something, it's something that has weight. Right. And so that's why I saw him. Okay.

I went back to the house, cut up the torpedo, I smoked the torpedo, and 30 minutes after, I was throwing up sick. Nice. That is fantastic. So I was trying to find the guy's number on the cell phone just to ask him, what the hell am I going to do?

Because what did he put on the cigar? Because I couldn't handle it. Right. I just couldn't handle it.

So when he picked up the phone, he just burst off laughing. It was another partner of me with him. He told me, like, listen, you get a red soda. We have it over there, like a cherry soda, but it's not cherry.

It's like, it's red. Right. But it has a lot of sugar in it. A lot of sugar in it.

Yeah. So I took my red soda and was back in about an hour. Nice. Took a shower, right?

And I remembered that cigar for my whole life. Right. So the day after, I was at the factory at 8 o'clock, asking for more. So...

So you like the taste of the cigar, obviously. Yeah, I like the taste. It's very true. I liked it because it was something different than the other things I have tasted before.

It was something unique. So I was, you know, looking for that unique taste, but I was looking more to learn because I knew nothing. I used to be, you know, just a occasional cigar smoker. But he took me in.

" You're gonna smoke it this way? Mm-hmm. And you're gonna be here from eight to eight? 12-hour days.

Yeah. You're gonna go to your house, you're gonna have lunch, and then you're gonna get back. So I did that. Invested two years of my life.

Right. Doing that. Just learning. Mm-hmm.

The whole process. And then... At the end of that, you make a cigar? Yeah.

It was beautiful, but it was something that I had to have a lot of patience because I could be working, making money in another place, and I was not working. I was spending money trying to learn on something that I believed, but I wasn't sure that was going to be successful, which was really hard. Yeah, I'm sure. Especially when I have things to do, you know.

You're meeting up. Okay, at that point, I was dating my wife, and she used to work at Santo Domingo for a telecommunications company, so she's very smart. So I was like, besides proving myself, I need to prove her, right? So I started, after those first two years, the most important thing that he teached me, it was like, listen, there's two things, and there's a fine line between it.

You have to know if a cigar is good or not, and if a cigar, do you like it or not. Those are two different things. And that's all you need to know. And then you get your ass out of here and sell those cigars.

So let's try and figure out why you want to sell. Because I want you to believe in the cigars that you sell. So we're starting doing things, tasting different kinds of tobacco, and we only use one source of the tobacco. Because it gives you, you have all the tools that we need over there.

So if we have, if we don't have a tobacco that he doesn't have, we might get to another place, but he has everything that we need at the moment. So it took us like maybe two to three weeks to come with the blend, and we did the first cigars. And which cigar was that? That was the Florinata first.

Okay. But I wanted to do something more high-end, because the Florinata came up, because my father gave me the name of Florinata, and it was intended as a brand for me to sell in the Dominican to try to learn how to sell things. Gotcha. So we did a 5,000 cigar run.

It was Corona Robusto & Toro and did a couple events over there in Santiago. The community was very, very small compared to what it is right now. Right, but what's unique about the Dominican cigar industry is you actually have a retail consumer market to some degree. Yeah, but at that point, it was...

Before that, it was that. I mean, it was nothing. I mean, I think it's this chair. Okay.

It's always me. It's squeaking. I know it's you. Okay, I'll put it on your tablet.

So, at that point, I started traveling to the east side of the island. Right. Which was the biggest cigar, still the biggest cigar market. Right.

We got a couple clients, you know, we did a couple events, but it's really, really, really hard to sell cigars in the Dominican Republic, because you got a lot of factories over there, you got everyone's, every gift shop's cigars, that they have cheap cigars, a lot of different things, a lot of different things, especially it's not as modern as it's here, you don't have the same tools, so it was really hard. So here I was, this kid, which is doing this, and by that time, there wasn't that many brands like we have before, like nickel brands, because they flooded the market after that. I felt like, strange, because I was a guy, versus those guys that were on free zones that they're only doing that, you know? Right.

So it's not like Nicaragua that you have factories everywhere. Right. The Dominican is more hermetic, it's more, it's more politics. It's everything is controlled by the, it's like big tobacco, but it comes to cigar.

Especially those associations that they just put the big guys because they want all the, they do this for the money. Right. So, meanwhile, that time, after I did that, we came out with Noxia. Right.

Which was intended to be... A boulder. A boulder higher end cigar, right? It was, it's more costly...

Right. than the Florina at that time, because it was made in a different way. But guess what? Most of the people.

The cigars are both the same quality now. Right. But most of the people like the Florinata. Right.

The Florinata is different. It's amazing. Thank you. You have to sell me all the ones that you have.

You can't have them. I'll have them. They're mine. I'll steal them.

I already paid for them. We're armed. We're gonna send a secret buyer. Go ahead.

Ship into Alaska. So you come over to the States and you start, uh... Yeah, so with this cigars... Cigars, the short story, we did cigars, I got to the States, got a bunch of cigars shipped to the States, I started visiting the stores, nobody knows who I am, nobody knew who I was, and I got a lot of no's, but eventually I started getting yes.

Right. Where was your first account here in the United States? My first account here in the United States is Smokering on... In Texas.

In Texas. Yeah. is Webster, Texas. You got two smoke rings on Websters.

But it was because I got to the IPCPR show in 2015. Right. Which I lost a lot of money because I know nobody. Right.

Nobody was stopping at the booth. I was essentially alone. Right. Nothing.

Just waiting and giving a couple cigars. Right. So it was really tough. So after the IPCPR, the IPCPR, I was still living in the Dominican.

So after that, I kept sinking money on the cigars and get to the States. And the MPCPR met one of my friends, which was the manager on that store. Now he's a rep. He got me in the store.

I even stayed at his house because I knew nobody at Houston. It was my first business trip, right? So he got me to his store, and we did a small column light. I remember that day, like, since forever.

Right. So, that time was, I think it was 2015, late 2015, 2016. Right. But Victor came into play at that time, because he already went to the factory around 2014.

Right. Victor is the owner of Chubui Cigars. Yeah, Chubui Cigars. At that time...

And he also bullies you. Yeah, a lot. He picks on you, and so does Jerry Cattrall. Significantly.

I don't care. I'd let them believe that. Yeah, it doesn't bother you, but you bring it up. So we know it hurts you.

Hashtag bully. Hashtag bully. Hashtag me too. Oh, now they're going to bully you.

Yeah, it's not to that level. Oh, sorry. It's not to that level. So, at that time, I was flying, I flew with Victor to Houston, actually.

Right. Yeah, so, no, no, it wasn't that time, it was after that, like a month before that, then after that. We flew to Houston for a business trip, and he knew this guy that had this, like, activity where everybody gets together, smokes a cigar before a huge festival, The Cigar Festival, which was held by the big store over there. Serious Cigars, you can say, it's okay.

You're not hurting anybody's feelings. Okay, you know, I just try to be politically correct. This isn't designed for marketing or sales in any way, shape, or form. It's designed for the truth.

Okay. You want the truth? You want the truth? Yeah.

You can't handle the truth. This cigar festival that everybody goes, so he had a thing before where basically everybody eats, smokes cigars, and gets drunk, and out of nowhere we were over there meeting new people. Right. So it happens that he has become one of my dearest friends here in the States.

I don't have a lot of friends here in the States, and he's one of them. Jerry is one of them, so... Yeah, he's alright. Yeah, he's alright.

He's a good egg. Yeah. I like Lisa better. I've only met Jerry once.

But he seems like a nice guy. Well, I understand why you like Lisa better. She's definitely better than Jerry. But Jerry's a good dude.

Is that not La Polina, Jerry? That's La Polina. Currently La Polina, Jerry. Yeah, yeah.

You have to mention him. Formerly Calcet de Monte Cristo. Jerry. Yeah.

So, alright. So, it's going well. You've opened up a few accounts and you've... I started in Houston, then I went to New York.

New York was a different animal. It was a little bit tougher than Houston. It was tougher than Houston. Right.

Because in Houston, I had the connection of my friend, and New York had literally nobody. I was really new to the industry, and maybe it wasn't the best place to go, but it was what it was, you know. It's a very good market. Yeah, it's a very good market.

Especially for Dominican Scars. Yeah. I know. We've got a lot of Dominican guys over there.

So, you're kind of on your way, man, right? Yeah, we're right on, we sold out. The first year was a little bit rough, because I didn't know a lot of people. Now I know a little bit more, but...

You know like three people. Yeah, I know like three people. So you're on your way. Hopefully next year I'll know six.

Yeah, you get to six, then that's it. Then you can take two months off in Paris instead of one. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Maybe he has friends in Paris. That's fantastic. He just doesn't have many friends in the United States. He just blew my cover.

I haven't posted a picture on Social Media because... You posted pictures of social media from Paris? Oh, my personal account? Yes.

That's why I have a personal account? Oh, sorry. Okay, well, so what? Yeah, but you know, here's what I've learned with social media, at least for me.

Personal and business is the same thing. So, my personal account is my business account. Yeah, I only have the one. Well, there's one for the show now, but it's such a pain to switch back and forth.

Yeah, it's so difficult to maintain. " You got to reach out to me direct if you want a response immediately, you know, so then those people will eventually attach to you and then you'll be, they'll be able to see how much your lifestyle is and how you live it up in Paris. Listen, listen, listen, listen, I have a personal account because there's, there was, there's a couple of reasons for that, but what you're saying is totally true, but mostly of that is because if you open it up an account and it's not private, people will start posting bad things. and crap on your...

So just block them. Yeah, I block those people. Yeah, but it's a hard thing to do. So just imagine, it's hard to do it with one account.

Right. Two will be too much. That's why I have it private. It's not like I have something to hire or something.

All right, we're just going to agree to disagree on this. Okay. Because we're going to not get anywhere. We're just going to go round and round.

All right, so let's get it with... Let's keep going. Get it with the questions? Ready to do the questions?

Let's hit it with the questions. All right, we're going to do the questions now. And I forgot my book, so I'm going to leave this. Holy shit, guys.

So we don't have the book. Can I ask you a question first? Certainly. Yeah?

Maybe. Maybe, depends on the question. I mean, you can ask, I don't know if we're going to answer it. Okay.

This is our fucking show, not yours, goddammit. If you're in a bed, and you have 10 minutes, and you know that you will die in 10 minutes, what would be the last thing that you ask for? To see my wife? To make sure that my...

She's there with you. Oh, everybody's there? Last thing you ask for? Yeah, 10 minutes left.

10 more minutes? I would ask to make sure that my kids are okay. My kids are okay financially before I die. Okay, everyone's gonna be with you, you ask for something that's rationally possible.

Uh, I'd ask for a big Learjet that I couldn't use, 'cause I'm about to die. And fuckin' put him in. What do you want a jet? Bougie, fucker you too.

What about you? A Learjet is fantastic. Um, I don't know, why would you last ten minutes you have left? Well, I don't, I'm not gonna go dirty on him, 'cause that's what he wants me to do, I'm not gonna give him that satisfaction.

No, I wouldn't go dirty, I mean, just, everybody's there, I've got everything I need. I've got to ask for somebody to wipe my ass, because I just shit myself, that's what I'd ask for, because I've got 10 minutes left and I'm not wasting it on the toilet. Make sure I'm cremating, I don't want to be very... Ah, no cremation, huh?

No, I want to be cremated, I want to be married, I have claustrophobic issues, I don't want to be stuck in a box. You'd rather be burned alive, or dead. I'll be dead. Burned dead.

Yeah, sure, why not? Okay. That's fair. So, okay, now you asked us, what the hell, you had an answer to that, obviously.

Yeah, you were looking for an answer. No, no, I don't know my answer, I just can tell you guys. Let me ask you something mister, you got ten minutes left, and you're in your deathbed, and everything's good, your family's good, all your kids are fine. That's a tough question, but I mostly ask for a cigarette, and that's it.

A cigarette? Yeah. So I quit, listen, listen, I quit cigarettes seven years ago. Listen Linda.

And I used to smoke three packs today. Three packs. Holy cow, I tell them. So I quit because it was killing me.

Right. I quit. It's the worst thing that can happen to people. But, as a cigarette smoker, you know that you crave the last cigarette.

If you're going to die, you want a cigarette. Yeah, if I die, I'm going to smoke on my borrowed head, made in the Dominican Republic, the last one. And a cowboy hat? You want a cowboy hat, too?

Nah, it's okay. No cowboy hat? No, no cowboy hat. All right.

All right. Okay, here are the questions. You were expecting that one. So he's already had the questions, which kind of sucks, but his answers back then sucked, too.

So we're going to hit them with the good one person, living or dead. It'll be the same answer, so... Don't interrupt me asking questions. This is my only part of the show.

What one person, living or dead, would you like to share a cigar with? That would be the same question. Well, it's the same question. The same answer.

Oh, sorry. What was your answer? We don't remember. My answer was...

We deleted the recording. Thank you, Mike. You're welcome. It was an old friend that passed away.

And he used to work in the industry, and he kept me pushing to go for more every day, and he's just not here anymore. Right. Who was he? What was his name?

I don't want to disclose his name. Why not? I don't know who it is. You said it then.

Yeah, but, okay, his name is Samuel Mendez. He used to work with Arturo Fuente. Right. He was a good friend of yours.

There's nothing wrong with disclosing that I'm learning the man's memory. You know, and he made a major impact in your life. Yes, you know, I still miss them. Of course.

A lot. Especially, it was my first business trip. When I was with Victor, I was visiting this shop. It's called Elite Cigar Cafe, which I haven't visited yet.

It was in Dallas before going to Houston. Right. And I was talking with this lady. No, you're doing the same thing I was talking.

No, no, go ahead. We're listening. Go ahead. So, I was talking with this sweet lady.

Her name is Lara. I have to go there again. But I don't know if I traumatized it because of that day. It was 3 o'clock.

He got... Victor had my phone on his hand for some reason. Probably taking pictures. I remember seeing you at Jerry Herf.

It was the day after. Yeah. And you were not... I mean, you had your phone so you wouldn't lose it.

It was a rough day for you, for sure. So I know that the guy was... You're not expecting that, but it was two things. Besides that, it was the complete, the same night, it was the complete FDA bullshit.

499 pages. And everyone was panicking, and like, all that I have worked for. Now, out of the blue, this thing comes out, and this guy dies. Right.

As a bad man. You know, it's like, it's maybe not the best of the days. Right. But, you know what, I kept fighting.

Right. That's why I'm here today. Right. And good for you, man.

Alright, question number two? Yeah. What's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you? Can I say two of them?

Sure. Sure. Don't leave for tomorrow while you can't do it for today. Mm-hmm.

And I have to think about it. I know there's another one. Oh, yeah. When you give without waiting anything, you receive more than you have ever waited for.

Oh, very nice. It works. That's true. For some reason, I kept, like, reluctant to do it more.

And maybe I'm not that wise that I know if I give more, I'll even receive more without waiting for it. Right. You get it? It's a law of life.

Right. No, for sure. I love that statement, 'cause you know, give in slices and it comes back in loaves. It's true.

Oh, and that's sweet. Yeah. Give in slices, it comes back in loaves. I'm a sweet man, Michael.

Thank you. You're a very sweet man. Alright, third question. What is the third question?

I don't know. What's your favorite cigar? Yeah, there you go. Thank you, yeah.

No, I don't have my book. I was going to the other question. What's your favorite cigar? besides mine okay he fucking knows he knows he knows already so yeah no no no besides mine yeah well normally the person normally the person answers the wrong let me tell you something please tell us digame you have to believe in the things you're doing in order to be successful right maybe I'm not so successful and I'm that idiot thinking I'm doing it right I don't know you spent a month in Paris you're doing something right but I believe in my things and I love my cigar Right.

There may be cigars that you have to sell that you don't love, but this one specifically I really love it. Okay, so what's your favorite cigar? So what's your favorite cigar? Besized.

Besized a little or not a Corotta. That's a good question. Dead air. See, we need that dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.

You know that trivia sound? That they put like when they're playing those games? Yeah. Yeah.

Stop the line, goddammit. Answer the question. Answer the question. Oh God.

Dead air. You can tell them, you can tell them the truth. It's all right, just let it out. Just let it out, just say.

Just let it out. It's okay if it's an acid blondie. It's okay. It's all right if it's not Victor's.

My favorite, okay, it's not Victor's, but Victor is one of the tops. For sure. Yeah, yeah. No, I hear you.

But this cigar, you cannot get it anymore. It's a cigar that they used to do for Hispaniola. It was a store in New Jersey, and the cigar was called Tres Calaveras, but I like that cigar, because I started smoking store cigars with that one, so it kind of reminds me of that time that I used to smoke those cigars before I took mine, but there's a long list of different cigars that I really enjoy. We'll go with Tres Calaveras.

Yeah. You win that one. Yeah. I see half of one left on my house.

It's time to smoke it. It's time to smoke it. I don't know, I save cigars. I don't know why, but I save cigars, too.

I don't save shit. I know, you don't, but you have a cigar empire in here. Ooh, yeah. Empire.

Okay, next question. Normally somebody wants a cigar, and I either A sell it to them, or if I didn't buy it, I just give it to them. So I don't keep it. What one fictitious person would you like to share a cigar with?

Ooh, that's a new question. That's a new question since you were here. That you were definitely not prepared for. Fictitious person.

So like a movie character, a person from a book. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

That's cool. Oh, he likes that. He likes it because he's smiling. He doesn't have an answer, though.

No, I don't have an answer yet. That's a great question. That's a great question. That's a stall.

Because the first thing that I'm thinking is movies, right? Right. Then you start thinking about cartoonists. Right.

Right. What else can you think? Fictitious person in the Bible. Jesus Christ.

No. Well, hopefully he wasn't fictitious. Yeah. I don't know.

He drank wine. It's possible. He could have. Yeah.

It's a natural product. If it was accessible. On a good day? I mean, it would be tough.

After you turn the water into wine, you light up a cigar, ooh, I had a good day. Turn all that water into wine. Last Supper? You light what I've had for Last Supper?

Boom. Boom. You got me thinking. Las Calaveras, here we go.

You got me thinking. Yeah. Well, you better fucking answer. You better go.

Clock is ticking. You can give me 60 seconds. 60 seconds? That's a long time in podcast world.

You've already had 60 seconds. Oh, crap. This will sound weird, you know, there's a game called Metal Gear Solid, right? Yes.

So, Snake. Snake. Yes. I know he smokes cigarettes, but he can always try a Florinata.

Exactly. Sure he can. That's fantastic. Actually, he used a cigar, he used to, I can't remember if it was a cigarette, or I think the cigarette was for his health and the cigar was just for the lasers.

Like, you should throw a cigar smoke into the lasers or something like that. So you're a gamer? Yeah, a hardcore gamer. Do you have an Oculus?

I'm dying for it, but I need to sell more cigars in order to get one. Bullshit. It's all backwards. It's true, it's really expensive, it's 200 and something, right?

You're in a floating chair with the VR goggles. But I think, don't you need like a computer with it, or no? Depending, because that's the, yeah, you need a computer. Yeah.

But I have a computer, you know? Like, everybody has a computer. But you need, like, a gaming computer. You probably have a gaming computer.

Yeah, but it's not expensive to do it. You can put up a gaming computer for $600. Yeah. Like, a really good one, you know?

That's not even a half a ticket to Paris. Right. Exactly. Oh, my God.

I like that you kept breading up. You kept breading up. Thank you. Yeah, I'm a gamer, and that's something that most of the people don't know.

I'm also a musician. Oh, you are? Yeah. I used to be a drummer until I was 21, But after that I started just doing synthesizers and analog synthesizers and working with digital audio work interfaces, which was really something that I enjoy, but I have to get some time in order to do those things.

Music plays a very, very important role in my life. It actually can turn my day in the mood on my whole complete day, depending on what I'm listening to. But you have no cigars named after music? No, because this is more personal.

Right. You know? I got you. It's like, I'm not gonna name a cigar after a song.

Maybe I can do it, you know? But I haven't got to that point yet. You know? You'll get there.

You'll get there. Do you want to give people your private Instagram so they don't follow you? You can follow me on my private, what's your name on Instagram for your business. Okay, first I'm gonna make a statement on my personal name.

Most of the people, my name here is J-O-A-N, Joan. It's the same as Joan, but in Catalonian language. In what language? Catalonian.

Catalonian. Yeah. Is that a Dominican dialect? No, it's a Spanish dialect.

Catalonian. Yeah, Catalonian, so you can call me John, Joan, or Juan, or whatever you want. What is the name you gave him earlier today? Johan.

Johan. No, Johan is a different name. That's different. That's his Paris name.

So, did we get the name? What's the name that followed people? No, he didn't say, he was just giving his pronunciation to me, Catalonian. My handle on social media, Florinata is Florinata, F-L-O-R-Y-N-A-T-A.

Right. And my personal is @johanmanuel15. That's my personal account. I don't think I even have that.

I don't think I follow his personal account. Nice. You should. Well, I should, but I don't.

I'm one of his three friends. You follow me? How do you know I went to Pirates? That's true.

Oh, maybe I do. Okay. I'm pretty sure I follow you. If you like what we're doing, leave some feedback for us.

We put that all in the other thing now. We don't have to say that anymore. Yeah, I know, but I want to do it anyways. What the hell?

Oh, okay. Go ahead. All right. Forget it.

Forget it. Forget it. No. Give us a review.

Tell your friends about us. Follow us at CigarHousePodcast. We are really big in Jordan now. It's number four.

I know, but you said that. No, yesterday it was like eight. Now we've moved up today. Oh, man.

It goes United States, Great Britain, Canada, and then Jordan. Growing like wildfire in Jordan. Yeah, I don't know what it is. It's nice.

And then Dominican Republic and then Nicaragua. Very nice. Yes. All right, so this concludes the podcast.

We appreciate you coming back again, Jawan. You did a great job. We couldn't get him to talk before, and this time we can't get him to stop. That is nicely done, it was nicely done.

Excellent redemption sir. Excellent done. Thank you. All right, bye.

All right folks, that's it, show's over. If you like what we're doing, please tell your friends about us, leave feedback. 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 A Cigar Hustlers Podcast, or you can follow us on Instagram at Cigar Hustlers Podcast.

Thanks for listening.

Show Notes

Our very good friend Joan Mi Rodriguez came by for a redemption taping!  We had Joan on very early in the Shows life and it went terrible....technical problems, he was nervous and weird background noises..... Episode 19 he brings it all back and does a great job!

Learn why we call him "Dominican Wealth"!  How his family raises Pandas in the DR, and why fruit became his Tobacco Business!

We welcome your comments and suggestions on our FB page, "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast".  Please rate, comment and subscribe here on podbean or itunes!  You can follow us on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, Mike1 @cigarhustler and Mike2 @floridacigarclub_mike.

We appreciate all our listeners!