CHPOD 626: Cigar News, RoMa Craft Origin Story & Cuban Cigar Debate

Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, premium cigars, unfiltered opinions and comments. P. Palmer, your host, joined by co-host of the day, the superstar, who gave up spinning in his chair time today, Triple G, an ovarian engineering, the man who has his hand in everything, and we mean everything, the King Michael Szczephankiewicz, gotta get my gay jokes in there somewhere. From cigars, sports, and business to pop culture and the wildest headlines.

Oh, he's coming this way. If it's worth discussing, we're talking about it. No safe spaces, just real perspectives, big laughs, and chaos at any moment. Settle in and welcome to a Cigar Hustlers podcast.

Dun, dun, dun, dun. What's it? Two Polish brothers and a white guy. Dun, dun, dun.

On today's show, we have an announcement. Oh, yeah? And we have another cruise update if you want it. Okay.

We have a record-breaker grandma. Okay. And a two-hour car chase. Sounds like fun.

Then in cigars, we got a shipping notification, more enter-to-back news, and a what's the score. But first, Mikey, what's going on in the lounge? What are people talking about? Well, first of all, like and subscribe if you're reviewing and listening to the show.

listen to the show. com for all your chpod swag. com on Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Do all that.

Do all that. Go shirts, stickers. I got a couple cool things before I get into the comments. Number one, the Melted Warbear Hat auction is officially live.

Oh! Yeah. The Melted Warbear Hat? Yes.

It's like the first one you made that turned out messed up? Correct. Yeah, the bears melted. So it's like Darth Vader's helmet in whichever one of those movies where it was like deformed?

That's correct. Okay, you can go with that. Kind of a vague reference, but okay. We'll let you have it.

Vague? How's that vague? Everybody knows what Star Wars is. Because that was a metal helmet that had scratches.

No, no, no. It was like melted and deformed. Oh, when he fell in the lava? Well, anyways, it's up for auction.

It's up for auction. There's already some current bidders. Uh oh. Yeah.

Who do you think our first bidder was? CCW. That's correct. Did you take the buy now option away?

I did. Yeah. Just let them fight it out. I just want it to be more fun.

You know what I mean? For us. Exactly. But, just so you know, I think I should have just did that.

Oh, let's see. Oh, you accidentally bid. Oh, I just bought it. Let me see this.

Let me go. We don't have money to pay for it. " And currently Michael Z's in the lead. Oh!

Yeah, yeah, going in. He can wear it on his podcast. There you go. Um, la la la la la, so yeah.

The double digits? So, it's, I only ran it for two weeks, I started at 50 bucks, like $52. Oh. I'm only running it for two weeks, so it'll be done in 13 days, and when this comes on, it'll be done in probably less than 10 days or something like that.

So keep an eye out on it, talk some smack, have fun. Melted hat. We're auctioning off melted hat. Yeah.

Melted. The people want it, it's a one of a kind. It's a one of a kind melted hat. It never can be replaced because it melted a certain way.

I understand. I mean, it's great symbolism because look, it was the first hat, right? And it was a mistake. And it got messed up and you just got to keep going until you figure it out.

It's a museum piece. It is. It's authentic. Authentic.

Yeah. One of a kind. Raise the price. Oh, God.

There's the only comments that are on the pod lounge are now the CH pod lounge ones. Uh oh. It's broken again. Oh my God.

Oh, the little thing you made for me might be broken. I believe it. All right, we'll talk about it later. Things are breaking.

Yep. Robot things are breaking. Robot things are breaking. I think the robot's tired.

That's the whole point of the robot. It's not supposed to get tired. That's not how that works. Well, one of us is going to get tired and it ain't going to be me, robot.

Just so you know. That's right. You know the robot heard that. You better crank it.

That's fine. It was making fun of me when I said, well, look, the mentality here is I'll work everybody. It's like, oh, you know, you could tell. I was like, oh, excuse me.

I gave him a little bit of attitude. I didn't sign in for that. Well, that's great. Great, you know.

Well, that's great. you know well that doesn't mean you're doing dumb shit is pretty much what it said to me i'm like oh thanks not in your profile thanks robot that's a very intuitive robot yeah effort doesn't always equal progress it's pretty much what it said to me then it called me an idiot idiot christopher weiss says just seeing how happy it makes mikey when we come on here is worth going between the lounge and YouTube. All hail the king. All hail the king.

Yes. Thank you, Chris. You're the man. Today's his anniversary.

Well, last Friday was his anniversary. You were the keeper of all dates. I see it on Facebook. You know all dates.

I don't have to remind you of birthdays. You don't actually remember. It's just that you're so on Facebook all the time that you see when it's somebody's birthday or such. Yes.

Got it. Okay. Palmer, the date keeper. The date keeper.

Behold your... Yeah, the date keeper. We're not allowed to talk to her anymore. The old Joe Datekeeper.

I have no idea what you're talking about. That's fine, though. Yeah, I don't know either. Neither one of you do?

We had a date keeper. Right. Now we're not allowed to talk to her anymore. I have no idea what's going on.

All right, never mind. I was going to let it go. Lance says, "Great show. Lots of laughs.

" Francis Saletto says, "You can't make me comment on here. You are not my real dad. " Hashtag, dead dad's club. Welcome.

Welcome, Francis. Also, what I said was, did Triple G and that cigar guy from the video have the same jeweler? That was it, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.

Yeah, I get it, yeah, yeah. I mean, I was close, bro. Come on. Right.

Not a direct quote, but still a quote. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Close enough. It tracked.

Stephen Wells says, this will eat up some time, but I think it would be interesting to hear. Here. How did you develop your relationship with Mike and Skip? I mean, we can get into that.

That's a great story, actually. That's a really, really good story. Greg's version is probably wrong, but go ahead. No.

Greg is a good storyteller. He may embellish you time, but they are very intriguing. They are good stories, but it's your story. It's not my story, so I think you should tell it.

Because, I mean, there was a gentleman that sent you some cigars that they were blown away by, right? Uh-huh. And you took them, you're like, okay. And you listen to your customers, you know, because they're consumers just the same way that we are.

right? And it sat on your desk for a long time. And then the person reached out like, did you ever get to try those cigars? And you're like, oh my God, I totally forgot about them.

You opened the bag, smoked it, blown away by the smokes. They were Ziploc bag, no band, no branding, no nothing. You wind up coming to me and you're like, hey man, we really should carry these cigars. I'm like, these cigars?

Why? I mean, they're in a Ziploc bag. There's nothing to them. He's like, no man, they're really, really good cigars.

And then I distinctly remember going out So, Roma Craft's first PCA, where it was a collapsible table, a tablecloth, and that was it, right? It was nowhere near what it is now. And it's been a great relationship and a great ride along the way. I mean, you may have more details to the story than what I just put together.

I mean, that was close. You started to fizz out at the end there a little bit. " And then he told the story. That's how...

Yeah, I apologize. Go ahead and tell the story. Palmer, this is my life. Go ahead and tell the story.

This is my life, Palmer. Mike Palmer. Hey, which is for the other people. I've seen this hundreds of thousands of times.

You know, it's your story. You know, you should say it. But what had happened was it started. " Oh, again?

Again. So, the guy, his name was Dan Stanley. We call him Air Dan. Air Dan.

I remember. Good dude. And what was funny was, it was the Aquatane Adolatl, the Lanceru, the Habano. " So, we took, then I went back to you, and that was where you started to kind of fight me on it.

- Oh, I'm sure. - There's no way. We're not carrying all this stuff. We don't even know who they are, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, oh, come on, man. This is going to be all right. So we did. We did.

We started to carry the product. And that's really kind of where it started as far as the relationship with Roma. Now, the relationship with Skip, I think that the first time we actually met him was at IPCPR/ now called PCA in Vegas. Right?

- Yeah. - And he was very jovial. He was like very lighthearted at the time, you know? Yeah.

He wasn't as jaded. The industry hadn't gotten to him as much, I guess, at that point. And then we went down to Esteli, Nicaragua, and we made our cigar. They were just getting started.

And it's funny because even as that story kind of unfolds, I feel like Skip didn't know we were coming. You know what I mean? Like, we told Rosales, and then we went down there, we were down there for the Drew, we were gonna go to the Drew Estate Cigar Safari, but before we did the Cigar Safari, we were gonna, we got down earlier to do, to meet with the Romacraft guys, and like, he kind of abruptly met us on the street or something somewhere, like, and you could tell that, well, like, when I reached out to Rosales, I'm like, is he, well, what's going on? Is he gonna meet up with us?

Is he coming? What's happening? And then, uh, the But the Grand Poobah appeared, you know, out of nowhere, so, and it's been, it's been, I don't know, it's been what, 15 years, something like that, it's been a while, 16 years, it's been a while, 16, I think 16, yeah, it's been a long time, and I don't think it's been that long, well, Powstanie's been around for about, what, 10 or 11, 10 or 11, yeah, so, we probably went down there about 12, I'd say 12 years ago, they got started with their brand around the same time that Hustler got started though, well, Well, it's similar in timeline. Okay.

Well, we've been around for about 18 years, 19 years. Wow. And then, you know, yeah, I know, dude, you're telling me. Ah, so stressful.

And now, you know, at this point, we've managed to agitate so many different people in this industry, which is comical to me because, I don't know, I don't feel like We intentionally agitate, but we're gonna say when something's wrong, look, look, look, look, he's looking at Palmer. I mean, like, because he keeps using this word we, right? There's three of us here. There are three of us here, but like, I don't, I don't think I agitate people.

Well, I have a mouse in my pocket. It must be. We're bringing you in for the agitation gravity. Listen, when, first of all, you definitely agitate people.

When Jack Taranio gave you a cigar to try and you said, I like it, but I don't love it. Like that was burned into his brain for all of eternity. Yeah, that's his personality. Yeah.

Yeah. So you agitate. I didn't mean it as an insult. I didn't, I, you know what, and everything I said, I didn't mean it.

It's just socially, I'm sometimes removed of emotion and I'm trying to say something and it comes off as rigid or crass with that, that wasn't my intention. It's your Asperger's is what it is. Whatever it is, non-officially diagnosed, there's definitely something there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, without, yeah, without saying.

Um, I mean, I guess sometimes I purposely say something, but it's not all the time. I mean, it's not to be hurt, you know, it's, it's more in humor. I would say more along the lines, the things that I say that are, that I believe are honest and valid are the ones that get us or excuse me, just me, just me into more trouble, into more trouble. You know what I mean?

Like, uh, this is what I think is wrong. And this is what I think. And this is why I think it. And then someone was like, all right, close their account.

Like, okay. Like, thanks. Great. Anything else?

You know, the... Like one of my children? That's my life. Like, you can't speak against us.

Opinions? No. So, that's how we met Michael and Roma. And Skip and Roma.

Michael and Skip from Roma Craft. And it's been... Oh, there's three people. And it's been great ever since.

You know? There's been... It's been smooth sailing the whole time. There's never been, there's never been kisses always.

And the, yeah, and the industry is just, everything's just all rainbows and unicorns. So hunky dory, we just hang around and smoke cigars all day and do nothing, you know, and, uh, it's just, it's incredible. It's incredible, but you know what? I'm definitely enjoying the ride, I guess.

Yeah, I'm definitely enjoying the ride. Ben Rowland. It has to be. It's not like we're getting rich.

You would think it's coming, though. You know what I mean? You would think it's coming? I have to believe that it's coming.

Every year we start the year. This is the year. This is it. This is it.

This is the breakthrough year. 2027. It's gonna happen. Look, listen, here's my logic.

I don't know anybody else. You guys work incredibly hard. Please don't think that I'm discounting you, but I feel like I do a lot. I worked my ass off on a lot of things.

And I think at that tempo, it's like, okay, well, you've mastered a lot of skills in this industry. Right. Right. You've built, we built a team.

Yeah. Like, yes, the money, yeah, the money should be, should be here. You know what I mean? But again, the robot was telling you, you know, effort doesn't always equal to success.

No. Yeah. But I've, but this is not, but this isn't me running a, It's not running in a treadmill or like one of those wheels or whatever that the hamster does. Sometimes I feel like it's a hamster wheel for me.

There's been a tremendous amount of progress in everything that we've done. I don't disagree with that statement. We have a number two cigar on half wheel. I don't disagree with that statement.

Only to get shit on, therefore, afterwards, like who made this cigar? You know what I mean? Like, where did this one come from? No, it was the same factory, swear to God, you know?

I mean, okay, okay, no, great, yeah. You know? And whenever Charlie, as of late, and whenever Charlie texts me, I always respond with 81, 81. Just a standard answer now.

Yeah. Standard reply. Hey, what's going on with the War Bear? 81.

Jeez. You know? Brother Ross says, interested to know, what are your guys' top three cigars from your Powstanie line and not Powstanie? Also wondering why so many people rave on about Cuban cigars while many others don't rate them.

Is it a personal thing or availability issue or something else like old world versus new world cigars? Sorry, I couldn't see for some reason on that one. Greg, you want to answer any of that? What's your what's your top three favorite Powstanie?

Yeah, so like first round of questions, like my day is usually the same cycle. I start with a Powstanie, Connecticut, then as long as we have them, SBC 24, that's a great light medium cigar. By halfway through the day, if not three-quarters, Sumatra, and then concluding the day with either an SA. When I go outside of those realms, I'll smoke Roma Craft.

Time to time, I'll smoke a Padrón at the end of the day. Usually, it's the 90th. So, yeah. So, I feel like you missed the question there.

So, what was your top three Postana, and what's your top three outside of Postana? So, my top three Postana would probably be, in reversed order, SA. Then SPC. What size?

What size? Toro, which we're all out of right now. Okay. Then SPC 24.

And then the Connecticut. I really like that cigar. Okay. What size of Connecticut?

Toro as well? Toro as well. Okay. Yeah.

All right. And what about your top three cigars not Postana? Probably Padron 90th. Okay.

Neanderthal. Which one? HN. Okay.

- Neanderthal. - Which one? - HN. - Okay.

- Outside of that, these days, that I would consider top three. - That you would smoke, you'd be like, all right, this is dope. - I don't have another, one that I would say could take the third spot. They would be, they're all kind of equal from there on.

- Okay. - That I smoke within my cycle. Okay. So he's only got two outside of the realm.

Palmer, you want to go? Uh, sure. I usually start with either a Pustania, Habano, or- But what are your top three? I don't care what you start with.

What are your top three? Habano, Connecticut, and San Andreas. Not in any particular order. What sizes?

Uh, with the Connecticut, I like the Toro. I'm enjoying these Bellicoso Habanos that we have upstairs. Okay. And then with the San Andreas, um, maybe a Robusto, I guess.

Just a little shorter, usually towards the end. Okay. And then not our stuff, it would be the? Agonorsa.

No, I don't like that. Actually, they make a really good Connecticut. Before we launched our Connecticut, I smoked probably 400 of those cigars a year. That was a really, really good Connecticut.

I don't smoke them on the regular anymore because now I smoke our Connecticut. Yeah, we're better. Anything Espinosas is usually good for me. Yeah, I agree.

I like the Crema, that's real good. I'm smoking lately the Knuckle Sandwich Connecticut Churchill. Churchill, those are really good. Murciélago is a good one too.

Okay. And you, Michael? Well, thank you so much for asking. Certainly.

We would like to know. I'm going to tell you that top three, no particular order of Polstania, the Connecticut Justice, the Corona Gorda is incredible. It's absolutely incredible. A close second, if I had to pick, would be the Toro.

The Habano Bellicoso is ridiculous. Isn't it? It's good. I smoke a ton of those for Postana.

I think that those are absolute money and so underrated in market. And as far as, I mean, dude, this cigar, and I hate giving you credit for this, dude, but this SPC 26 is so fire. It really is, it's just so-- Alex helped a lot with that cigar. Like, I had an idea of what I wanted it to be, I knew what wrappers I wanted to use, and I had a concept of the flavor profile, so like, the first couple that he brought along with what I described to him, I'm like, it's close, but it's not, it's not, That wasn't quite what I wanted, and the direction was just a little bit more power, and I think that out of all of the SBCs that we've made, it's probably the most potent out of them all, and its profile is really, really good.

It just feels like Christmas to me. I don't know why, dude. I'm like, I'm just like, this is... It feels like Christmas.

It is. It's just, there's something about this cigar. I'm like, God damn. And I don't say that shit.

You know what I mean? Like, what the hell? But tabling the LE situation, I'm gonna say that the San Andreas, I would say that I smoked a ton of the San Andreas Toro until we ran out. Right, so have I.

That's probably why we ran out. Um, yeah, we weren't listening to Biggie. Ah, don't get high on your own supply. Listen, you need to, man.

What are you talking about? Yeah, the Corona Gorda though as well, if I'm talking about like what's in stock, one of my favorites, the San Andreas Corona Gorda is also money. That's a great plan. As far as cigars outside of Postanya, I'm going to say the Intemperance EC Brotherly Kindness is a fantastic cigar.

And the only reason why I don't smoke it on the regular is because of The Justice. Yeah, I'm one of our Connecticut's. Yeah. Number two.

In no particular order. Number two. But number two. I'm going to tell you the number one cigar outside of the Powstanie wheelhouse, last.

Okay. So the first one was number three. Well, two and three are kind of just whatever. They're in the same.

The number two, I may even go the Box Press Bolstead. I think that that was an incredibly delicious cigar. And forgive me, I can't think of the name, but I thought that thing was really good. Really good.

Why are you laughing? 'Cause I can never think of the name either. He's got 75,000 different names. It reminds me of something that happened upstairs with Steve.

I went to him because he is just immersed in everything so much. And I was discussing something with him about Roma Craft and about... I was trying to think of the name of a particular size. And he just simply said to me, "No one knows Greg.

He's super intelligent. And nobody can understand what it is that he's thinking. " Yeah, like some of the cigars, the label's got a spear on it now, you know, I'm like, I don't know, which one is this? Right, what is this?

No one knows, Greg. No, you know, or like when he got super angry, we were talking about the Maestranza once, and we were saying, you know, making fun of it, or whatever, and then like, oof, God, I got hit with a huge thing, like, you should learn, stop being dumb, here's your Spanish history, or whatever, I'm like, okay, all right, skip, whatever, buddy. Don't you know the history of the Spanish people? Yeah, whatever, pal.

Mmm. Those are really good cigars too, but I'm going to tell you. Ah, here it comes, number one. This is by far the greatest cigar.

The greatest cigar... I know what he's going to say. by a landslide... I knew too.

that's not Powstanie... is the Neanderthal HN. And I got news for you, it isn't even close. That cigar is remarkable.

It's remarkable. It's incredible. The flavor profile. I smoke that damn cigar every single day.

It's the only cigar that I smoke every day that's not Post-Tanya. Do you think it stands above the 50th Padrón? I do. I do.

I do. 100%. Now, the Padrón 50th has its own special place in my heart, especially when something is sideways and the day sucks. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to set 50 bucks on fire, you know, because screw it.

That sounds really good. You know, like things aren't going well and like, I'm like, you know, you just had a rough day. I'm a torch that thing. No, it's true.

That's actually what I tell a customer when they come in and they ask about, you know, some of the higher end cigars. I'm like, so this one in particular, you smoke if you're having a really, really bad day or if you're having a really, really good day. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's always the former, not the latter.

You know, I'm like, it isn't celebratory. It's more of just a controlling the chaos type of a scenario. You know what I mean? Like, today sucked.

But guess what? I have this. Yeah, screw you. You know what I mean?

I have this. And then he talked about, let's see, Brother Ra also said, Cuban cigars, while many others don't rate them, is it personal thing or availability issue or something else like old world versus new world cigars? Do you want me to take this, or do you want to take it? I mean, I have an opinion on it, I don't think that it's an old-world, new-world type of thing, I think there is a little bit of availability with it as well, but I think one of the reasons why people are so driven towards them is because it's like a forbidden fruit, you know, because you can't get it, you want it more, like you walk into the Ferrari dealership and they have 50 Ferraris that aren't sold, I'd like to buy one of these, oh, no, you can't.

Well, now you only want it that much more, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, listen, here's what I'm going to tell you. My personal experience with Cuban cigars. 90% of them are not good. They're not good.

They're lighter in flavor. They're kind of boring. And then a lot of them are plugged, right? Sure.

So, you know, I listen to some various podcasts about perspective and stuff. And like some people feel that creating lighter cigars are better because then, you know, people will smoke more. will smoke more or whatever and i'm like that ain't a that ain't a good experience for me i don't need i don't need to taste nothing i don't need to taste air when i smoke a cigar i want it to slap man i need it needs to hit if it doesn't hit if it if it doesn't if there isn't a ton of flavor profile then i'm wasting time right so giving me you know i think personally i think When you give me the connoisseur experience of undertones of floral whatever, I don't feel like you're a connoisseur, I feel like you're a sucker and you're trying to pull other people into being a sucker because when I smoke that cigar, I'm like, this is garbage. There's no flavor to this.

Have you smoked anything out of Nicaragua? Because it's head and shoulders above the rest as far as flavor profile. Palmer, do you have an opinion about the Cuban cigar? Yeah, I don't like it.

They said they're too light. It's just boring. Listen, you're not. Look, it's just, I don't know what to say.

You're smoking a cigar to say that you smoked, like... Yeah, you just want to be seen smoking. Yeah, yeah, like I smoked a cigar. Like, okay, but like, but how was it?

And then if we, you smoke something that's, that's New World, and you're like, oh, it's just too strong. I'm like, I don't know. To me, that's like, you're arguing about the race car. It's just too fast.

It's just, right. You know what I mean? It's too much. This is just, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Like, like, okay, dude, then go get in the Prius. I don't know what to tell you. Go sit in there and convince yourself that it's money. The $150 Prius.

$150? Yeah, that's what the Cuban cigars range in price. They're not cheap. Well, you can buy a Prius for $150.

That sounds great. Yeah, you understand the analogy. I like that you got lower and lower in your seat. It's nice.

Cool, me? Yeah. Did I? Yeah, yeah.

It's the chair. This is the divot chair. Is that the divot chair? Yeah, the divot chair.

That is the one that was in the middle. He's going to rotate them though, because that one's going to, normally if he sat there, it would have the ash all over it from the fireworks. So try to switch them. This is the same chair consistently over the past couple of episodes.

Because he sat over there? No, because this one has a cigar burn right here. Or maybe they own it. Somebody did that.

Yeah, holding the cigar down. Yeah. Right. Bastards.

Michael Z says that he agrees with Ben Rowland. He says, "Me too" for the P. Michael Z also says, "Palmer, it was It was the sinkhole in Bowling Green, Kentucky that opened beneath the National Corvette Museum, February 14, 2014. Oh, yeah, he sent me the link to the article.

There you go. The whole eight Corvettes? Yeah. Oh, this is a bad day.

Very bad. Yeah, it was a bad day. Today was a bad day. Maybe you can go get one.

They're in the hole. It's in there. They're in the hole. Just take it out.

Get a shovel. Okay, and then I'm going to go to the YouTube page, I guess, since my... Oh, the show's half over. Yeah.

" Ha ha, funny, I like it. Ba na, ba na, ba, ba, hair all week, ladies and gentlemen. Hey, you leave Captain Oblivio's alone. Make sure you tip your waiter.

Okay, uh, iHeartBDP says, "We only hail the great BDP. " Never hail for you. Never hail. Somebody did hail you.

Okay. Wouldn't I love Triple G, hailed Triple G? " So yeah, I'm with Mikey. They are up to shenanigans.

If Sony messed something up and they got a deal on a machine, the luggage doesn't fit into it. I don't think, I think it's more diabolical than that. You think it's planned? Yeah.

I mean, those bids go out to the lowest bidder. I mean, we can make it for $5. It's government money. They don't take the lowest bidder, do they?

Yes. Always? Yes. How do you know that?

They have to, because I used to bid on stuff. So, I know with local government, when it comes to funds, they would have us get three bids, and they always go with the lowest bid. Always. Like for grant money and stuff like that.

Well, lowest isn't going to be the best. No. It's usually never the best. Oh, well, sometimes highest isn't the best either.

Sometimes you're getting duped. That's true, too. Yep. Okay.

com lounge. Can we just take a sawzall and make the hole bigger on the outside? Yeah, just trim it up. That'll be fine.

Today, the CHPod lounge comments exceeded the YouTube comments, which makes me so happy. You yelled at everybody two days ago. This is the problem, you guys are feeding bad behavior, stop this, because we're just going to wind up getting more. It's not a good idea.

He's going to yell at you for not buying enough stickers. Oh my God. We do have stickers left. You have to buy the stickers.

You have to buy the stickers. They're bought three or four at a time, which I love. I think that that's awesome, but we're still not at even on that yet. But you know, whatever.

It's fine. It's fine. Don't get angry at three or four and watch the average go to six or seven. It's for the people, man.

You know what I mean? These are dope. These are dope. So, okay.

Well, we're at 31 minutes. So, uh, on to Cigar News! On to Cigar News! No, go ahead.

What do you got? Should we replace the opening part of the show with all this news with just comments from the lounge? It's two days in a row, or almost three days in a row. I just think that sometimes, you know what, man?

I just kind of like, we always have content and I like to interact. You know, the interaction. No, I don't mind at all. No, I agree 100%.

If someone asks a question on there, you definitely take the time to answer their question. Absolutely. But now that we've opened that up, hopefully that happens more often. Yeah, more questions, guys.

Yeah. More questions. Yeah. On to Cigar News.

Well, I should've been fast-forwarding. Let's do the cruise update, because this is an unfolding story. So we have another cruise update as the story unfolds. Tom Giggler was the man's name.

G-I-G-L-E-R. Oh, is this the father? Yeah. Oh, this is a sad story.

We're circling back to it. Okay. Well, there's more news, more updates. The guy's dead.

m. m. the following day. Yeah, I mean, that happens.

I guess. Like when mom was visiting, she was following me back to the house. She disappeared. I called her.

She didn't respond. It wasn't but for like five hours later, Mike was asking me a question about, Mom, I'm like, I don't know, I lost her about five hours ago, and he's like, well, I found her. Like, she made her way over to his house and was spending time with the kids. How'd she get to his house from your house?

She was in another car. Somebody else's car? No, we went and picked up a different car that I had so that she could use it. Oh, you let her drive one of your cars?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I give her one of the cars. But you have seven, so. I don't have seven cars. Anyway, another guest on the ship who was drinking with Tom that night said he said, He told them he was having marital problems.

Yeah. But his family denies there was nothing wrong with the marriage, everything was fine. No, there was something definitely wrong with the marriage, like if you choose to throw seven, like, yeah, no, there's something wrong. His sister says he had a psychotic break, I mean, that's quite obvious.

Obviously. Right, that doesn't help any of their sister. Yeah. All right, now on to happier news, the Riley family would like to introduce Gail.

Ooh, a new giraffe. The new giraffe, Brevard Zoo, and the Riley family just welcomed its first baby giraffe in six years at the Brevard County Zoo. It's nearly six feet tall, 119 pounds, it's already stealing hearts. She stood up just 30 minutes after being born.

Welcome Brevard and Aganorsa, Gail, the baby giraffe. I love that you guys do news on giraffes. Congratulations Terrence. Just for Terrence.

Yes, congratulations Terrence. Oh my God, that's amazing. I don't know how I get all the giraffe news either. I'm like on a feet now for giraffe.

Normally I call him and he's like, are you calling me because you're on the podcast? And I'm like, yeah. He's like, oh great, thanks. Yeah, there's another giraffe.

Yeah, there's another, you had another one. Another one, congratulations. You're an uncle again. Oh my God.

We should send him a little bouquet every time. They keep sending me flowers whenever the giraffe hits. Congratulations. Or just, I'm sure on Amazon we can buy a little figurine and send it to him.

Right. Okay. All right, there's a grandma who made the, we'll just get through these real quick. My grandma that made the world record, she's 70 years old, she's the oldest person on Twitch and Fortnite.

That's pretty dope. She has 24,000 Twitch followers. Crushing. That's a lot.

That's a lot, yes. Her grandson showed her the game one day. Not really. She thought it was very interesting and just started playing.

That was in 2017. Now it's 2026, she's 70, and she has 24,000 followers. You think she's monetized at that point? She might be, but it's not a ton of money.

I'm gonna tell you right now, after this news article, she's gonna blow up. She's going to blow up. Oh, yeah. And her story appears in the Guinness World Record Gamers Edition, 2027, and she's already talking about playing towards 80.

That's incredible. Good for her. Yeah. She's probably got all the, what are they called?

The outfits or whatever? I don't know what they're called. Skins? Skins.

That's it. That's it. Skins. Alright, two days ago, an ostrich was reported running through a Japanese neighborhood.

It turned out to be an emu. It went on a two-hour police car chase. They couldn't catch it. Finally, they caught it and realized somebody left the door open to his cage.

Oh, it was a pet emu. No, it was at a mobile zoo. I don't know what a mobile zoo is in Japan, they're not saying. You were there, went to a mobile zoo.

No, I didn't. Yeah, you're a man of a poorly stature. Saw a lot of those temples, though. The only guy who travels more than you is Matt Booth.

Temples everywhere. Right, he's right. You and Matt Booth just traveled together. Yeah, and that guy's worth a ton of money, so you must be worth a ton of money then.

We travel on a budget, I told you that. Yeah, but the things you say don't sound like they're budget. Yeah, yeah. I ate this Cornish hen from a virgin, and uh, mm-hmm.

I need a ball legal in Peru. Yeah, mm-hmm. I told you about the one day that we did all of those activities, and I woke up on the bus on the way back, worried about how much it cost, and when I asked, it was like $100 for the whole day. Yeah, I think that's just for our benefit.

No, it really was $100 for the whole day. Do you think she's just lying to him? I think she lies to him. Yeah, I think she's just lying to him.

That was $10. Can you believe that? Have you checked the money safe? Is it dwindling?

Is there less? Stacks are filled in with pieces of newspaper. IOU, IOU. Bald Eagle, but IOU Bald Eagle.

Yeah, this was the... EMU. Small African child. Yeah, this is the...

One Range Rover. Bus tour throughout Peru. $70,000. It was a bus tour.

The concierge in Peru. It was only five bucks. One bottle of Virgin Tears. Yes, mm-hmm.

So one of her tricks that she does is-- Oh, so you know this trick. Yeah, yeah. So she's up to something. So we're confirming.

Yeah, but this is beneficial, right? Okay, yeah. And I couldn't figure it out. When we travel, like, lodging is not planned.

Ever. Right? And wherever we wind up towards the end of the day is when she starts looking for lodging. So you wind up finding hotels that, like, they just want to fill a room.

The rooms are like normally four, four and a half a night American. So like a nice hotel. She gets them for like a hundred bucks, $110. It's wild.

Wow. Yeah. I don't know if I buy that. I travel the same way and it's not like that.

You travel without booking lodging? Yes. Drives me crazy. Oh yeah, baby.

That's how I roll. Unless it was my family. We ended up in Vegas with a room that had the bathroom wall was glass. Yeah.

We paid $800 for that room. Oh, that doesn't make sense to me. No. Like we stayed at the foot of Machu Picchu on the top of this hotel with a massive balcony overlooking like a waterfall that was running off the mountain and it was like 120 bucks for the night.

Yeah, I don't think that's true. Okay, my friends out there in the world of the internet, you now have your AI image project. Please review the last 30 seconds and I look forward to seeing Greg at the feet of Mount Machu Picchu. And a large silk robe.

Dressed with wads of money, only spending miniscule amounts. Money coming out of his robe, all the pockets. This would be amazing. " It was so cheap, it was so cheap.

Yeah, meanwhile, I stopped by McDonald's, I gotta drop $120. " You know? Okay, all right. All right, on to Cigar News.

HVC 500-year Lancero Legends ships. Oh! Is that what's upstairs in that box? No, but we did just receive some HVC, you are correct.

HVC's plan was to release its first Lancero by Father's Day, which took place in late June. Guess we didn't quite make it. The day for dads came and went without the new cigar, but it is now finally heading to stores. The HVC 500-Year Lancero Only Legends.

It's a 7 1/2 by 38 Lancero that is made entirely of Nicaraguan Tobacco. It's part of the HVC 500 Year line, which was introduced in 2019, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, Cuba, which now has no power. No power. While the HVC 500 Years is a regular production line, this release is limited to just 5,000 cigars.

Small. What? Small. The cigar delivers everything we've always sought: great flavor, balanced construction, and a clear finish.

Finish, bello, said the company in a press release when the cigar was announced in April. We cannot wait to celebrate the masterpiece with all the HVC fans out there. Did you get that, Greg? Did you get that in?

I don't think we ordered that, no. We didn't order that. It's a Lancero, though. It's a very niche market.

I'm sure it's a very good cigar. Did somebody present it to you at all, or no? It was not presented to me, no. Okay.

Who's his rep right now? Does he even have one? When I need stuff, I just send a text message to Rainier, so I don't know. He's on TikTok a lot.

Yeah, he's working hard, man. But he's cooking on TikTok, not cigar-ing. Well, you know, it's a bigger market. Yeah, that's true.

No, Greg dropped his wallet again. There it goes. There it goes. It's a dent in the floor.

Yeah. Hmm. All right, Two Faces, undoubtedly one of the most innovative and original presentations at Interback 2026. You guys want to take a guess what Two Faces is?

-Yeah, it's the smiling and the crying thing. -As far as a cigar, though. As it applies to a cigar. It's a cigar.

It's a cigar. It's the name of a cigar. -I'm gonna say it's a cigar. -Okay, so what do you, what do you mean when you say, 'cause I'll play this game with you, like, what are you trying to, like, I need you to be a little more descriptive.

Like, what are you trying to -Is it a barber pole? Is that what you're trying to hint at? -No. If I tell you, then I might as well just read the script.

-Are you asking me, like, is it, what brand is it? -No, no. Why is it called Two Faces? Why is it called Two Faces?

And their innovation is not correct. Their innovation is incorrect. Yes, it's been done before. So like one's a happy and one's a sad, so one's like a light and one's like a dark.

Is it a cigar with caps on both ends that you cut in half and then smoke two cigars? It's two separate cigars joined together in the middle. So that's what I just said. Yeah, yeah.

Fratello did that a couple years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two Faces by The Circus, a brand called The Circus. A brand manufactured by Daniel Guerrero's El Viejo Contenente is a cigar that is essentially two cigars in one, featuring different wrappers on either side as well as different blends actually.

Two faces are two cigars in one, joined by a single leaf that serves as both the base and the structural guide for the entire cigar. Presented in a Churchill format, half the box features cigars starting with the Claro wrapper, while the other half features the Oscuro wrapper. Consumers can choose the type of smoke they prefer. Additionally, El Viejo Continente showcased its 10th anniversary cigar and entered back in 2026.

A Toro Gordo, made entirely from Nicaraguan tobacco, Daniel Guerrero displayed this alongside the brand's 5th anniversary Salamón, which had previously received a 94-point rating from Cigar Journal. That's a good rating. He finally introduced the Obolo, two thick ring gauge formats, a Robusto and a Toro. The cigar presented the blend Daniel Guerrero had kept in reserve and has now decided to bring it to the market.

Hey, there's nothing about this guy. He's got tobacco from Pueblo Nuevo. Platinum Nova Cigars unveils the Royal Falcon. Ooh.

Big name. Royal Falcon. This is separating at the young lady, I recall. Yeah, yeah.

The main star, well, this is more for the listeners. It's more for the listeners. Yeah, I have no idea what you were talking about. You don't know Nova Cigars?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the lady. We brought them in for a particular customer. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's right. She's been here once. Yeah. The main star at this year's Under De Bag booth, the Platinum Nova Cigars, is the Royal Falcon.

The new release comes in two different sizes, a Robusto and Toro. The Royal Falcon is a full-bodied cigar with Habano Oscuro wrapper, Corojo binder, and Nicaraguan fillers. Nova Cigar Booth is a meeting point for the current distributors as Lenore... I can't say her last name.

Try it, try it, try it. Azvazardel? Azvazardel. That might be very close.

I don't think so. A-B-Z-A-R-A-D-E-L. CEO of Platinum Nova Cigars was always busy thinking with them in another special year for the brand as the Platinum Nova Cigar got the cigar trophy for the best boutique brand from Dominican Republic. I like Cigar Journal.

Their articles are so short. However, they want 75,000 cigars so that they can review our cigars. Yeah. They want a lot of cigars.

Cigar Journal? Cigar Journal. What's the real number? Obviously.

What's the number? It was just short of a box. It was like 20 cigars or something. To review one cigar.

Yeah. And if it didn't visit Vitolas, they need all the Vitolas. Oh, that's wild. " Is it somebody that actually has, like, credentials, or is it, like, the DM's that I get?

I've never heard of that before. But they're on our email list. I'm gonna tell you, you know, some of the guys that ask for boxes, I know who they are, and I'm like, they're good dudes, and they give good reviews, I mean, we can't do that, obviously. Right.

But, like, we don't even have a relationship with Cigar Journal, you know? So, I'm like, meh, what the- Yeah, they have to be on our email list, so they get our press releases. Like, send us, if you could send us 20 cigars to a few, I'm like, holy moly, like, what are we doing? Mostly, it's like six is like the highest number until the jumps to these people.

That's gotta be for multiple people to try it, right? Because, like, six, even six just seems like a lot. Yeah, six is for multiple people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they might have a big show.

If somebody asked my opinion about a cigar, I'd be like, send me the cigar, right? I wouldn't say, I wouldn't even say send me three, but I understand why sometimes half-wheel does that, but six is definitely a lot. - Well, like if somebody wanted us to review a cigar, we'd have to have three. - Well, because it would be for three different individuals.

- Right. - Yeah. - Right. - The ones I, as long as we're talking about this, the ones I don't like is the ones where the show, say like our show, but you lived in Memphis, I lived in Texas, and he lived in New Jersey.

They want us to ship to all three people. - Yeah. - They go, I will send it to one of you. - And then you can ship it.

- And then you can ship it. - You can just go ahead and give them a package. - Yeah, you can do what you want. - There are a lot of podcasts that do that, Where it's different locations.

Right, there are different locations. And there are some relatively big ones that do it, too. But yeah, but there's gotta be some, you gotta meet halfway, you know what I mean? Like, hey, we're gonna give you all this stuff, come on, dude, what are we doing?

I gotta, I gotta send it out, yeah, like, come on. Like, I think Loomis, Aaron Loomis is like, you send it to him and then he handles it. Yeah, he gets it to Canada, allegedly. We don't know how that works.

We don't know how that works, yeah, but I mean, they've got four guys on the show, but you send it to him. Yeah, and I love sending them to Aaron, because that way Seth can rip apart everything that we make. Love the smokeless, trust me, can't stand anything Postana. Super interesting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great cigar. Very interesting. Yeah, the value cigar that we produced.

It's incredible. How's that Sumatra? He's number one on my reviews for the Postana site for retailers, for finding retailers. He's up there the most.

Huh. Yeah. I used that website the other day. I was just playing with it.

It works well. It's good, right? Right? Yeah.

Somebody was flying into Sarasota. They wanted to know where they could find our cigars in Sarasota. There you go. Worked well.

All right, it's time for the Cigar on the Street's favorite game: What's the score? Did you even say it over there? You didn't even say it. What's the score?

Not only did he not say it, but he was delayed with the button pushing, too. I don't know what he's doing over there. He's probably playing Snake on his phone or something. Probably.

He's looking up what the cigar is. I'm dealing with the, well, here's what you, here's what's happening. We are getting to the tail end of the year. This is Q4.

And this is where like the chaos just escalates for me. And it just continues to ramp up. So like I have rec football that I'm coaching, rec basketball that I'm coaching. And then we have school sports that are ramping up.

So I have school basketball for two teams, school football for another team. And then I'm trying to figure out how to morph it all into my schedule and still work every once in a while and just, you know, just kind of check in. So, so I'm getting some texts because you have to commit when you want to do the practice and then you got to make sure that that practice doesn't overlap with someone else's practice and all these other things. Oh, yeah.

How do you do that? Because I mean, you don't control the schedule for all the sports, obviously games. Yeah, the game. So how do you keep the football, and basketball, and baseball, and soccer, and track, or whatever else you got going?

It doesn't all happen at the same time. I deal with the chaos as it comes to me. I've watched him send his eldest to go and coach another team because he's had two games at the same time. Right, I've seen that with the coaching, and I know him and Brittany work well together where they'll split it sometimes, and she goes one place, you go another place.

Yeah, I've got the greatest partner in the world, man, you know, she's got everything, she hates whenever I ask her, like, oh, so where do I gotta be, like, just, what's now, what's now? And then sometimes, like, my rec football isn't as bad because there's only three teams instead of six this season, so, but what I used to do is I'd run practices in tangent, I'd run them at the same time, you know, so we would drill together and scrimmage and stuff like that. Oh, the teams. Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. So that would alleviate some of the stress. The only one that's really kind of a double up is mine, the seventh grade, eighth grade team, because I'm not technically the head coach of the other team. Derek is, so.

Gotcha. Yeah. But yeah, so just October's the toughest, I think. And then it starts to, then you start to get some of a break.

Like, then things start to fall off, so. But yeah, man, it's all about, look, dude, at the end of the day, you got... I got one shot at this, and I'm gonna be present. I mean, Jax is in eighth grade at that point, he's aged out as far as me coaching, and I just show up to the games, right?

Right. And, I mean, he's on this other team right now, they needed his quarterback, and it's funny because I think people were wondering, like, how am I gonna handle it? Like, I handle it just fine, I just sit on the sidelines, I don't, I'm not the coach, I'm not yelling anything, I'm not, I'm not dictating anything. Heading anything?

I don't say anything. That's probably nice. You know, it's okay. Get to enjoy the game.

Man, I like to be a positive influence on the team, not just the kid, one kid. Oh no, I'm sure. You know, because I will tell you this, I did see, I did watch his, I won't say the sport, I did watch a game yesterday, and I saw how these other kids were acting on the team, how they speak to the other players on the team, and I'm like, that is not okay. okay, you know, the kids that have been playing together for a while, they talk down to the other players on the team.

And I'm like, you're missing the whole point of this. The other kids that are on their team. Yeah. Yeah, that's wrong.

Yeah, I'm like, no, this is not, you're never ever going to, like, well, I guess maybe. But I don't know. Like, that's not how I would want to be remembered. That's not team.

It's a tribe within the tribe. Yeah, it's like, you know, I'm like, dude, listen, if my kid loses his shit and levels you, I'm kind of looking at it like, I guess I understand, because on no other planet in any other time are you allowed to speak to an individual that way and not expect some type of consequence, you know what I mean? So, and like, those coaches just kind of let it go. And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not okay.

We don't do that. As soon as I hear it on our field, I'm like, nope, we're not going to go. We're not doing that. We are, that is not, that is not what you're here for.

You're here. If he falls, you pick him up. You don't, you do not rip him apart when he screws something up. Hey, it's all good.

Next play. Keep it going. Keep it going. So, I don't know, whatever.

Anyways, that's my tangent in the middle of things. All right. I think you can predict the score's half-wheel rating before the final score is revealed. We'll give you the clues.

You lock in your guess. Then as the review unfolds, we move closer and closer to the answer. Or do we? The player with the closest guest takes the win.

Light up, lock it in. Let's play what's the score. Today's cigar. Yes.

It's the 10th. 10th. What is this? 10th Jari 5th Avenue.

January 4th, 2014. Reviewers. 10th Jari. What are we doing?

That's what it says. 10th Jari. J-A-H-R-E. J-A-H-R-E.

J-A-R-E? J-A-R-E? I don't know. What are we doing?

J-A-R-E. J-A-R-E. J-A-R-E. J-A-R-E.

Okay, 10th anniversary. They've been around. They made it to 10. At 2014.

Does J-A-R-E mean anniversary? You said the 10th anniversary, J-A-R-E. Did I say anniversary? Yeah.

It's at Fifth Avenue. I heard anniversary, too. Yeah. We'll go back to the taste.

Yeah, yeah. We have it in Phil. Okay, anyway, it's at Cigar, January 4, 2014, Charlie Monado reviewed the 10th, whatever that, Jari, where it is, 5th Avenue, 7x47, Churchill. How many cigars?

One? Oh yeah, that's the next thing, that's the next thing. I'll go first for you, I don't care if I win or lose this one, I'm gonna go 77. 88.

I'm a big shocker. Jari might mean anniversary, because it's to celebrate 10 years of the 5th Avenue distributing Cuban cigars, Cuban cigars in Germany. Production was limited to 5,000 cigars. It's a Cuban wrapper, binder, and filler.

Cigars smoked for the review. Only one. Okay, so it's hard to find. It's Cuban.

It's exclusive. Yeah, very rare. 75. 88.

Did you say 75, Michael? I did. Clue number one. For a cigar nearly 15 years old at the time of the This one performed beautifully.

Monado praised it to draw ash and remarkably even burn. It gave him a one hour, 35 minute smoke without construction becoming an issue. 77. There is such inconsistencies with the time of smoke.

This is a church hill. Yes. And it took an hour and a half. Hour and 35 minutes.

Not three days. No. Okay. Well, you gotta remember, in 2014, that was 12 years ago, his suck velocity was at a higher capacity.

He was much younger, as long as we were. Yeah, he was very healthy. He was crushing at that point. Suck velocity.

Yeah, yeah. Tremendous suck velocity. Beautiful term. At 2026, he's getting a little older.

Less suck velocity. Not so much suck. Life has sucked more out of him than less suck velocity. He's been the media source in the cigar industry for all this time.

He's pumping the brakes a smidge. He calls people, they just say 81, he's getting fed up. Yeah, he's just tired of the abuse. I just need information, anyone.

No, no, this is Icarus here, how may I help you? Icarus. This is Icarus. Oh, the sun is very hot, very hot, hold on.

This is Icarus, and, yes, excuse my wax wings. Oh, they're melting! Okay, well, that was it, right? 77, 88?

Oh, no, no, no, no, he just gave another clue, which was good. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, so I'm going to hold, I'm going back to 77. That was what I said. Yeah, I'm gonna raise to 90.

Oh. Okay. Okay. Clue number two.

The retrohale. This was where the cigar came alive. Floral notes and lemon zest brought a brightness that was missing from much of the flavor of the tongue. As the smoke developed, he also found touches of sweetness and savory flavors.

There were moments that showed him why an aged Cuban like this would be exciting to try. " Yeah, nothing on the tongue, but only on the retro. Okay, so go back to the beginning of my episode conversation, and this is exactly what I'm talking about. 77.

90. Third clue. The flavor did not hold together. Oh.

Mustiness appeared early, faded for a while, then came back in the final third. Harsh and grassy notes added to the problem. Those flavors made the cigar less enjoyable unless he retrohaled, and the profile never quite came together. Mmm.

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Seventy-seven.

Eighty. Final thought: Minato saw real strength here. Outstanding construction, a memorable retrohale, and more flavor than he expected from a cigar of its age. But the musty taste kept pulling him out of the experience.

He said he would smoke another and might even pay around $25 for one, though this particular cigar fell short of what he would call a classic Havana. His feeling was that it may have smoked better several years earlier. The real question here: did it do better than the Postana Sumatra Churchill 12 years later? This is what we need to know.

And I am going to say 81. Wow. Eighty. Eighty.

You went the wrong way. Eighty-nine. Eighty-nine. Eighty-nine.

Eighty-nine. There is no rhyme or reason to any of that. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. I win again.

I win again. Loser. Loser. I win again.

Loser. loser loser are you even in the cigar industry bro look what are you doing what are you doing it's okay are you even in the industry you're thinking i gave up spinning in my chair for this i could have been spinning in my chair right now look at the car parts all right uh gentlemen do you have anything else to add today on this fine monday um it's also mitch smith's birthday it is Yes, it is. When we're recording, it is Mitch Smith's birthday. Yes.

And he's a real one. He's been down for a long time. And, you know, got to meet him at Weaselfest 700 years ago and we've been friends ever since. So happy birthday, Mitch.

Yes. Happy birthday. Happy anniversary to Chris CCW. There you go.

Okay. Well, with that being said, like, and subscribe wherever you're viewing and listening to the show. com for all your chpod swag where you can check out the ghost shirt, the ghost stickers, and the melted hat for auction. com, a cigar hostess podcast.

And I'm going to tell you right now, the October giveaway is going to be incredible. It's going to be something that you can't get almost anywhere else because I may give some out to some other people. But, you guys are gonna be getting first crack at it, so, make sure you check it out, listen to our reviews, and more inside baseball, thank you so much for listening to us today, we hope you provided great edutainment on this lovely Monday. All right guys, thanks a lot, we gotta go, bye!