What Happened AT THE PCA1
Transcript
Welcome to a Scar Hustler
podcast episode 513.
I'm Mike Palmer, your host.
Here we are again on the floor
of the PCA.
The show just ended.
With me today is my Co host Mike
Stefan Kevich.
Well, the show's still going on.
Yeah, we've got something to
sell.
What the are we talking?
About Oh, it's only 330.
I thought it was 4.
O'clock you?
Already paid the rent.
Let's.
Yeah, exactly.
So it's only 330.
The show is still going on.
Let's.
Stop.
Let's stop pelting the mule and
load the wagon.
Yeah, yeah, whatever that means,
Whatever that means.
Let's do that.
But as you can see, with us
today also is Mr. Skip Martin
from Roman craft to back.
The Grand Poobah himself in the
building.
So, Mikey, how do we?
Get got my people bringing me
my.
Oh, excuse.
Me.
Yeah.
Excuse me?
Thank you, Sam.
Thank you.
Very nice, very nice, very nice.
Sam Sam has a little brand out
of the Dominican.
So he's Afina.
I think I think he was selling
like hotcakes over there.
He was, he did a good job.
Well, whenever Rosie wasn't
around, I think it's was selling
pretty good.
Right, like distracted by.
Rosie's great for keeping it
selling.
She's not.
You don't expose the customer
immediately to Rosie.
No, no, it is an acquired thing
you have to get used to.
So Michael, how'd you get some
of the chapter pod swag?
What you want to do?
You ought to have Sam sit down
with us, I think.
They said they won't fit them
an.
Audience over here.
For you.
Sit down with us, Sam.
You.
Can sit.
You know you might not be on
camera, but don't know you're
here.
There you go.
What you want to do is check out
Chapter pod.com where you can
get all of our swag, buy one,
get the 2nd 140% off, spend $100
a more and get free shipping.
I do have some comments.
Butter soft T-shirts.
Butter soft baby you.
Have one on today.
I do.
My pressure is a privilege.
Let's see here.
Couple comments from last show
do.
You.
Hear me.
Are they really?
Yeah.
That would be funny.
Yeah.
We.
We.
Crashed.
We commandeered a booth.
We hermit crabbed a booth here.
Yeah, I feel a little bit like
somebody we know.
You know.
You just hey, this, you're here
in our booth, here in our booth.
My my farm in the in.
Nicaragua this This was empty so
I just took it.
The the the Buzz inator 19 says.
I thought you guys were at a
cigar Expo, not a gun show.
Mikey's rocking those pythons
with a side camera angle, No
homo.
Very nice.
No homo.
T Money says when Booth is on, I
feel like there needs to be an
explicit advisory logo and a
person to hit the swear horn
button.
Texas southpaw says Triple G
chose Michael Joseph as an
alias.
Might as well have chosen
Mcglovin and Craig, Vanderslice
says.
Curious, are your two
microphones named Mike and Mike?
That's a great question.
It's MM and Mike's Mike and
Mike.
Right, that's correct.
If you want to hear your comment
on the show, comment below on
this YouTube and we may read it
off on our next episode.
Or Mike's.
Mike's.
Why is Mike's the only Mike
that's got a little Russian hat
on it?
Well, here's an interesting
fact.
My name.
Legal name.
Two of us.
My legal name is.
Mike.
Oh, that's right.
He's Michael.
Rosales is Michael right and
Michael and Michael right.
It's really 4M.
It's quad Mike.
That's your driver's license.
Does it say Mike on there?
He does.
He doesn't drive, he has people.
But only debt collectors call me
Michael.
Alex, Alex, More, more drink.
OK, so if you want to check out
our Patreon, check out
patreon.com, Cigar House's
podcast for all of our inside
stuff as well.
Now let's get into.
We have a.
We have.
A little bit of news, and then I
have 10 questions about the PCA.
OK All right, so speculation is
swirling around the death and
disappearance of staff at a
secret government laboratory.
Should be right up your alley
there, Skid.
OK, You should know something
about like.
To me, but yeah.
All right, here's what we know.
The President Trump in a speech,
mentioned that the people were
dying.
Holy shit Rosie what the do you
put 3 bottles in here?
We wanted that reaction that was
part of.
This I want to see the bomb go.
Bigger ship.
This you're telling you how many
bottles did you put in here?
This is.
This is 3.
Your doctor that.
This is 3/4 from and a little
bit of cough.
It's a prescription.
Take another big ship, you'll be
fine.
By your doctor, this is going to
be off the rails by the end.
Of this, well, it's only an hour
long.
You thought I wouldn't notice?
We knew you'd notice, right?
All right, on TV, Trump said.
I just left a meeting on that
subject, so pretty serious
stuff, Mr. Trump told reporters
Thursday.
Hopefully coincidence, but some
of them were very important
people and we are going to look
at it.
Social media has recently lit up
with theories about the
disappearance and death, which
occurred over three years and
involved several researchers and
other staff tied to NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
So I've heard about this.
OK, so these are like people who
are, like, experts on like, what
we used to call UFOs.
Yeah.
And like just randomly they've
all started to go missing like
X-Files style.
Really.
That's what the story says, yes.
So what?
Do you think's going on?
What?
Do you think the theory is?
Don't know.
That's it.
So yeah, you don't even have a
theory.
You've got to have something.
Look man, the truth is out
there.
So you watch X-Files.
We know that.
I fucking find.
Out you are a Mulder.
Skelly on the list of things
that affect my life.
This is way down.
This is way down to your fucking
problems.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, All right.
So UFOs.
The real question would be is if
the the the talk host lady's mom
was involved in UFO research or
not.
Who's that?
You guys talked about it for
three weeks.
Oh yeah, the tacos.
Talk show.
Talk show.
It's the drink.
I got really hungry.
It's the drink his tongue is
starting to get.
Believe.
Me.
Oh, perfect.
All right.
All right, well, maybe this is
more interesting.
Open AI ChatGPT has been down
over the weekend.
Yeah, that product sucks.
I use Claude.
Claude's not down.
Think maybe Claude took ChatGPT
down.
Could be.
Attacking the other guys.
If one AI attacks another ad,
yeah, that's a good story.
How do you disrupt it?
Oh, you know.
After us next.
I thought, you know what?
OK, I'm going to ask.
OK, Speaking of AI, Sure, I saw
this today.
I am located 50 meters from the
car wash.
OK.
Should I walk there or drive
there?
Well, you drive there, you have
to drive there 'cause you have.
To wash the.
Car.
Right.
Yeah.
That's exactly right.
But but it doesn't know that
your goal is to wash your car,
right?
You have to say I want to wash
my car.
Should I walk there or drive
there?
Then it would know.
So it all is in how you asked
the question, but I thought it
was an interesting question.
Where did you?
See that?
For AII, saw it in the AI
discord.
In the clawed Facebook thing I
joined that, I saw that you were
remember too.
I'm deep in the game.
Deep in the game, some people
talk on there and I'm like, this
is well beyond my scope.
And some of them are just
idiots.
Yeah.
Like, how do I do this?
It's like, maybe ask, Ask
Claude.
Ask Claude half the questions
here.
You could just ask the AI.
Just ask.
Yeah, and they will solve the
problem.
Step number one, know that you
can ask questions right to the
AI itself.
That's pretty.
Funny, it's a good point.
I've had people here at the show
ask me questions about photos
they've seen that I obviously
made with AI that they.
Did they weren't real?
No, what?
By the way, my 3 monkeys come
into PCA and doing a podcast in
the car, right?
Did not get enough.
I I probably laughed a good 5
minutes at myself.
Yeah, at creating that, yeah.
And the whole irony of I told
you guys, you should use AI for
something other than that,
right?
Right.
And you did it, Yeah.
And then I think I got like 12
likes and three comments.
Yeah, that was it.
And I don't really count likes.
Yeah, they don't qualify.
But I was really underwhelmed by
the response to.
This isn't that fun.
You know what?
It's OK because sometimes we
make stuff and it doesn't track,
you know what I mean?
It's it's part of it, yeah.
So it's OK.
It's just where we go from here.
I think it was the boot with the
knife that didn't make sense.
Well, I'm surrounded by
champions, so I just, I just
know that making those kinds of
things is Mike.
Yes, right.
Yeah, that's definitely his
niece.
I noticed which one was me right
away.
Which monkey?
I still don't know which one's
me.
You're the one in the.
Middle but.
I get the one with all the
jewelry.
I was the one with the white
beard and the white hair.
Got it.
Yeah, so.
You go to my Facebook and and
like this because it's very it's
a very good I'm.
Very.
Like it, right?
Now I.
Think it would be the other one.
So there's one with a bunch of
jewelry.
Yeah, there's the one with the
white beard.
Yeah.
I'd be the other one.
You should be the other one.
You know what his I was driving
his only response to me wasn't
I'm not a monkey or whatever His
only response was I don't wear
accessories Yes, like the monkey
has a bracelet on.
I would never wear that.
Yeah, it'd.
Be reasonable.
He doesn't like.
Your whole your whole thing fell
apart on that one.
Simple.
Fact.
That's the way he is.
No matter what I do, he goes,
that doesn't look like me.
I wouldn't do that.
I just liked it right now, and
then I'm gonna say amazing.
Or amazing.
Yeah, don't just like it.
You have to comment.
Yeah, because the likes mean
nothing.
Yeah, share it.
You should share it.
I'm I'm influence farming.
You're doing a great job, yeah.
Good job like. 18 likes now Now
18 We're up to 18.
All right, Open AI experience a
possible outage Monday, with
thousands of users reporting
issues recording to Down
Detector.
More than 2000 users reported
problems with the platform as of
741 AM, according to Down
Detector, with tracked outages
by collecting status reports
from multiple sources.
OK.
I think this is going to happen
more and more, Yeah, as AI gets
democratized, I think that the
user load is going to overwhelm
it because, I mean, I think what
they're doing is they're getting
you kind of it's like free
testers, you know?
And then once you kind of start
integrating this into how you
how you do things, I think
they're going to start charging
more for it, of course.
And they're going to, instead of
doing it with a subscription,
they're going to do with like a
data use model, right?
And and it's going to end up
being a very expensive thing for
for anyone who really uses.
It yeah, it makes sense.
I can see it going that way.
I mean, you've already seen it
being dumbed down a little bit.
And we're in that bottleneck
mode.
Right.
Where, where people are starting
to try it and, and then the
people who've been using it for
a while are all getting mad
because it's getting clogged up,
right?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we all need our images,
you know what I mean?
That's true.
X was down also over the
weekend.
Again.
Again.
Just can't hang.
Probably the same reason people
are using things more and.
More.
OK.
All right.
What's the next one?
Great.
Well, Disney's finally found out
their prices are too high.
What?
And they've lowered them 22%.
No way.
Yes, stop it.
They're doing a temporary price.
Reduction Who is?
Disney, they finally have
reached the threshold where it's
affecting sales, and now
they've.
In the parks, yes, the theme
parks are going to reduce their
pricing.
Yes, why don't they just let the
lines move faster?
Yeah, I mean.
Those are out the riff raff,
right?
So much someone must have heard
you.
You summoned.
Oh, oh, easier.
Who is he?
That guy.
Yeah.
Oh, is that a friend?
Yeah.
All right, all right, now we're
into cigar news, unless you guys
want to talk more about Disney.
That was it.
There's not a lot going.
On you know, I mean to kind of
copies are briefly covered.
Last time I was at Disney I
think was with him.
Oh yeah, and.
It was.
It was $25,000 for three.
Days, it was great.
When are we going back?
We need to go back.
A hunter told me I want the mic
mic and and Fiorella experience
for.
The grandbaby, the whole mic and
Fiorella experience I'm.
Like you better start saving.
Right, it's the best.
Way to go, by the way, Today is
Eden's third birthday.
Oh, Oh, no kidding.
Happy birthday.
My granddaughter.
My first granddaughter, Eden.
Yeah, not Kaden.
Eden, I said.
Happy birthday.
Oh, you looked at the camera.
I thought you were talking to
Kaden.
No, I wasn't talking to him.
I was talking to the camera.
Just.
I called, I called her to tell
her happy birthday and Hunter
asked her does she, do you want
to talk to, to Skip and she said
no.
Wow.
She was, she was busy.
We got to work on that.
She can't be bothered.
Yeah, well.
You know some people like you.
Well, one day you're going to
want to, you're going to want to
be on my good side.
Yeah, You just.
Realized you made a terrible
mistake.
She's like, fuck that, I'll just
be, I'll just, I'll make my
connection through Tiarella.
Yeah, yeah, I'll wait in a
little bit of time, you know,
OK.
All right.
One of the questions, all right,
all right.
What's the first thing that hits
you, good or bad, about the PCA?
I mean, the good is, you know,
seeing, seeing the people that
you only get to see once a year,
right?
You know, I've, I've been, my
first PCA was 1997 in Nashville,
97, I think 96 maybe.
And it was a lot different then.
And this is, you know, it peaked
maybe 5 or 6 years ago.
And then it, this is kind of
like not as big as it used to
be.
But you know, the people that I
want to see, the friends that I
see, you know, shaking their
hands and you know it.
That's what I like about it.
Yeah, real buyers are here for
sure.
Yeah.
I mean, look, we don't come here
to sell cigars.
I mean, I look at the numbers,
Mike looks the numbers, but and
I told you guys this yesterday
is that this is the chance you
get to look them in the eye and
say listen, this is how our
business together is going to
look over the next year.
You tell me what you need for
your store to be successful and,
and Mike and I are going to help
and enable that.
So, so if you're going to do
$1,000,000 and you know 50,000
of that's going to be wrong with
that means you need to buy
$25,000 worth of inventory this
year.
I know when you need to buy
that, that means you need to
probably put an order in here.
So you don't miss this, you
don't miss this.
You need to be ahead of the
curve on this and, and we're
going to be a partner.
And every time we talk from now
on, by the way, you better
answer the phone.
This is how those conversations
are going to go.
You've told me that this
product, this product, this
product are really important.
So every time we talk, we'll
talk about those three products.
You know, you've told me you
want to do 50,000 this year with
Roma.
That means I'm going to hold you
to 25,000.
Not because that's what I need,
because we're going to sell our
million cigars to somebody.
I could pick, Mike could pick up
the phone today and sell
everything we have in our
warehouse in two days.
But if you're telling me you
that's what you need to make
your number, we're going to be a
partner to you and we're going
to help you do that.
But you have a role in that too.
And, and the best place to have
that conversation is here.
And then they remember why
you're different than everybody
else because they just walked
around here and had thirty
bullshit conversations.
We don't even have cigars in our
booth because the product speaks
for itself.
This discussion is about the
process, the relationship, and,
you know, we get orders, but for
you guys, you're in a different
kind of mode.
You know, Sam's newer, you guys
are a little more established.
You guys are coming off a great
year with a lot of great
reviews.
So it's a great time to sit down
with new people.
I, I saw you guys, I was just
talking to Michael Fry from Las
Vegas.
That's a huge retailer.
We we are not in that account.
We've never gone to him and
asked to be in that account.
But someone in his store said he
needed to come talk to you.
So the fact that you're in that
store, we're not, you know, that
is a big thing.
That is a huge thing.
He's a cool guy and that would
only happen here.
He's a great retailer and that
would only happen here.
So that's the good positive.
The negative is you got to run
into the people that you would
go out of your way to avoid if
you weren't having to be in the
same floor with you.
Just got to pretend to be on the
phone.
No, I don't.
I walk straight at him.
Nice.
You know I may I make them go
the other.
Way yeah, yeah, I had AI had a
couple of those yeah, I had a
couple where I'm walking and.
Not once do I avoid it.
Yeah, we locked eyes and that
guy knew, and he turned around
and kept walking the other way.
I was like.
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
So.
All right.
Question 2.
Does this year feel like the
industry is growing flat or
tightening up?
I think the industry is
tightening up.
I.
Yeah.
I think that it's both.
I think there's two things
there.
I think that it's growing, but I
think that the the budget is
less for all the consumers,
right, personally.
I mean, you're seeing new
brands.
So when you stop seeing new
brands, then that's the dying
industry.
When it's no longer something
that people want to get into,
then that's the dying industry.
And I think the quality of the
people getting in is better than
it has been in years past.
You know, some of these guys are
going to make it.
You know a lot of them aren't.
Right.
Because they're not willing to
do what it really takes.
I mean, you know, they don't
understand what this really is.
Yeah, and they tend to be in it
for the wrong reasons.
It's like, oh, we can sit around
and smoke cigars, we can just
sell them then too while we sit
around and smoke.
I could be a cigar celebrity.
Yeah, how hard?
Can it be you get to show up,
smoke cigars, go to another
store and smoke cigars, right?
I, you know, I, Rosie was
talking last night about another
retailer saying, you know, it
was about women smokers and
whatever.
And it's like, you know, she
starts telling her, no, you
don't understand.
It's, it's, it isn't easy, but
it can be done.
And, and the lady goes, well,
tell me how to do it.
She goes, fuck that.
I'm, you know, it took me 20
years to figure.
I mean, I'll tell you, but you
got to earn it.
I'm just going to hand you the
playbook, right?
Right.
I think that's fair.
All right, who's winning the
booth game this year?
What was the best booth that you
saw?
In general, the boots are less.
They're more like pieces instead
of huge structures like they
used to be, right?
People are getting smart about
the expense of it.
Yeah, the best booth.
I think the Lure Cigar guys did
some really cool stuff for a
new.
Booth, I haven't seen it.
They have like this huge fishing
rod and a big lure that he made
in his garage which is really
cool.
He's a good guy.
He's working hard, yeah.
Blue Cross, Yeah, there's a good
cool.
Booths.
OK, I don't really have a booth.
I mean, I like this Mirfield
booth.
Yeah, the secret tower, Yeah,
with.
The there's the video that keeps
playing is a little bit weird.
Thank you.
There.
There's there's a couple that
are questionable.
Like the most interesting man in
the world.
Yeah, right he is.
Pulling up to his mansion.
Yeah.
I mean, if this was true, it
would be like 3 fat guys sitting
on the back of a tailgate of a
truck, right?
You know, shooting guns or
something.
I don't know these cigar
smokers, but I guess that's
who's buying $100 cigars.
Yeah, yeah.
All right, OK.
Yeah, all right.
But the but the booth is nice.
Yeah.
And I like the, I like those
guys.
Yeah.
What's the most over hyped
release you've seen so far?
Over hyped.
Over hyped.
The Swisher, Lt.
Green.
Yeah, what's that?
It's got a lot of hype.
Does it really?
Yeah.
From Swisher.
Drew State.
I know Drew State.
You know what's funny is the one
I was thinking of was The
Underground.
That's what I'm talking.
About oh, the the Dominican oh
is that?
That's the same one.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
I was like, it looks nice.
I'm like, I'm not.
The probably I think the coolest
one I smoked is the the Lafleur
carbon flower.
That was a pretty dope.
Interesting concept.
It's.
Not very strong.
I thought it would be stronger.
It's more like kind of their
knocks or their.
There chapter 1, but it's
beautiful.
The whole concept of the black
and silver version of the
Lafleur label is the I think
that that'll really sell fast.
All right.
What's the one trend you're
seeing everywhere?
Blends, packaging, pricing.
That's not going to go away.
I mean, you know, they keep
doubling all the tariffs and
fees to maintain Keystone and I
don't know how long you can keep
doing that.
If the tariff in the Nicaragua
on December 10th had gone up to
100%, would they have keystoned
it, right.
So if there's 30 or $0.40 of
tariff and a cigar that's
immediately $0.80 to the
consumer.
You know, we, we don't mark up 1
penny more.
So our margin percentages drop.
For some reason, the retailers
are really hanging on to that
Keystone and I don't know how
long that's a sustainable thing.
Well, the big successful
retailers are the ones that have
that are selling cigars above
Keystone.
Well, I think if you're selling
onesie twosies, you've got to
sell above Keystone.
But, but I don't think you can,
you know, I don't think it's
competitive to, you know, for
your everyday box buyer to have
to pay double the tariff.
Right, right.
OK, well, it's one brand of
cigar nobody's talking about
yet, but they will be after the
show.
That's a good show.
You know, to be honest, man,
nothing really popped my way
that I was like, oh wow, you
know, now, to be fair, we've
been in the.
Boot Yeah, we don't get out a
lot and we walk around.
So.
So for me, it's Cindy's a FINA.
I think.
That's a good answer, my guy.
Sam.
That's a legit answer.
Because I'll tell you what, I
smoked that broad leaf.
Yeah, I had one too.
It was really good.
That broad leaf was really good,
so I'm going to go there, I
would have said Post Sonic,
everybody's already talking
about.
That Sure, OK.
What's something about the PCA
that people outside the industry
don't understand?
I think people think it's just a
buying event and for us at
least, it's more of a
relationship maintenance event
than a buying event.
Yeah, I think that that's fair.
I think that there's way more to
it than just buying, you know,
Sam, do you think there's way
more to this than just buying?
Yeah, definitely.
Like we come out to like Skip
was mentioning earlier, to see
people that we only get to see
at this event, people that are
based out of the.
Dr. and.
Nicaraguan, we get to come and
see them once a year, catching
up with them.
There you go.
Yeah, I totally agree.
It's nice to put some face in
with the voices you've been
talking to on the phone for the
last 8-9 months.
Not only that, but also what's
working for retailers.
They can, you know, having that
conversation, Hey, this is this
is a technique that's kind of
tracking and you know, I think
there are a lot of similar
designs, but like there's a way
to refine things to make them
better.
Also, I mean, the way that's a
lot of guys for me, like as far
as how they will eliminate
products and move on from it.
There's a technique to doing it
without totally bastardizing the
brand, right?
So seeing that and learning that
from other retailers and how
they do that is pretty, pretty
intelligent.
All right.
Finally, when we look back at
PCA 2026 a year from now, what's
going to be the headline story?
What's everybody going to be
talking about?
That happened last year?
I don't know.
I mean, there's always a
discussion around is Vegas
better than, you know, New
Orleans?
Is New Orleans better than, you
know, Saint Louis or wherever
that we go next?
You know, at the end of the day,
you have to figure out how to
get value to the attendees,
right?
If, if the attendees do not come
to spend money or set to or
prepare to have good substantive
account conversations, then it's
not worth it for us to spend the
money to keep coming here.
So I think that's the story
every year.
It isn't about attendance to me,
it's about quality.
It's about, you know, do the
retailers feel like they're
getting enough to justify
leaving their stores for four
days?
And then are we getting enough
to justify spending the money to
be here for four days?
What do you think of Saint
Louis, of the idea of having it
there?
It doesn't really matter where
it is to me.
You know, the big thing for me
is always are there places
outside of the show like where
you can gather with where people
are going to be at Vegas?
It's always downstairs at the,
at the, at the bar, right here.
It was at Cuban creations or
right, or even some of the
events here were really dope,
right?
Like the gathering events in
Saint Louis.
If they're making an exception
for us to smoke in the, in the,
in the convention hall, does
that mean that we're not going
to be able to smoke anywhere
else in town?
Right.
It's.
Going to be challenging.
Yeah.
And and that is almost half of
the value of being here, right?
Right.
Good point.
Good.
Point All right, now it's time
for what's the score do?
You know how to play this game
do.
Not 88.
OK, so so here's what's going to
happen.
We're going to Sam's off camera,
but we're going to we're going
to bring Sam into this.
Slightly.
I don't need to be on the
camera.
OK, You guys can.
You just pick up the pole and
just turn it a little bit.
We'll pull.
We'll take Palmer off.
There he is.
So here's what we're going.
To do we're going to play.
What's the score?
This is what I do to all my
friends.
I make them funny pictures.
You don't have 1 yet.
I I don't have like so.
I'm not a friend.
You are a friend, but there's
like 4 that have like desolate
pictures of them.
You know we don't talk enough.
Hey, Greg, we can fix that.
We can tell her to bring me a
Coke 0.
So Coke 0 from Tyler so.
We're going to do, we're going
to do.
So he's going to say the brand
and it's it's 1/2 wheel review.
And then we're all going to
guess the score.
I'll go first because that's the
toughest spot and then we'll
send the skip and then you can
go, well, I'll pick a number.
He's going to, we're going to
pick a number three times or
four times.
And the last one will be our
final one determining if we can
guess the proper rating of the
cigar.
OK, OK.
All right, First Cigar from
April 30th, 2021.
Brooks Whittington is the
reviewer.
It is the protocol.
Elliot Ness natural cigar. 86
OH.
I'm supposed to go 1st 87. 85.
OK.
All right, Cigar reviewed is the
protocol.
Elliot Ness is from Nicaragua,
is made at the San Letano
factories.
The rapper is Nicaraguan Habano
Binders.
Nicaraguan Habano Filler is
Nicaraguan Friolo 6 by 52 Toro
1195.
They smoked 3 cigars.
I'm going to go 88. 86 I'm.
Going to say yeah I can't pick
the same as you.
Or you can.
OK, Yeah, 88.
Absolutely you can.
All right.
Blue #1 The cigar delivers a
really attractive presentation
with that milk chocolate brown
wrapper, noticeable oil and soft
box press.
Definitely eye-catching and well
put together in hand.
I'm going to stay 88. 87. 88.
OK.
Clue #2 Once it settles, the oak
and leather combination is
steady and reliable throughout
all thirds, backed by supporting
notes like earth, dark chocolate
and coffee that keep it
grounded.
I'm going to pivot up 89. 87
I'm.
Sticking with 88.
Next clue?
The draw is consistently way too
loose across samples and the
flavor profile lacks evolution,
staying repetitive without much
strength or complexity to
elevate the experience. 86. 86.
85.
All right, final thought.
The problems with the protocol
Elliot nest natural begin even
before I lit the cigar.
And unfortunately, the issues
never really improved all that
much.
When the profile is not bitter,
it is extremely linear, with
flavors of oak and leather
easily overwhelming any
complexity and nuance that may
exist, and a sweetness that is
so generic that it's more
frustrating than enjoyable.
In addition to all three samples
featured my problematic
construction with extremely
loose draws and a burn line that
will not that will not needing
many corrections.
It was never anywhere close to
razor sharp.
Protocol has had some very
enjoyable blends in the past,
but this release is far from the
top of the list. 82. 85. 83. 74
What champion?
That's probably the.
First time I've ever seen.
It the 70s, yeah, they're out.
There, they're out.
There exist.
There's some 70s, there's a 47.
OK.
All right.
Anything else to add?
Anything else you want to say?
No, man, it was good spending
the week with you guys.
We didn't really spend the week
together.
This is a weird PCA for us.
Well, Jamie didn't invite you to
dinner every night, so.
There was that.
Let's go to let's go get some
fried chicken.
It's fried chicken night at the
Roosevelt.
OK, we can do that.
We got to see what this
breakdown looks like though.
Well.
They're not going to have our
crates here in time anyway.
Yeah, I'll ask.
I got to ask my supervisor what
he wants to do, so we'll figure
that out.
What about you, Mr. Sam?
But what about me?
Anything else to add?
Not much go out and.
Smoke some Roma crab, some
Palestinian, and some sunny
Safina.
This.
Week that sounds that sounds
like a good idea for everybody.
OK, well, hey, like and
subscribe wherever you're
viewing or or listening to the
show and thank you so much guys
for coming on.
I like how you slid in.
That's amazing.
The pressure is a privilege.
The pressure is 100% of
privilege.
That's why we came.
We slid in his try and give Skip
some pressure.
Yeah, he didn't cave.
He doesn't budget.
Putting more coke and.
Yeah, he softened it.
He softened it.
All right, All right.
Thanks, everybody.
See you on the road tomorrow.
Are we doing?
Show Notes
In Todays Show, Disney Finally Takes Prices down….American Scientists mIssing with no Trace? Open AI down or did Claude Take it out? Then 8 questions with Skip Martin on the PCA 2026!