Wild Headlines To The Humidor, Independence and Fuente
Episode Summary
Mike "BDP" Palmer, Mike Szczepankewicz and engineer Phil McGuffey open this episode by addressing "the elephant in the room" — the wave of angry Facebook and YouTube comments the show received after criticizing Arturo Fuente's 9/11 commemorative Opus X box. The hosts clarify what they actually said: they never attacked Carlito Fuente personally or questioned his charitable work, but they do think the $535 box donating only $11 to Tunnel to Towers was a marketing misstep that could be easily misread by non-cigar-smokers. Palmer argues the funnier failure belongs to the industry insiders who claimed to have been in the Dominican Republic with Carlito while the box was being developed yet never advised him on how the numbers would look, and he floats an alternative: keep $9.11 and donate the rest. He also shares his own family's Holocaust history as an analogy for why friends should push back on a sensitive project, and pokes fun at "boycott Cigar Hustler" commenters who were never customers in the first place, plus the critic who screenshotted the shop's 26-year-old Opus X from an estate sale.
The wild-headlines block covers Italy releasing roughly 130,000 baby common octopuses into the Adriatic (project "Octoblu," with the University of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna regional government) to fight an invasive blue crab population blamed for about €170 million in fishing damage; a 1,602-case, 40,000-pound theft of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old Milwaukee from a Montclair, California distribution center; and a U.S. travel advisory for Israel and the Gaza Strip. A long tangent debates who deserves flags at half-staff after Dolly Parton's death, running through Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Elon Musk and Howard Stern.
Cigar news includes Bocock Brothers Premium Cigars' second Texas Tech release, the Oil Field Reserve — a 6x52 toro with a Honduran maduro wrapper, Honduran binder and Honduras/Nicaragua/Paraguay filler, made in Danlí, Honduras, following the medium-bodied Texas Tech Bandit — and the Ninth Circuit's rejection of the cigar industry's appeal (led by attorney Michael Edney on behalf of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars) in the California Unflavored Tobacco List case, which sends the industry back to square one. Palmer also announces that Powstanie SBC 26 (Surrounded by Champions) has begun shipping: a 5.5x46 corona gorda barber pole using Brazilian, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Mexican and Nicaraguan tobacco, with Piloto Mejorado ligero filler, made at Fábrica de Tabacos NicaSueño and driven by Greg Szczepankewicz as a passion project.
The show closes with "What's the Score," guessing half-wheel review ratings: the Zino Honduras Robusto (creamy oak, toasted bread, almonds, cocoa, sub-$10, inconsistent construction) landed at 89, while a 2011 Charlie Minato review of the Arturo Fuente Don Arturo Gran AniversarioXtraordinario Natural — gorgeous band, cherry and cedar opening, then harsh and muddled with multiple relights — scored a brutal 64.
In This Episode
- 01Comments and the CHPod LoungeThe hosts read listener comments on Keanu's hosting debut, rabies and Rocky Mountain spotted fever follow-ups, and Palmer's recovery.
- 02The Fuente 9/11 Opus X Box BacklashPalmer and Mikey respond to boycott threats and all-caps hate mail over their criticism of donating $11 from a $535 commemorative box to Tunnel to Towers.
- 03Where Carlito's Friends Failed HimThe hosts argue the insiders who were present during the box's creation should have advised against the optics instead of attacking critics online.
- 04Wild Headlines: Octopuses, Stolen PBR and Travel AdvisoriesItaly's Octoblu project dumps 130,000 baby octopuses to fight invasive blue crabs, thieves make off with 40,000 pounds of Pabst, and the U.S. warns travelers about Israel.
- 05Dolly Parton and the Half-Staff DebateA running argument about whether flags should fly at half-mast for entertainers, from Dolly and Robin Williams to Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone.
- 06Bocock Brothers Texas Tech Oil Field ReserveA second Red Raider cigar from Bocock Brothers: a full-strength 6x52 Honduran maduro toro launching for the 2026 college football season.
- 07Ninth Circuit Denies UTL AppealThe appeals court upholds the lower court in California's Unflavored Tobacco List case, and the hosts riff on over-regulated states.
- 08Powstanie SBC 26 ShipsDetails on the multi-country blend, Dominican Piloto ligero filler and Greg Szczepankewicz's role in the Surrounded by Champions passion project.
- 09What's the ScoreGuessing half-wheel scores for the Zino Honduras Robusto (89) and a 2011 review of the Arturo Fuente Don Arturo Gran Aniversario (64).
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
Hello, all you nice people out there in TV land here we go I don't know if I'd say nice I can't read your name tag on your poll three Mikey likes a three two and away we go welcome to a cigar hustler podcast premium cigars unfiltered opinions and conversations I am Mike BDP Palmer your host I'm your host, joined by my co-host, Mike Szczefankewicz, and Triple G, Triple G's not here today. And then over in engineering, in the room way in the back studio, we have Mr. Phil McGuffey. Hello.
And together we are currently the three most hated men in the cigar industry. Oh, the three most hated men in the cigar industry. From cigars, sports, and business to pop culture, and the wildest headlines, if it's worth discussing, we're gonna talk about it today. Yes.
Oh, yeah. No scripts except the intro, 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, dun, dun, dun, dun.
Dun, dun, dun, dun. Yeah. On today's show, Italy is being invaded. Oh.
Beer shortage is coming. Okay. S. government has issued a level three travel advisory.
Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Goes to five. And then in cigars, Bocock releases a cigar, the UTL is fine.
Again? Another one? Yes, this is another one. There's a lot of college teams.
They just did the LSU? Oh, yeah. They have another, they have another cigar. They did the stadium, this is a cigar.
Okay. The UTL is fine, and we have a shipping notification before we get into a two for Tuesday, what's the score? Ooh. And we have something else to talk about.
Oh, okay. The inevitable? That was so smooth, by the way. Well, you know, I set it up, but not sure if we were covering it or if we weren't doing it.
How are we not covering it? Well, I don't know. The elephant in the room? Yeah, the elephant in the room.
It's gonna be a lot of fun. But first, Mikey, catch us up on the CHPod swag and the comments. Oh, yeah, let's talk about all the comments. All the comments.
First of all, like and subscribe wherever you're viewing or listening to the show. com for all your CHPod swag. com, a Cigar Hustlers podcast where we talk inside baseball. But I feel like this episode's gonna be a little Patreon-esque, to be honest, so it should be pretty entertaining.
Going to the CHPod Lounge, gonna get some comments. I didn't watch this show, the show that aired today, but I did watch the one prior, I like the fact that you're upset about me not doing something with audio. Well, it was your thing and you didn't do it. I couldn't listen to the last four because they just didn't sound.
They don't sound good at all. Well, it's okay, because they have more listeners than all your posts, so... No, mine are catching up. Mine are catching up.
All right. Everybody stops to look at the car accident, Michael. Everybody, yeah, is that what it is? Yeah.
That's fine, look all you want. I know, we can get more listeners there, Mama. So, wait, yeah? Yeah.
How? Well, we'll talk about it later. Okay. @4KiwiGman, my guy says, So Keanu, you were doing a great job.
Yes. And I don't know why Palmer swapped with you. Because I had to do what's the score. Hmm.
Okay. Because I already knew the answers. Okay, okay, calm down. @CW6383 says, "Wow, Keanu has taken over ACHP.
" Alright, settle down. Settle down. He did a little bit at the end, he did okay. He did talk a little fast when he was the host.
Yeah. Yeah, so he can't be on all of them. @cw6383 says, "Yes, you are correct. Triple G, hydrophobia is a side effect of rabies.
" Okay. I guess we're talking about fevers or something? From rabies, a doctor woke up with a bat in her mouth and the week before that, a little boy did and it bit him in his mouth and he died from rabies. At Jared Harper, he says, "Night job, gents.
Entertaining episode as always. " And get well soon, Palmer. Sounded like it was getting on top of you by the end there. Yeah, I'm good.
I'm good now. You're fine? Yeah, 98%. Okay.
com lounge and we will comment what you say. Now, there are some other comments. Before I get into these comments, let me ask you something. Fred Rui is my friend.
Fred Rui is your friend. Fred Rui doesn't know who you are. If Fred Rui has a stance where he disagrees and has his own position on something, should I hate him? No, why would we hate him?
Right? No. All right, so it's okay to argue with your friends. Sure.
Yeah. You and I argue all the time. Yeah, I was about to say that. You don't have a problem with disagreeing with somebody, it's not, we're not, just want to make, I'm just looking for clarification.
I was looking for clarification before we go down this rabbit hole. No, no, not at all. I mean, friends have disagreements all the time. Okay.
Okay, good. That's good. Is Fred here? Hello, Fred?
Fred, come in. Fred, introducing Fred Rui from Segura. Oh, wow, your content is on fire. You got over 500 reactions on your post last week.
Oh. So weird. I wonder what post that was. Yeah, what were they talking about?
What is that? We're at 1,100,000 views or something, too. We very rarely do comments outside of the YouTube realm. However, there's a couple of good comments here on our Facebook page.
So I wanted to comment on some of those. Poor Juan Cancel, he's just losing it. One guy says, love this guy, he's my hero, he says, if they have a Fuente account, I'd pull it for the slanderers remarks. Whoa.
Wow. Slanders. Where was the slander? Uh, yeah.
Um, there's more. It says most relevant. I'm sorry, guys, I'm not used to doing this. That's okay.
That's alright. That's alright. On Facebook. A little more energy.
A little. Um, and then one guy says, It's pathetic, there's a debate on if it's okay, it's not okay, because marketing is fine, don't profit off tragedy, there's a basic rule, so this is information that, look, we were talking about the 9/11 cigar from Fuente. The package. Yeah, and we pretty much stated that we don't think it was a good idea.
Okay. And the hate that we've been receiving. Yes. I can't find all of it right away.
I can't even find it. There's so much, you can't even find the beginning. But we're going to talk about this, because I think this is pretty funny for me. Sure.
Would you like me to kind of start? Yeah, lead the way. Decide where we're going with this. Okay.
So, for one, first of all, let me say this. If you're going to make a comment of boycott Cigar Hustler, you probably have to have ordered from Cigar Hustler prior to in order to cease purchasing. You know what I mean? Like that's kind of how the boycott works.
I think that's how the- I have been a patron of this place, I shall no longer buy things from them. Let's run around with the signs and the pitchforks. and yes right yes so one so one so when i saw that i did say oh let's grab our pitchforks right because i love keyboard warriors i think you guys are all really cute um so that man who said that obviously has not ever bought anything i know i don't know who he is i got you i don't know who he is that you know miss you uh yeah i'm really yeah yeah i don't know what we're gonna do without What should we do now? Not buying still from us ever again, but keep up but keep up the views, yeah, so yeah, so I mean, I'm a little so self-serving, I'm a little confused to start, like, we didn't say that Carlito Fuente was a bad person, no, no, we just said the idea was not we didn't feel the idea was was a good idea.
We didn't say that he wasn't raising money for 9/11. Right. Didn't say anything. We didn't say anything about his previous charities or that he's not a nice man.
I don't even know the guy. No, I've never met him. No, I mean, you guys are social media friends a little bit. Yeah, I'll bet.
Right. I believe most of the comments said what we had talked about, right, is about the profiting But it's the thing of 9/11 stuff. Yeah. Right?
Okay. Well, there was a profit. Sure. And you can disagree with that.
You can say, "Hey, you know what? " I don't think that there's anything wrong with having that opinion. Right. Like, I'm not violently going after the Fuente family.
Right. Right. You know what I mean? Like, I think it was a misstep, 100%.
Right. I'm entitled to my opinion, last time I checked. " And that was kind of confusing to me. How did you take that?
Yeah, I mean, there was no mention that the auction, where that money was going, wasn't like, we raised $40,000, we're donating it all to the Tunnel of Love or whatever. But even if it was, Tunnel for Towers. Tunnel for Towers, yeah. But even if it was, I mean, that's great.
Sure, yeah, that's great. We never, you know, we didn't say anything derogatory other than we thought it was not a good idea. Yeah, you know, for, well, I mean, I don't care about any of the charities. I think that's fantastic.
Sure. Yeah. That $40,000 isn't his money though, last time I checked. I don't know.
I don't know what... Somebody else bought that. Somebody else dropped 20. Right, and an auction, until we know, whatever the auction was.
So whoever did that, I mean, that's good. I mean, did that money go to the auction house or percentage go to the... No, I mean, I don't care. Like, that was money raised for a good cause.
Right. Great. That wasn't his money though. No, income.
No. All right, so I'm just making sure. Right. Right.
Okay. The people gave. All right. So, here's where I think people really kind of fail.
You failed your boy. And that's the funny part to me. It says $11 for a box of cigars. Now, I understand that there's symbolism, 11, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Whatever the case may be, okay, sure, yeah.
So let's say this, I'm in New York, whatever, or I'm wherever, and I wanna smoke a cigar, right? - Right. - And I'm not really a cigar guy, right? I walk into a store, and someone says, hey man, you know, If you really want something special, you should have this 9/11 cigar.
And I'm kind of, I'm like, oh, okay, 9/11, well, tell me about it. Well, it's an Opus X, great. And I just want you to know, $11 of this box is going to go to Tunnel for Towers. You good there?
You got that? Can you take that? Well, there was a number from New York, but yeah, I'll get it later. Okay.
So, I don't know anything about cigars. I don't know who Carlito Fuente is. I don't know what the Fuente family is. I've heard of Opus X, because it's probably one of the biggest names in the industry.
Sure. And you're gonna tell me that this $535 box, $11, go to this charity? How much is a cigar? It's $535 divided by 20.
You gotta buy the whole box. Oh, is that? No, you can buy it individually. Well, I imagine if somebody wants to piece it out, but it is sold as a complete thing.
Okay. Right, well I'm just saying there's probably not an $11 cigar in New York. So, okay, yeah, if that's what you're trying to hint towards. Right.
Okay, well you're just going the wrong way. Okay, so my point is, like, guy doesn't have a lot of experience in the industry, and he hears about this. You don't think that there's a possibility that you're gonna turn that person off? Probably.
Yeah, I mean it's a $600 box, $500 and some odd dollars. Right, $535 to be exact. I mean if it was one cigar and they're giving $11, okay, but they're not, you got to buy the entire box. Mm-hmm.
So if they piece it out, they're not giving $11 until the whole thing's sold. That's pretty fucking wild to me, right? Yeah. So, if we're arguing, if the conversation is, hey, 3% of the population is cigar consumers.
Right. And of that 3%, maybe 1% of them, maybe even less, would be a premium smoker and the potential to grow that pot is really what's necessary for this industry to be protected and thrive. This could be totally misinterpreted from somebody, right? Yeah.
Totally taken the wrong way. Could be. Because they don't know anything about him. Kind of, yeah.
So, here's the part that I thought was really fucking hilarious to me. How many people said, I was with Carlito in the Dominican, I did this in the Dominican with Carlito, I did da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, he's a good person, blah-blah-blah-blah. No one ever said that he was a bad person. No, we never attacked him, none at all.
But all of you guys were with him, and he showed this to you, and none of you suggested to him that it might look bad. Oh, I'd say where you're going. Like none of you. Not a single one.
You all claim that you're good friends with him, but no one said, "Hey, you know what? " Beautiful idea. This is a delicate subject, and I understand that it's near and dear to you. but like you know there's a couple things that we should you really should consider doing right if you're gonna do this right like none of you said that to him but you were all quick to get on your fucking keyboards when we said something i am friends with carly and he said i mean like quite a crowd they're making that box like Mike, yeah, did you all show up at the same time?
They must have, that's what was said. You know? You must have been invited. I was in the, here's how you lose me and how you lose credibility in the entire conversation.
If you start with, I was with Carlito when, I'm like, oh shit, so you're part of the problem. Whoa. Hey man, listen, I lost, this is the story that I've been told, okay, and I don't know, maybe it's a lie. Maybe it's a lie.
I don't know. But, I believe it. My grandmother was a kid, and her family, her brother, and her mom and dad were taken away by the Nazis, right? Right.
And so, never to be seen again. This is the story I was told, right? She went, and she was on a farm. She was...
A working farm. Yeah, she worked on a farm as a slave until she was eventually freed, right? There's a lot more detail than that, right? Oh, sure.
Sure. Okay? She finds my grandfather who was in the war, they make their way over from Great Britain, have my dad, Ellis Island, the whole shebang. If I came to you and said, hey, listen, I want to make a Holocaust box cigar, because this is something that's important to me, because it, I mean, it's part of my lineage.
- Sure. - And then I said, to symbolize a number, I want $20 for every box to go to it, and it's a $600 box. If you don't fucking stop me, maybe we should walk this back a little bit, you could say, hey, I understand your vision, I don't think that this is delivering it the way, it's not gonna hit on all the way, it's not gonna cover everything. Right, I mean, you could do the reverse, right?
You could say, I'll keep $20 in profit from the box. Whatever. Yeah, yeah. No, I would, I mean, I'd flat out say, hey, you know what, dude, if you're gonna do this, you better go all the way.
Right, yeah. You better go all the way. Right. Because this is going to be a delicate subject.
This is a touchy, you know, people are going to be very sensitive about it. I understand that you're passionate about it. But I got news for you guys. If Carlito's got friends like you, who the fuck needs enemies?
Tell me I'm wrong. No. That'd be a hard sell. Yeah.
You guys didn't... You have this Holocaust box here. Would you like to put it out in front? The guy put all this detail into this box.
He did all of these great things, he continues to do all these great things, and look, hey, I don't know about this one dude, this could go, you could split the board here, right, you know, and instead of you guys trying to help the guy, you decide to tag us, okay, perfect, listen, it's 829 Deltona Boulevard, I'm here Monday through Friday if you want to stop in, don't text me, don't message me, all cap locks on your Facebook page, I mean, ridiculous. There was a lot of cat locks. Yeah. Yeah, that's blank.
I'd say no, they're serious. Yeah. Right. This means business.
Lower case is not serious. Like, dude. I mean, look, obviously a company as big as Fuente, right, had to have had a conversation about this amount. I don't know.
About the project in general. I don't know. There had to be a meeting. I don't know.
There's got to be somebody involved in this, the art department, the marketing department, somebody. Yeah, I don't think Fuente was like, $11. No, but you've got to understand, the reason why he picked that number is because of the symbolism and 11 grand or whatever. I get the symbolism, but like I said, when you said the number 20, that was towards your lineage.
11 of profit, and the rest goes to charity. The rest goes to charity. I mean, it could have gone another way. Yeah.
You're right. Right. That would have been great. I think of great things.
I'm sorry. I never thought of it like that. That's pretty good. Yeah.
11 comes to us, everything else goes to you guys. Right. Right. " Like, "Hold on.
Wait a second. Pump the brakes here for one second. Like, whatever I sell it for is whatever I sell it for, right? If you've got a problem with that, don't buy it.
Right, right. You know? Mm-hmm. Now, I don't, listen, if we get one of these, I don't know, I don't know what account fucking qualifies or what, I don't know where we are.
Yeah, we don't know how they decide who we get what. And to be honest, I don't care, whatever. Right. Like, you know, there's always that mysterious communication thing with Fuente.
I don't, I don't, I don't have time for it. So like, cool, if I get it, great, I'll tell you, believe me, what I'll do, it'll be fun. It'll be a lot of fun. Stay tuned.
But I don't even know if I'm qualified or not, and frankly-- Oh, probably not anymore. I don't really care. It's, it's okay. Either that or we're getting all of them one way or the other.
Send them all to them. Send them all to those assholes. And let's see how dumb they look when they're done. I mean, whatever.
But, um, I, you know, I did see one guy said, you're a puppet. Like, he went-- Oh, I didn't see the puppet. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, like, he dug deep.
He went all the way in, like, he followed my profile when I was doing the post on our, my own page, and he found the one, um, like a clip with Reinhard. Right? Right. " As if, like, I'm in cahoots with Mirafel or some shit like that.
Oh, with Mirafel. Oh, the evil empire. And the Cameroon or whatever. Like, no, no, nope.
When they were on, they were all still friends. I don't think that, I don't think Jeremiah could pick me up, pick out who I am in a lineup. Oh, I bet. You know, I don't know.
I mean, you look a little different than most of the cigar guys. Yeah, the beer? Is it the beer? It's the beer.
You think so? Yeah, mine's, you know, my beer, too. Well, you wear a unicorn. Well, I didn't want to put that out there.
We're having this, by the way. Oh, it's delicious. Oh, yes. SBC26.
By the way, today is the last day for the unicorn. Mm-hmm. Oh. Tomorrow you get a new face.
We gotta ship the unicorn. Nice. Oh, yeah, it's already sold. So, you know, I just didn't understand.
I did like the one guy that posted that somebody already had this box, and then they already posted on Bizarre the Leaf for $4,200. No way. Yeah. Did you see that?
Uh-oh. Yeah. Read through the comments. You'll see it.
He put the screenshot of it. Does somebody buy it? I don't know. $4,200.
$4,200. Are you sure? No, no, no. You're mixing that up.
The guy did a screenshot on our site. Is that what it was? And he's posting the 26-year-old opus that we have. That's what that was.
Look at who these guys are. That's what he's trying to defame us or whatever. I'm like, okay, yeah. Thanks for the blood.
It's 4,200. Sorry for the blood. If you're available. Yeah, if you like the diet.
If you're interested. We have a couple old things. Yeah. Anything, yeah.
And we got from an estate sale. We're terrible, horrible people. - Profiting on some man's death. - But could you...
Oh man, dude, I don't, I don't, it's, I thought that that was so comical to me, to see how like, everybody jumped on a 30 second clip. - Yeah. - Instantly defended this guy, when in all reality, a lot of them should have looked back and said... - Yeah, a lot of the things they said, we covered.
- Right, like, wait a second, we talked about that. - We talked about that. - We talked about that too. We didn't even mention.
Yeah, we did. Yeah. Mm. Idiots.
Right. So. Yeah. Okay.
Do we feel like this is good now? Is it addressed? Can we-- It's been addressed. It's probably not over.
I think we will. Something else. We'll do something else soon. Don't worry.
Yeah, of course. But we can move on from this? Oh, we can. It's just a matter of everybody else.
Okay. So, this is the closing argument here. I hope all of it goes well. I hope that they make tons of money.
Yeah. And, you know, and you guys have triggered Juan Cancel. I mean, he is, like, I don't know if I would want unstable Juan to be agitated with me. You know what I mean?
Like, you guys have made him unstable right now. He's very upset. Yeah, I was like, man, I feel for that guy right now. He's not happy.
And just to be clear at the end of all this. Yes, go ahead. We didn't say that we didn't like Montez. We never say that.
No. Just want to be clear about that because that's what most of the comments sounded like. Oh, yeah, of course. And don't worry.
No one will hear the fact that we didn't say anything bad. They won't. This will end up somewhere on the internet room floor. That's why I love this shit, man.
It's so funny. And what's even funnier, too, is you look at it and you get a little... " I didn't get upset at all. " Like, that dude went all the way into my Facebook profile and he rifled through all my videos.
" I'm probably still renting space in your head, man. All right, you ready? Yeah, get on with the show. I don't know what story to cut.
All right, 130,000 baby octopuses have been released off the coast of Italy because there's a blue crab invasion. This is happening in Italy, scientists working. Hey, stop, you got to restart your microphone. Where is it?
That's probably a problem. We don't restart these. No, I wouldn't restart it. You sound better now.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Put it there. Put it there?
Right here? Right down there? No, I would put it up. Like, see where mine is?
Oh. Well, that's where the remote is. All right, that's fine right there, I think. All right.
All right. Start this section over? No, no, just keep it going. Oh.
We're releasing octopi. Scientists working with the University of Bologna. Oh, Bologna. And the Emilio Romagna Regional Government have released roughly 130,000 newly hatched common octopuses into the Adriatic Sea.
What could go wrong? Right, exactly. What could go wrong? There's 130,000 of them.
Just dump all those in there. The enemy is the blue crab. , but they're invasive in the Mediterranean and have exploded numbers along Italy's coast. Really?
They destroy the shellfish industry. The crabs eat clams, mussels, and other marine life and damage fishing gear. They're very shellfish. They're very shellfish.
Yes. Ta-da-da-da-da. Here are we. 50.
With clam production reportedly taking a massive hit, the project has an awesome name, Octoblu. Mmm. Well, it's like a Bond movie. exactly yeah uh they began with laboratory work in 2024 before researchers started releasing young octopuses into the wild only young ones well they're starting to babies yeah they're not introducing another invasive species that's important the common octopus already lives there there's just not enough of them so an adult octopus can potentially eat four blue crabs a day Ooh.
Okay. Is that a message from someone how much they hated you? No, you know what's funny is like, you want to know how many people actually called me and a lot of those people have my phone number? None, huh?
Zero. I had to call one that I consider a very, very good friend and work through it together. I still disagree on a lot of things. Carlito Fuentes Sr.?
No. Oh, no. You could probably guess who that is in your head, Palmer. 9% what are they doing then they put so we're just dumping carcasses we're just dumping dead octopuses okay this is smart only a tiny percentage of those 130,000 will actually reach adulthood scientists even built them in little houses artificial dens this is a terrible idea little homes a little home do you think that we should be doing this is this in Italy yeah Yeah, it's off the coast of Italy.
It's not my country. This sounds like some government-funded operation. They don't eat them over there. That's the problem.
Italians don't like blue crabs. Really? They're delicious. Eat them.
Dude, import them. Let's go. Yeah, Louisiana and all those states would eat a lot of them. Just sell them to them.
Well, it's probably expensive to scoop them up and send them all the way over from Italy. You want to know what's more expensive? Purchasing 130,000 octopuses? Well, they made them.
They didn't buy them. Putting them in a little hut and then dropping them all in the ocean. Yeah, it sounds kind of like Spongebob. I was going to say, it's Spongebob.
It sounds like a crap. They're all, and they sing under the sea as they drop them off. Right. Under the sea.
Oh, blue crap. Blue crap. Dude, I was, so I was in Minnesota this past weekend. Minnesota?
Minnesota. That was the Manny and his family. Manny is great. Thank you for asking.
And I was in the airport and I saw their trash cans and I was like, those had to be super expensive. They make a noise, they open up, they drop a whole thing, I'm like, I think they were the wrong business. They made garbage cans? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then just nuggle up to the government and be like, hey, we have these great $7,000 trash cans.
You need them for all your airports. And you need them, right, it's gonna hold the trash. We need to get up with the FAA and make these like a requirement. Yeah, this is a, yeah, we need all of this.
Well, that's how the mafia made all that money, allegedly. Allegedly? Yeah, but that's the pickup. We want to get before that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't want to pick up with it. We just want to store it. I want to sell the metal boxes that hold it.
You know what I mean? So you push a button, the door opens, you put your stuff in? Yeah. Oh, so you don't have to touch it?
No. It's amazing. So we go one step further, the app on your phone, so you don't even have to touch the button. Ooh, no, no.
One step further than that, the bin, once it fills, it's actually a robot, and it comes out. And then another one comes in, replaces it, and it goes away. And now I'm replacing jobs. That's okay, because the person I saw changed the garbage, she was not very pleasant.
Move! She's a garbage changer. It's not like the career path didn't lead her there. You could still be a decent human being.
She probably makes pretty decent money in an airport. Probably. And you get all that free food. What free food?
No, no, not out of the trash, you get hooked up with the food court people. The food court people? Sure. They give you free food?
Oh, yeah. Who told you that? I'll pick up your trash extra if you give me one of those pretzels. You know, I got you on lock if you bring me that Sammy.
That's right. You know what I'm saying? Okay. Gotta be, you know, the pretzels are, you know, they sit there long enough, you gotta get rid of those.
What time, like Wetzel's pretzels or Annie Anne's? Either one. Just not the pretzel dogs, because those always look bad by the time they're done. hmm okay all right there's been a huge beer theft oh Siggy's in trouble what are you saying about over there there's a huge beer fast theft oh not a festival okay a stealing numbers are wild on August 17 thieves made off with 1,602 cases roughly 40,000 pounds of Pat's blue ribbon in old Milwaukee from an -Oh, jeez.
-Distribution Center. -Why would that be the one you steal? -Well, 'cause it's in Montclair, California. -Maybe they thought nobody would notice.
-I gotta be honest, I don't think we need to cover the news right now. -You don't want to cover the news at all? -Let's get to the cigar news. -Let's get to the cigar news?
-Let's get to the cigar news? -This is, you know, we had-- -Oh, well, they showed up and stole the-- they didn't actually steal the truck, they stole the beer, so they, like, showed up with their own truck, loaded all the beer in, and left. -That's smart. -And it's never gonna be found?
-It's the second time it's happened. It's an inside job. Yeah, somebody's got to know. Yeah.
Yeah, look for the guy with the mullet. You think so? Yeah, PBR, yeah. I'm not PBR.
Wow. Wow. Here comes all the hate comments. No, that's a, no.
I'm great. I love PBR. All the mullet people. Don't you talk about the creator of PBR.
Sorry. Talk about the mullet. Don't you talk about the creator of PBR. He's a good man.
Yeah. Like, we didn't say he was a bad man. We didn't say he was a bad man. I mean, you know.
We didn't say that. I didn't say that, last time I checked. I just said the guy that drinks PBR has a mullet. Yeah.
Back in November, they stole 24,000 bottles of Santo Tequila from Guy Fieri. Cigar tie-in, cigar tie-in. With signature? You know, I was with the PBR mullet band when he made that beer, and you guys are wrong.
You guys are wrong. He's a good person. Like, oh, okay. All right.
You don't want to talk about the travel advisory, anything? You don't have a travel advisory either? What? Travel advisory?
Go ahead. It's in Israel. We shouldn't go to Israel? Shouldn't I go to Israel right now?
Oh, we shouldn't. Yeah. Really. You would think, why do they have to tell people that?
Yeah. Hey, I think it's a good idea. Let's go to Israel. I'm American.
I love it. Yeah, Middle East sounds like a great place to go. Hey, isn't there like a river that I could go check out? I heard that's a good place.
Yeah, the Strait of America, right? The Strait of America. I heard that so what's funny is I love the conflicting news like there's conflicting news right like our side saying we've cleaned up all the mines and we're open for business right there one says we're in charge still we put all the mines back yeah okay yeah they're level four do not travel warning Americans are specifically warned against traveling within seven miles of the Gaza Strip and two designated areas of northern Israel like you had to we're at eight miles we're good somebody had to announce that shit to you like what are we doing 8 Mile, M&M's over here, we're good. 5 miles of the Israel-Egypt border.
I got a funny thing to talk about. Go ahead while I fast forward. Flags were at half-mast all weekend, did you see that? For Dolly.
Yeah. Was it for Dolly? It was for Dolly. Was it for Dolly or was it for the DePaul thing?
It was for Dolly. DePaul thing? Who's DePaul? What are you talking about?
Did they have that big flood in DePaul? Oh, Nepal. Oh, Nepal. Nepal, you genius.
We don't do flags for floods in foreign countries. Maybe we're just being respectful to the people. In DePaul. Did you see our Facebook comments?
We're not respectful to our own people. Respectful? DePaul. You know, in Minnesota.
DePaul. Oh my God, it's a new shirt. DePaul, Italy. And it's going to be like a guy.
Damn, DePaul. Yeah, and he's going to be releasing octopuses. Yeah, so you don't think there should've been flags half-masked from Dolly? What are we doing?
She's a national icon. Is she? Yes. I mean, she was a big name.
Come on, dude. She is a big name. The flags? She's a big deal.
You know, there's like a site that tells you, all right, everybody, half-masked. Right. And then they gotta do it? They're getting some flack for it.
I did read that. I would believe that. It's Dolly. Let her have her day.
No! She's been around forever. She wasn't a senator. She didn't...
She was bigger than a senator. She made tons of money. I don't care. She was richer than you ever know.
Yeah, no shit. Did they do half-mass for Robin Williams? More of an American icon in my opinion. That's right.
Well, I would say also, but I don't think so. Okay, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. Now we're going down this line.
Like, okay, so here's what happens. Let's fast forward the next year and a half. People's feelings get hurt and whatever. And now all of a sudden we're fucking, we're going half-mass for Paul Walker's Fast and the Furious death or something like that.
He was an icon. He's gone. They made a song for him. Yeah, they made a song.
He got a song. And his brother filled in to the movie for him. You know what I mean? Like, what are we doing?
Should have done Optimus Prime, too, before his head goes. Optimus? Optimus. He's gone?
The guy who did The Voice. Well, you were out of touch for the weekend, weren't you? Yeah. Oh my god, yeah.
The guy from... No way. Yeah. Autobots.
Yeah, that guy. Right, that guy. He died? He died.
How'd he die? Cancer. It always gets you. Pancreatic.
Pancreatic cancer, I think. Why don't we make cancer illegal? Well, because there's a lot of money involved in cancer. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Charitable or non-charitable? Both. It can be. Yeah, you can just double-sided.
Everybody makes money. Yeah, and also the other guy died. What other guy? Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Yeah. No way! Yeah. Wow, where have you been?
Yeah. There's no news in Minnesota except Dolly Parton News? No, they're completely out of touch. That's how big she was.
I was on a hiawaska. But you still knew Dolly died. That's how big it is. Well, because I'm driving, I'm like, why are all the flags at half-mast?
Well, it's only had Dolly signs on it. And they said Dolly Parton. Or maybe it was because they stole all the PBR. Yeah.
Maybe. Maybe it was for the PBR. All the PBR is gone. Yeah.
I don't know what we're doing. I don't know what we're doing as a society. It just doesn't, that just didn't make sense to me. People have lost their minds.
Oh, come on. Like Dolly? Dolly. Nah.
Maybe Trump liked her. Who knows? I don't care. Well, he does.
I don't care. It's like Elvis. She's like Elvis, but country western. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Yeah, she is. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not going to bring Dolly up to the level at Elvis. Sure.
That is not okay. Mm-mm. She was around longer. I don't care.
Jesus. I don't care. She had bigger boobs than he needed. Barely.
I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Like original or built-ons? Were hers all augmented?
Yes, they were. Were they? Allegedly? I think so.
I don't. I can't verify, but I would say. Because, I mean, they had to have been early. I mean, she was 80 years old, and she looked like she was 40.
Well, she could have had a good bra. I mean, I don't know. Nah. I wasn't talking about her chest.
Oh, you're talking about her face. I was like, yeah. Ah, I gotcha. I thought it meant like it stayed up, but maybe it just held well.
No. Augmented. I don't mind a half-match. Okay, so, alright, okay, let me run a couple by you then.
Okay. Harrison Ford. Half-match. Half-match.
Bruce Willis. No. What? No.
He is a Christmas icon. Did he die over the weekend? Because my wife thought she saw something that he died. No, it's getting close, I think.
Yeah, I mean, he doesn't know. When the dude from Monsters, whatever, what was that? Monsters, Inc.? No, no, what was the guy that died?
Oh, uh... Rocky Heart Picker? Rocky Heart Picture Show. Somebody posted that Morgan Freeman died right after him.
" Jesus. I think Arnold, yeah, because he was whatever. Yeah, he was a governor. Yeah.
Is he an American citizen? Sylvester. Yeah, I think so. Sylvester?
No. Sly? Yeah. Wait a second, but you said yes to?
Harrison Ford. And no to Sly. Yeah. I think Harrison Ford's bigger.
Are you gonna watch the new movie with him coming out? Rocky? Yeah. With Sly?
Is it Rocky in a wheelchair? No, it's about how... It's about how he wrote the movie. Yeah.
Oh. It looks really good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did see that.
All right. I'm going to split it right here. Ready? Yeah.
Kurt Russell. No. Of course he would. No?
No, but I love Kurt Russell. I love Kurt Russell. Data Cash, where are you? Did you hear that?
Your boyfriend just said no to your other guy. Kurt Russell. I love Kurt Russell too. " What about, um, what's her name?
I will crash my car and go in. Goldie Hong? No. No.
She hasn't been in anything in a long time. Pfeiffer. Who's Pfeiffer? Michelle Pfeiffer?
No. But Dolly. But Dolly. Dolly.
What about the guys from... Taylor Swift. No. No.
I don't even like her. Why not? She's really young. All the people like to tell her.
Well, only the Swifties will make all the flags half-mass if they have to do it themselves. What about Elon? No. Why Elon Musk?
I mean, that guy's done a lot for America We're not sure who he's rooting for still. Oh, come on, man. He could be a spy. This guy's on our team.
He could, no, maybe not, who knows. He's on, he's on the people's team. Ooh, the people's team. The people's.
Oh, ask half the peoples. Yeah. What about The Rock? No.
The Rock? No. No? But Dolly.
Yeah. See what I'm saying? That makes sense. Sure it does.
Heartbreak hit. Oprah Winfrey. No, why Oprah Winfrey? Oprah Winfrey.
No, why Oprah Winfrey? Oprah Winfrey? No. You know what?
She's going to be terribly upset if it's not, though. It's going to-- That lady friend of hers is going to be terribly upset. So no Oprah, but Dolly. Yes.
You're out of your mind. About Tom Cruise. Howard Stern. No, Howard Stern.
Howard Stern. He got a new deal on HBO. Oh, yeah? Because he got fired at Sirrus.
Did he? Yeah. So HBO picked him up. A pioneer.
A pioneer? He's a radio guy. It's not the same. Okay.
All right. We got to get out of this. Let's go. tech gets a second bocock brothers cigar oh oh cocky next month the new cigar made and these are wonderful fellas these brothers are amazing people they're great people just because he made fun of them yeah i didn't say i didn't like them next month a new cigar made for red raider nation will go on sale bocock brothers premium cigars has announced the new texas tech oil field reserve it's offered a 6x52 toro with a honduran maduro wrapper and fillers from honduras Nicaragua and Paraguay.
The name references the rich oil and gas history of West Texas where the school is based. The oil filled reserve is for the Red Raiders who take it black. I don't know what that means. Just keep going, please.
Matt Oliver of Bocock Brothers in a press release. Full strength, West Texas inspired, hand rolled in Donnelly, Honduras, and Honduran Maduro over a Honduran binder with fillers from Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay. Rich, oily and uncompromising. And that is what West Texas and Red Raider football deserves.
It's very dark looking, if you, you know, quink, quink. Bocock Brothers already offers a Texas Tech Bandit described as medium with a Habano wrapper. The new oil filled reserve goes on sale in September, coinciding with the 2026 college football kickoff. We're getting ready for football.
Isn't this, uh, Mike Rosales' team? No. Texas Tech? No, I've never heard that before.
Oh, okay. Texas Tech? Or is it UT? University, I have no idea about his Skip likes the Longhorns Well, I know they like two different teams They do?
From Texas No I'm wrong Correct Okay Rosales is a Sooner Is he? Yeah Oh, I didn't know he was Oklahoma Oh, Oklahoma Is that song good? Where the wind blows I don't know What are you talking about? I thought you helped write that song Oklahoma?
Yeah Why would I help write that song? Yeah, because that's how old you are. Yeah. Oh.
Yeah. I was there when they did it. Like the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Yeah.
I watched it being signed, but it had nothing to do with how they made it. You witnessed it. You had like the little curls and stuff? Yeah, I had the curls and stuff.
Yeah. You and George were hitting the bars? Yeah, me and George. You and George?
Me and Abe were out hitting the bars. Honest. Honest, George? You didn't make it to the play, though.
No. No, I passed on the play. He had an extra ticket. Take your wife, I don't want to go.
Take your wife. Yeah, I can't go. Thank God. I could have got shot.
God we trust. Ninth Circuit denies cigar companies appeal in the California UTL lawsuit. Oh, oh, oh. In April, Michael Edney, the lead attorney for most of the cigar industry's successful lawsuit against the FDA's regulation of premium cigars, was back in federal court on behalf of his cigar clients.
This is delicious, by the way. It is. It is. Even though Greg made it.
Greg did make this one. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the matter was California's Unflavored Tobacco List or UTL. Despite optimism from some of the plaintiffs, the hearing was not successful.
Yesterday, the three-judge panel issued an opinion on the appeal of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars and upholding a lower court decision, it rejected the cigar industry's claims that cast doubts over whether the lawsuit will succeed. So everything is status quo, it's still back to the UTL. You want to get that? You want to get that?
No. Is that Mike Rosales calling to correct your football thing? No, it's New York again. Oh.
So yeah, UTL good, Cigar people bad. There was a lot more information, but it was just reiterating stuff that's already happened. So we're back at square one? We're back at square one, the appeal did not happen, and the lawsuit goes on.
How much time do you think that these guys actually are going to spend on us? Like, do you think that, because now it's back at square one, they just go, "Oh, forget it," or do you think they keep going? You gotta keep going. Yeah, they still have the lawsuit, but just they tried to appeal to get it just, whatever the word is, just get it nullified, and the judge went, no, no, we need to, or the three panel judges, no, no, this goes forward, we'll hear everybody's arguments, but, you know, the thing about stifling business and small mom-and-pop shops, all that stuff, no, no.
You know, I think that there's a simple gauge here that you can use to determine if a state is over-regulated or not. Yeah. Yeah. What's that?
It's kind of two-fold. All right, let's hear it. Number one, if I can't buy wine at Target. Oh, that's a qualifier for you.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's ridiculous.
Is that where you buy your wine? I mean, if I need to grab a bottle of wine real quick. They do sell wine in Florida, a beer and wine. At Target?
Yeah, Target in Florida, yes. Well, we're the best state ever. At Publix? I can get wine practically anywhere.
Circle K. Yeah, practically you can get one, yeah, gas stations. Take that with me, right? Right.
No problem. Sure. I went to go get wine the other day. In Minnesota?
Oh, yeah. Can't get a guitar. Oh, yeah, that's one of those Bible Belt. I went to, I had to go to this sketch liquor store thing, where the carpet is older than me.
I was like, yeah. Government owned liquor stores. It's Persian. I don't think so.
I was like, look at this. And there was like barely anything on the shelf. And then the guy sold me one that didn't have a lot of alcohol, 'cause he had to get rid of it, and I was a sucker. " Can you do the voice, or is that what he said?
No, no, no, no. " I was like, "Oh, just throw it away. I don't know what to tell you. " Number two.
Number two. Mommy needs a higher level. Number two for a state that's overregulated. Right.
Marijuana dispensaries everywhere. No matter what. The other thing they have in Minnesota. Like, if THC or anything, smoke shop, blah, blah, blah, blah, is on every corner.
Right. I know that your state is overregulated. Yeah. Like, you guys are a disaster.
You don't want to get drunk, but you guys want to get high? I guarantee you these things coincide with California. - Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah, yeah, that's probably right.
- Right, I'm probably right. - Yeah. - Meanwhile, we're like, hey, we have this whole problem with you going in and saying that you're against flavored cigars and the way that you're going to combat that is by registering everything that's not flavored. And they're like, throw that out the window.
Like, we're not even having this debate. We're not talking about this. And what about this purple herbal strand? Right.
Does it have to be registered? No, no, that's fine. No, it's fine. It's fine.
So you should have got mommy some CBD gummies or something. No. I don't want mommy to be a zombie. You know what I mean?
Well, this is how it works. If the wine is 4%, you just buy another bottle of 4%, you combine the two, now it's 8. Oh, is that how it works? Yeah.
I don't think that's how it works. A little mixy-mixy? Yeah, a little mixy-mixy. I'll take all the low percentages you have there, Ackbar.
Oh, wow. Stereotyping, not racist. It's government-regulated building, okay? It's not Ackbar.
Couldn't make it go. It's Tom. All right, now we have a shipping notification. Powstanie ships SBC 26.
Oh, yeah. The latest in Powstanie's limited edition series, short for Surrounded by Champions, is off to the store. 5x46 Corona Gorda that has an offset barber pole wrapper design. While the cigars share a lot of similarities, the blends differ, the latest version uses tobacco from different countries, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and Nicaragua.
While the SBC 22 and SBC 24 blends were not disclosed, this is the first time Powstanie has said Dominican Tobacco has been used for the SBC release. Nice. The Dominican Tobacco is Piloto Maggiordo Lajero, which is used for the filler alongside three tobaccos from 2021 crop. Like the other SBC release, the 26 was made by Fabrica de Tobacco, Nicasueña SA.
The company says that the release is dedicated to those who have helped the company. To date, each box has included the following message: "It is important to recognize that great accomplishments require the team to be successful. Too often we see success only as a face of a single man. Surrounded by champions is a cigar that pays homage to the people that made Pustania possible.
" Every SBC release gives us the opportunity to do something special, but the SBC 26 is particularly meaningful because it is Brother Greg Szczepankewicz's passion project, said Mike Palmer, National Sales Manager of Powstanie Cigars. Amazing, man. The amount of thought, detail, and tobacco knowledge that went into this blend is incredible. We're excited to finally begin shipping it and put it into the hands of the retailers and cigar smokers.
Nice. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm excited. It's a great cigar. I'm excited. We started shipping last Thursday.
There was no quote there that I said about Charlie. It didn't make it to the Half Wheel Story. Oh, he removed it. Of course it did.
But it was in there, though. He redacted it. " All right, now it's time for the industry's favorite game: What's the score? Can you predict a cigar's score from a half-wheel review before it's revealed?
Yes. We'll give you clues. You make the guess. As the review unfolds, the answer gets closer.
Or does it? Dun, dun, dun. That's not it. The closest guess wins.
Now you do it. Yeah. I know you've been gone for a couple of days, but you did it early. Wow.
I'm sorry. I know that you guys aren't used to getting past 45 minutes without me. You peed. You peed your thing.
Oh, yeah. Let's play What's the Score? Today's first cigar, the Xeno Honduras Robusto. Oh.
That was it? Yeah. You didn't want to say who was by or anything like that? Apparently I didn't copy that.
Oh, the date? It was yesterday. I like how you just like, it's almost... Yes.
It's hilarious to me because like you were like Gianni on the spot when it comes to this. You like to bring to the attention whenever I make the one screw up and then less than 10 seconds you do some kind of fuck up right there right after. It's fine. Yeah, I mean all the time, all the time.
Part of my personality charm. You're like yeah you screwed that up and now I'm gonna screw this up to even that up and then I'll screw up three more things. Yeah. Okay.
Perfect. So we don't know who reviewed the cigar. We don't know when the review happened. It happened this week.
This is a recent review. It's a Zeno. Zeno. And it's Honduras.
It's the red one. It's the red Zeno. The Honduran Robusto. I'm gonna say 90.
Philip? 85. 50, they smoked 3. By the way, Epicurean Smokes on the previous show was very happy that you fixed this out.
Good. Yeah. I saw that. Grand Stiletto I think said something too.
90. 85. 85. Clue number one.
Nobody gives him a hard time. The Xeno Honduras Robusto delivers a full-flavored profile packed with creamy oak, toasted bread, almonds, cocoa, and just enough sweetness to keep everything balanced. Pick that radio up out of the crevice. Is it doing it again?
I can hear like it's static. Yeah. Maybe it's just the thing. That's probably the thing behind you.
- 90. - 85. Clue number two, excellent draws, strong smoke production, and a nearly 100-minute smoking time make this a satisfying cigar, especially in such convenient, pocket-friendly packaging. Mmm, this might be Charlie.
Because of the packaging? Because of the time. For a 5x54, it took him 100 minutes. Mmm.
Are you kidding me? It's a long time. I'd spend less money if I smoked like him. Eighty-eight.
Eighty-five. Clue number three: construction was inconsistent across the samples, with two cigars requiring burn corrections and one needing to be touched up three separate times. Eighty-four. Eighty-five.
Final thought. After enjoying the Zeno Nicaragua as much as I did, wasn't it the Zeno Honduran in the beginning? It was. Yeah, it was.
Well, then they screwed up. As much as they did, I've been looking forward to trying the next release. Oh, he enjoyed the first one, this is the second one. So they didn't screw up.
No. But you screwed up again. No, I didn't screw up. Yeah.
I'm just reading it and I thought it was the other Zeno. Which means? I don't pre-read these. Which means?
Next release for under Zeno brand, I found the Zeno Honduras extremely enjoyable. We're available with notes of oak, almonds, sourdough bread, cocoa nibs, cocoa, along with some great graham cracker sweetness on the retro hill. Having said that, I did run into some issues in the second of the two-thirds, albeit nothing that could be easily addressed. Cigars that have great flavor, a balanced profile, and decent construction at a sub-$10 price point seems to be dying breed these days.
But the Zeno Honduras Rebuso proves that it is still possible. 86. Philip? Man, between two numbers here.
Say one of them. 87. You went the right way. Yes!
89. Yes. Second cigar, more than one. Yes!
89! Yes! Second Cigar, March 30th, 2011, Charlie Minato. You want to change it up and make it you guys have to guess a review or two at the end?
No. Why not? Because he doesn't want to lose that too. Felipe Renato reviews the Arturo Fuente, Don Arturo Gran, Ana Visorio, The Natural.
Oh, me first. Um, well, everybody loves this guy, so, 91. Including us. Including us.
Yes. We'd like to have him on the show. Oh, that'd be great. We will pay him $12.
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. 85, what'd you say?
91. Oh, not me. Stop, palmer. Cigar review, Arturo Fuente, Don Arturo, Gran Anniversari, Anniversic, Exiario?
Yeah, it's the next one. There's an X in it, Anniversic, Exiario? Makes sense. Country of origin, Dominican Republic, Fatry, Tablicalera, Fuente, C.
38, per cigar, Humidor of 96, $7,500. - What? - Humidor Value, $1,800. Number of cigars smoked, three.
- Ninety-one. - Eighty-seven. - Clue number one, the presentation is outstanding with an incredibly detailed anniversary band and a beautifully packed Rosado wrapper. - Ninety-one.
- Eighty-seven. - Clue number two, the opening third offers an enjoyable combination of cherry, Cedar, Cocoa, Brown Sugar, and Creamy Spices. Oh! Creamy Spices.
Ninety-one. Eighty-eight. Clue number three: The cigar fails, falls apart after the first third, becomes muddled, harsh, and increasingly flavorless while requiring multiple relights. Hmm.
Doesn't affect it, it's a flinte. Ninety-one. Eighty-five. Final thought: I first thought after putting down the natural version of the Arturo Fuente Gran Anabricks Exario was the really should call this the 858 vintage.
I honestly have no clue what an 858 with an X amount of age on it would taste like, but I can't imagine it would be much more boring than this. Such a shame, one of the most ornate bands, boring flavor constructed beautifully seems to never burn right. It seems that the cigar has lost something, but I never smoked these fresh, so I can't make that assertion entirely. However, the grand anniversary Exio seems well past its prime.
The mutiny of flavors just blends together and eventually collapses as the final third approaches, never bringing the complexity, depth, richness, or smoothness that some of Fuente's products can bring. It's really a shame that this isn't a matter of flavor profile, just missing is a matter of cigar that really just isn't very good. And that's before we get to the price. I honestly would love to tell you that this cigar is a creme de la creme, a fuente, that this is a cigar you save for special occasions and a cigar that creates experiences that are unforgettable and unrivaled.
This might be true about the band, but the tobacco underneath it is from, is from it, but the tobacco underneath it is from it, no lie. 91. 84. You went the right way, but it's 64.
What? He said how terrible it was. Of all the cigars that we could have reviewed today. This is not our opinion.
This is Charlie Minato. You decided to review an Arturo Fuente from 2011 that got a 64. Completely random. Completely random.
This is the way it happened. Oh! Oh, God, ow! Yeah, it hurts!
Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! Ouch, on fire! Ouch, on fire! It feels kind of good, actually.
I repositioned. That was perfect. That was good for the camera. It burned my neck.
But I think the table is smoking. It's fine. Okay. Well, we're over an hour, gentlemen.
Something that you cannot do without me. Um, I guess. Whatever. Do you have anything else to add, Phil?
No, thank you guys for watching and all the comments. You guys are great. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for boycotting us.
Yeah. Yes. We look forward to the picketing out front. Thank you for your caps, all caps messages.
We will supply water and cigars. " They're entitled to like, "Oh, look. " Look at this guy. This guy's all right.
Alright, well, thank you very much. Like and subscribe, review and listen to the show. We hope we provided great edutainment for you today. Always.
com for your chpod swag. com, Cigar Husser's Podcast, where we actually talk more inside baseball than what we did on today's show. Oh yeah. So thanks everybody.
Alright guys, we gotta go. Bloop.
Show Notes
On this episode of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, the crew reviews and discusses the latest from Independence and Arturo Fuente.A full cigar-industry news discussion — reviews, interviews, and commentary, plus the week's wildest headlines.In episode 607 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, host Mike BDP runs from the news desk to the humidor — reacting to the week's headlines before digging into cigar news and reviews featuring Independence and Arturo Fuente. Honest conversation and industry commentary, new episodes every weekday.