Speakers: Mike Glover, Jake McCluskey, Scott Thieman, Ken Thompson
Topic: PCA 2023 trade show in Las Vegas – 2023
Mike Glover 0:03
Welcome back, everybody to another amazing episode from the Toro Cigar Company Cigar Lounge Podcast Studio. I’m Mike your host, you’re not gonna want to miss this episode. Today we’re talking about new manufacturing lines we picked up from PCA 2023. Stay tuned, we’ll be right back with a cutting light.
Speaker Intros –
Introductions and what we are smoking
Mike Glover 0:34
Here we are back for our cutting light. Today, I’m going to start off with a stolen thrones Crook of the Crown. My name is Mike Glover, AKA “@757CigarMike” and we’ll go around real quick for some introductions from the grumpy old fuckers today.
Jake McCluskey 0:54
I’m the not grumpy as fucker anymore. I’ve got some energy back. I am Jake, AKA “@beardedcigarlover“.
Scott Thieman 1:04
I am still grumpy, but that’s okay. Scotty, “@smoknjazz“.
Ken Thompson 1:13
And I’m Ken. And you can follow me at “@Ken_Blue_Smoke” on Instagram if you want to. We just got we’re really kind of excited about this, we got our promotional cutters and lighters in and I’ll put a graphic up but it’s a perfect cutter. When you cut your cigar, it gives you a perfect cut. I’ve cut my call to arms from stolen thrones here. And there is we also have a lighter with our logo, which is very cool. And if you order more than $50 you get a cutter free. If you order more than $75 you get a free lighter and cutter and I know that you probably have 100 of these sitting around. So these are great to give out to your friends who need to know that they can order really good cigars from Toro Cigar company.
Mike Glover 2:04
I’m glad you added our company because my next question was where should they order from?
Ken Thompson 2:09
You should order from the place that is written on the front of the lighter. That’s where you should order from.
PCA 2023 – The Whole Story
Mike Glover 2:14
And there we have it. Thank you Ken for that good advertisement. So we went to PCA 2023 in July, the four of us went actually and thankfully we traveled under founders of cigars, we traveled with them to help them with their booth set up break down and kind of manning the booth and helping them out and they were a true blessing to us to be there with those guys and hopefully we helped them out a little bit too. But while we were there we were able to conduct some business for Toro Cigar company. And we’re extremely excited today to talk about some of the new lines that we picked up while we were there. So today we’re going to talk about these products right here that you can see on my left your right and the first one I’m holding is “Stolen Thrones” This is going to be a little bit hard to see but cannot put up a graphic.
Ken Thompson 3:10
Yeah but if you’re listening you’ll just have to imagine it.
Mike Glover 3:13
True, I could describe it for you but I’m not very good at that. So the Stolen Throne line was actually introduced to me and Ken by Jay so I’m gonna let him kind of talk a little bit about Stolen Throne.
Jake McCluskey 3:29
So Stolen Throne is actually local here in Virginia and Lee Marsh is the owner of Stolen Throne they’ve got currently three cigars out you can get the Crook of the Crown, the Call to Arms. My personal favorite is the Three Kingdoms. But they also just released by the time you guys are watching this they will be out, the Yorktown Fleet. So they’re all Nicaraguan cigars varying and strength rappers, great sticks, amazing quality, and honestly just a good group of guys that have a cigar company.
Mike Glover 4:09
They really are, I’m telling you Crook of the Crown hits my palate like a monster, I love this art. It’s fantastic. It easily entered my top five for sure probably my top three. I haven’t really finalized that yet but it’s close.
Jake McCluskey 4:24
So what I love about Stone Throne is you’re getting a amazing product. And amazing tasteful cigar burn quality, construction draw everything’s I mean I’ve never had a bad one of smoke lots of them. Scotty smoked more of them than I have. But what I love is it’s a cigar that doesn’t break the bank. You’re getting a really good quality cigar at a really really good price point to where you can add it to your daily smoker and every other day smoke and you’re not like oh man this is a expensive cigar it’s a once in a while thing. They really are a cost effective. I don’t like the word budget friendly, that sounds very discount’ish, you know, plays off and poorly. But I think it’s a very cost effective cigar to where you’re not going, oh, man, I’m smoking a $20 cigar. And if something happens, you know, you have to set it down or whatever. It’s a great cigar. I give those guys a ton of credit for producing such a great cigar at the price points that they do. If you haven’t smoked him yet, do it. Buy him, go towards the cigar company, order a sample pack of stolen thrown, order one of the many sample packs that are up on the site at this point, with stolen thrown in them, and give them a shot.
Ken Thompson 5:44
This is not an infomercial. You can’t simply sell cigars on this thing. But that being said, even though that’s good advice from a pro over there, that the Crook of the Crown was the first cigar that really knocked my socks off. I know how this little more expand.
Mike Glover 6:04
I bet you can hear him better now.
Ken Thompson 6:05
Crook of the Crown is the first cigar that really knocked my socks off. And it was one of those experiences. Like I’m sitting there smoking as a relatively new smoker. And I’m thinking oh, this is what it’s all about. This is what it’s supposed to taste like. And then Scotty introduced me to a second one in their line, I forget which one it was because I had them all.
Scott Thieman 6:25
It was three kingdoms.
Ken Thompson 6:26
Three kingdoms and it knocked my socks off again. And I don’t think we want to just overdo it. But really, it’s a magnificent to go.
Scott Thieman 6:36
Well, they also have a fourth though there’s still a phantom queen.
Jake McCluskey 6:39
Phantom Queen was a limited run and they’re gone. The only other cigar, the only limited run that they redo is the Argos. And that’s the cigar that we came up with. That helps raise money for the king Corso Foundation because Lee is a huge King Corso guy for rescuing King Corso. And so that’s the only limited run that is a, let’s just say a boomerang for lack of a better term that comes out a couple times a year. But everything else they did. That’s a limited run was a limited run. They’re gone, they’re gone. You know, there’s some really killer stuff in there. If you missed it. Well, I’d say pay attention for their next limited run. But their main stuff is phenomenal. that the
Scott Thieman 7:21
But the Crook of the Crown, they came out of the gate running with that and thing was a banger the very first strong.
Jake McCluskey 7:28
So that was their first cigar.
Scott Thieman 7:30
Their was a lot of work behind that, that he spent years developing till he got that one right.
Jake McCluskey 7:37
Yeah, so we didn’t do anything fast. So the funny thing is, if you talk to Josh and Lee and one day we’ll have to have him on the show. Lee was with the Three Kingdoms. He kept going down to Nicaragua, blend in and bring it back up blend six, and Josh, who’s his head of operations, like, this cigar is great. And he’s like, no, that was horrible. And he would go back and blend the Three Kingdoms again until he got what in his mind is a perfect Tabano. And it took him years to develop that.
Scott Thieman 8:07
Because the Three Kingdoms was originally supposed to be their first cigar.
Jake McCluskey 8:12
And he wouldn’t release it.
Scott Thieman 8:13
That he wasn’t satisfied. And I think that’s fantastic. That says a lot about his passion for the company.
Mike Glover 8:19
And his integrity, not really something that’s not ready.
Jake McCluskey 8:24
Yeah, if he didn’t like it, and he waited on that cigar for instead of it being their first cigar it was actually their third cigar release because it took them that long to get exactly what he envisioned. And you know, I’ll say this is a cigar smoker and I think we can all agree to this. Not every company does that, not every company has that level of integrity. They only release something when they’re truly happy with it and that says a whole lot about a company when they’re willing to keep going back because it costs money. Bringing cigar in market is not cheap. And they keep doing it over and over till you get exactly what you envisioned is a expensive experience.
Mike Glover 9:03
It costs money to keep going back to keep traveling down and meeting with the master blender and to keep going through that process. So anyway, we love Stone Thrones here at Toro Cigar Company. They are local Virginia owned and operated just like we are. So they’re right down the street from us, we love that they are neighbors, we love that they trusted us enough to represent their brand and we hope to do them proud in doing so and so we couldn’t be happier to have them.
Jake McCluskey 9:34
So what else you find Mike?
Mike Glover 9:35
We found a whole bunch of other stuff. I’m gonna go next to Hooten Young. So the box right here that I’m holding is the Ma Duece, it’s an extremely interesting box because it’s an ammo can style box.
Ken Thompson 9:54
And they got the coolest box award for sure.
Mike Glover 9:56
They definitely, as a bunch veteran supporters on these chairs, on this podcast coming to you guys. This is definitely the coolest box.
Ken Thompson 10:08
The attention to detail on this box is phenomenal. Yeah, I mean it looks exactly like a miniature ammo can.
Mike Glover 10:15
It does and then the Mod Deuce itself is actually fashioned like a 50 cow around. And you know you can’t see it this far away but Ken will put up a graphic on. You got a lot of graphics.
Jake McCluskey 10:29
Here we go, Mike.
Ken Thompson 10:33
Your listeners I have to imagine a 50 Cal round in the form of a cigar, you don’t have a microphone over there bro.
Mike Glover 10:44
So but now prior to PCA 2023, I was actually not familiar with Hooten young. But after meeting Hooten and young and Allison, Allison is probably one of the best sales managers in the industry hands down. It was a no brainer for us to place an initial order. But you know, I’m a veteran. Jake’s a veteran. Scotty and Ken are both staunch veteran supporters, US military supporters. This was an absolute no brainer for the Toro Cigar company pick up this line.
Jake McCluskey 11:26
And if you don’t know who Hooten is go watch the movie Black Hawk Down. And he was the Delta Force operator in Black Hawk Down he was there. There actually there are other cigars that you have in there. The Gothic Serpent is based on the operation Gothic Serpent which most people know is Black Hawk Down. And if you’re trying to figure out who Hooten is watch the movie, and when they’re in the chow hall, and the guy has given the delta operator grief about having a hot firearm in the chow hall. And he looks at me goes this is my safety. That’s Hooten.
Ken Thompson 12:02
They also have, they also have a line of what did they have, whiskey?
Mike Glover 12:06
Bourbon, Hooten Young Bourbon.
Jake McCluskey 12:11
They have a 12 and a 16 year and I’ll also tell you my chasm. That Toro Cigar lounge, the Paladin is one of the best $8 cigars I’ve ever smoked. It’s almost like about a 15 or $18 cigar.
Mike Glover 12:26
Yeah, the Paladin hit my palette the best so far out of what we have in stock, but all of their cigars are great cigars there.
Scott Thieman 12:35
Yeah. And that’s the one he put out specifically for that for the guys.
Mike Glover 12:42
So great line, great, great company, great story behind their line. And they are exploding on the cigar and bourbon scene. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re worth a try. We offer a couple of different sample packs. You can pick up a couple or you can order five packs or boxes from us. So check them out when you get a chance. If you haven’t tried them, they’re worth a try.
Jake McCluskey 13:05
And do yourself a favor go find a bottle of their bourbon. Even though I don’t drink much. I will tell you I tried with Mike, a little Hooten Young Bourbon with one of their cigars, and that paired perfectly. They took the time to do it right.
Mike Glover 13:19
Yeah, they really, their Bourbon is great. The cigars are great. They didn’t enter the industry on a whim. They did their research. They love cigars. They love bourbon. And they’re here to stay and they’re gonna be around for a while. So check them out. So the next line.
Ken Thompson 13:37
Caldwell, they have the second, they get the second place award for the coolest looking frickin band. I mean, you can’t beat some of their artwork. If you’re picking just on looks. You’re gonna go with Caldwell.
Mike Glover 13:49
Yeah, this is long live the king the Mad Mofo, which we have multiple boxes and our Humidor right behind us.
Jake McCluskey 13:56
Scotty smoking it right now.
Mike Glover 13:58
Scotty smoking one of the Mad Mofos right now, but this is a great line. I was excited to pick up this line, for many reasons. I got to meet Robert Caldwell.
Jake McCluskey 14:08
Great guy.
Mike Glover 14:09
Phenomenal individual. I know he’s a little controversial in the industry. But I’m good with that. Because I’m a little controversial in the industry. And but he’s a phenomenal guy, whatever.
Scott Thieman 14:29
From the peanut gallery.
Mike Glover 14:31
We’re gonna need a graphic for this one too.
Ken Thompson 14:35
You don’t have to say that every time my friend.
Mike Glover 14:39
So but you know, one of the main reasons why I was excited to pick up the Caldwell wine was the philanthropy that Caldwell does, Robert Cowell himself. He is a phenomenal supporter of a number of charities and a number of good working. He’s behind the scenes, he doesn’t see credit. He’s extremely humble about it. And to me, that’s a man and a company that I want to get behind. And I want to help grow and be a part of that scene. So that was, you know, the main, not to mention their cigars are freaking phenomenal. I love their Mad Mofos are great cigar.
Ken Thompson 15:21
And Mike, you need to get a thesaurus and look up the word phenomenal and find a couple of alternatives brother.
Jake McCluskey 15:30
This is what happens when you get cane of wine before the show.
Robert Caudwell is probably one of my favorite guys in the industry. Hands down. Like Mike said he does a lot of stuff doesn’t look for credit does stuff just because he feels like it. And that’s really what this industry is about helping each other building a better community supporting the causes that you truly believe in. And you know, and I know me and Scotty have had this conversation. If we were stuck on a desert island and had to pick one brand that only smoke it would be Caudwell because you get such a great selection over all of Caudwell stuff tasting notes all the burn quality is always good. And you know you’re gonna get a good laugh out of them too.
Mike Glover 16:27
Jake said phenomenal a couple of times there.
Jake McCluskey 16:31
Yeah, we’ll see, I can just expect me not to have a vocabulary, I can just excited I can actually talk other than cigar tastes good.
Mike Glover 16:43
That’s probably true.
Ken Thompson 16:46
What else we got?
Mike Glover 16:48
What else we got? Okay, moving along. Another exciting line that we picked up which is not again I don’t think is as well known in the industry as it should be. Karen Berger cigars. Karen Berger is the widow of Kiki Mama.
Jake McCluskey 17:07
No, Don Kiki. Not Kiki Momo.
Mike Glover 17:16
Don Kiki and she actually has maintained those lines, your honor of him. We have those in stock and we also have all the K by Karen Burgers in stock. And we also have a backorder but it’s on the way maybe it’ll be here by the time this podcast comes out, the Tailgate their newest addition which sold out completely out of their entire initial order in two weeks. So they are scrambling to fulfill the back orders and the back orders are larger than the initial order. So they are very excited about the tailgate is coming out.
Scott Thieman 17:58
She is also a just a phenomenal in general using your vocabulary.
Mike Glover 18:04
My vocabulary.
Ken Thompson 18:06
I want to say I’m most excited about this particular line because my wife has been very interested that we carry female led cigars even though my wife is not a particular cigar smoker. Maybe she will be more involved if she sees that we have a female head cigar brand.
Scott Thieman 18:26
But she’s not only the head of the company. She’s also the blender.
Mike Glover 18:30
She is the master blender.
Jake McCluskey 18:34
She got an amazing shop down in Florida. I mean she really is one of those people that’s doing it all in the industry.
Mike Glover 18:42
Right, absolutely. Absolutely. She’s one of the few females for sure.
Scott Thieman 18:46
She should be recognized because of all the work that she has done and poured into those cigars. I’ve had every one of K by burgers, cigars. And every one of them could be a daily stick.
Mike Glover 19:02
You didn’t say phenomenal.
Scott Thieman 19:05
Phenomenal.
Ken Thompson 19:07
Did you get an interview with Karen?
Scott Thieman 19:10
I didn’t get a chance. I did get my picture with her because she is also a very beautiful woman as well. And I had to have something.
Mike Glover 19:21
Do you get your picture with her?
Ken Thompson 19:23
No, no. You know your wife is probably able to watch this.
Scott Thieman 19:30
She knows that I have my loves they’re not…
Ken Thompson 19:35
She is good looking lady. There’s no doubt about that.
Scott Thieman 19:37
Yes, she is.
Mike Glover 19:40
Honey if you’re watching I don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
Ken Thompson 19:43
You got yourself in enough trouble.
Mike Glover 19:45
I’m in enough trouble with other pictures…..
Ken Thompson 19:48
What else have we got?
Scott Thieman 19:49
Phenomenal. Another phenomenal box.
Mike Glover 19:54
Another phenomenal cigar. This is a new release. It’s not a new line for us. But as a new release, limited edition, that we do currently have available in some sample packs only. And the reason that we did that was we were late to order this, we get that. But we still got some in. And we didn’t get a whole lot though. And what we wanted was all of our customers and all of our friends and fans to be able to experience this cigar, because they’re pretty much sold out by now. They’re sold out everywhere. You can’t find him. So if we would have just put our limited stock up on the website and probably would have been gone within a day or two. And one or two, maybe three people would have been able to get their hands on, right? So what we decided to do, Ken and I talked about it and we strategize with Jake. And we came up with let’s just put one in a five pack with some other black works. Studio cigars and everybody can then enjoy this a lot more people will be able to enjoy these than just one or two or three people but the poison dart by Blackwork studio. It’s another phenomenal cigar. I love this cigar is great. I love all of Blackwork studio stuff, Black Label family of cigars dissidence, they’re just right up my wheelhouse.
Jake McCluskey 21:32
And I will tell you from smoking, at least one other person Sheriff poison darts. They’re well worth the time to light and smoke.
Scott Thieman 21:41
Yeah, it’s based off of the killer B.
Mike Glover 21:43
Yep. But it’s a great cigar.
Jake McCluskey 21:47
So I’m curious what box Mike is going to show you next. He’s saving two for the end. And since he’s in control, and I know he’s saving two of his favorites that he picked up.
Ken Thompson 21:57
You saying Mike is in charge of this?
Jake McCluskey 22:00
Well, he’s the one with the boxes.
Mike Glover 22:03
Boxes are Beside me.
Scott Thieman 22:04
This is another phenomenal box.
Ken Thompson 22:08
I thought I steered this ship from behind the scenes.
Mike Glover 22:12
Well, as long as you keep thinking that we’re in good shape. There’s no problem with that. So the next guy I want to talk about again is not a new line for us. It’s big skies. It’s a new release from Big Sky cigar company. And it’s the Blackfoot cigar is the last in the river series of cigars that they’re going to release. So if you’re familiar at all with Big Sky cigar company, they’ve named a lot of the cigars after the river series. The Madison.
Scott Thieman 22:46
You have the Yellowstone, the Madison, the
Jake McCluskey 22:50
Cryptid.
Scott Thieman 22:50
No, no, that’s not river series. The big horn and then the Blackfoot, those four.
Mike Glover 23:02
And the reason is those are some very famous trout fishing fly fishing streams and rivers.
Ken Thompson 23:11
I feel like this is sketchy information. Like you shouldn’t really, is this 100% true or some is gonna Google that?
Mike Glover 23:18
Oh, yes that’s 100% true. The river series are the names. What are you questioning?
Ken Thompson 23:23
Who calls a river Bighorn? That’s a mountain.
Scott Thieman 23:28
That is a river in Montana.
Ken Thompson 23:32
Okay.
Mike Glover 23:33
This is what you get when you don’t read this cigar descriptions from the manufacturers ladies and gentlemen.
Scott Thieman 23:40
Well, A River Runs Through It. There are a couple of…..
Mike Glover 23:43
And a Blackfoot featured in that, the last rivers feature last seen. Last seen and A River Runs Through It. Which is a great movie. You’ve never seen a river runs through it.
Ken Thompson 23:54
I’m a heterosexual male. I have not seen the movie.
Jake McCluskey 23:58
We’re not talking Brokeback Mountain. Let’s just be clear, the same Brokeback Mountain.
Mike Glover 24:05
I think you just offended somebody on the podcast.
Ken Thompson 24:08
I’m sure that won’t be the last time.
Mike Glover 24:13
Okay. So the Blackfoot great, great cigar.
Jake McCluskey 24:18
Little stronger than the rest of the river series.
Mike Glover 24:19
It is, it is a little bit stronger.
Scott Thieman 24:21
It is their boldest out of the river series.
Mike Glover 24:25
It is but it’s a nice bold and you know it hits my palate well and I enjoy the steak. I’ve had several of them. And I’m going to have several more. This is a really good cigar. I liked the size. I liked the Vitola it comes in. It’s right in my wheelhouse.
Ken Thompson 24:40
That one was too strong for me personally, I liked it. I could be in the mood for it. But it was powerful.
Mike Glover 24:47
It’s a good strong stick if you like strong stick.
Scott Thieman 24:50
It’s full body full strength.
Mike Glover 24:52
Yep, absolutely.
Jake McCluskey 24:53
Full flavor.
Scott Thieman 24:55
Yeah, very flavorful.
Mike Glover 24:57
Definitely full flavor.
Jake McCluskey 24:58
Here we go. Mike is going to show you probably one of his favorite grabs from PCA 2023 right now.
Mike Glover 25:05
So I mentioned earlier..
Scott Thieman 25:07
It’s even more of a nominal than the other.
Mike Glover 25:09
It’s phenomenal. So I mentioned earlier that the Crook of the Crown is easiest way, probably into the top three. So I’m gonna go with my number one all time daily smoke is most of you know this, if you follow me on Instagram, is the Big Sky cigar cryptid. And then, if you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that Viva La Vida flies right into number two. I love this brand. Everything about this brand, I love their artwork on their boxes, but I love their cigars just as much. And then Crook of the Crown is probably right there at number three. So the fact that we were able to sit down and speak with the owners of the brand. And explain our situation, because, you know, let’s be honest, our situation is not a typical cigar, retail shop, we’re a private lounge. And where we sell online to the public, but we’re a private lounge, and we have our own podcast.
But we sat down and told them, you know, hey, we’re a veteran owned company. And we’re startup and we really initially wanted to do and you guys know this story a little bit, a brick and mortar lounge due to the economy due to other things, other reasons, you know, the funding wasn’t available to us at the time, and we want to start this lounge. So we launched online. And you know, when we got, we were able to sit down with them and share our story. They loved our story. We love their story and their cigars. And it was a good fit. So we were able to pick up this line. And it’s actually one of the marquee pickups of the trip for us. Because it’s a great line. It’s a popular line. If you’ve ever had a Viva La Vida, we have a club 500. We have the El Pulpo also in stock, and there’ll be on the website this week. By the time you’re seeing this, though, they’ll have been on the website for a while.
Ken Thompson 27:23
We didn’t think we’re going to be able to put them on the website. It’s a big high five moment when we got this line.
Jake McCluskey 27:28
Right cuz they didn’t want to deal with an exclusive private lounge only and where you’re selling mostly online. And you know, so luckily, you know, we have the ability to have a private lounge, which we have members of and it’s growing. And, you know, I’m really excited they were willing to play ball with us.
Scott Thieman 27:51
That goes for just about every one of these lines right here. Because several of those lines right there do not do online. But they were willing to do and for private lounges.
Mike Glover 28:03
For a private lounge and then allow online sales also.
Ken Thompson 28:06
And where credit is due. Jake, was the key in orchestrating this deal that we got, I mean, we probably would not have even pursued them. If it weren’t for Jake’s opening.
Mike Glover 28:21
It was a great introduction.
Jake McCluskey 28:23
It was just being nice to people even if you’re grumpy.
Mike Glover 28:27
Even if you’re grumpy, like the other three fuckers on this guide.
Jake McCluskey 28:33
So okay, let’s run down the list. What’s everybody’s highlight a PCA 2023? Number one highlight.
Ken Thompson 28:40
Karl Malone, I didn’t get to meet the man. But it was really cool. That Karl Malone has a line. We don’t have it, but maybe in the future. It was very cool. There’s a couple of celebrities there.
Mike Glover 28:53
There were some celebrities. I showed up late, I was there on Sunday and stayed till Tuesday. And so I missed guy. I didn’t get to see guy. He was gone already. But I would say overall that I don’t think there was any one moment but just meeting some of these people that I’ve followed on social media, some of these manufacturers, Steve Saka. Cynn Coburn, Karen Berger. Some of these reps I’ve talked to on the phone for months ahead of time that I’ve never met before Bruce, with Karen, Levi with black works. And just getting to meet some of these guys that I’ve talked to time and time and time again on the phone and ladies, yeah.
Scott Thieman 29:51
And ladies, Karen and Cynn, both of them are very attractive and very…….
Mike Glover 29:57
Yeah, I would say that was the highlight is meeting these people face to face and solidifying our business relationship with them that I’d either already built on the phone, or we’re building there. So that I would say is my highlight. Lee, Lee with Stolen Thrones. First time I met Lee. I talked to Josh before and it was the first opportunity meet Lee, he is great guy, lovely.
Scott Thieman 30:23
Lee is just salt of the earth.
Mike Glover 30:26
And you know, again, you can’t talk about PCA 2023 not talking about founders and what they did.
Jake McCluskey 30:34
What Angelo and those guys are doing there?
Mike Glover 30:35
What they’re doing there and what they did for us.
Jake McCluskey 30:38
What they did for us, the new cigars, they got rolling out.
Mike Glover 30:40
The new cigars, they got rolling out. It’s family by loyalty, Alan and Ernesto. You know, I mean.
Ken Thompson 30:46
Are we got name dropping it?
Mike Glover 30:48
No, no.
Ken Thompson 30:49
There’s more names.
Mike Glover 30:49
There’s more names. I’m sure there’s more names.
Jake McCluskey 30:51
Scotty, what was your highlight?
Scott Thieman 30:53
I think it was just getting to see the community together. And all of the various players in the community, and from photographers to media to owners, a lot of podcasters, I did a lot of lives during the event. And just how pretty much I would say 99% of the company out there are just good, regular people, they enjoy what they’re doing. They’re not overly loud or excessive or anything like that.
Ken Thompson 31:42
So what you’re saying is that last 1% are just sons of bitches.
Scott Thieman 31:45
Well, there is one. And I will call this one out.
Ken Thompson 31:49
Let’s not talk about that, anyway.
Mike Glover 31:53
I don’t know who you’re talking about.
Scott Thieman 31:55
It’s not a cigar manufacturer. It is a company that makes a supposedly high end lighters, and…
Ken Thompson 32:03
We don’t need to be making any enemies here, we’re talking about highlights.
Jake McCluskey 32:08
Well, I’ll tell you, I couldn’t pick one instance, there’s two of them that I thought were really cool. Getting to hang out with Hooten and Young for a little while, you know, as a veteran with what he’s done in his story. That was very special. That was very special spot. And the other thing I’m gonna say is, you know, I’m gonna call it somebody that’s not a cigar line, but they support our troops. And that was just getting to hang out the guys from Cigars for warriors, you know, just knowing that they’re there, that there’s a you know, if you’re ever at an event and cigars were there, and you’re a veteran, and you get overwhelmed, you know, they have a spot for you, they actually set up a spot for you to get away from the chaos, to regroup, to calm down to get away from it to let the anxiety level drop. And they’re there for you, they really are, and just to watch how they do stuff, and how they take care of veterans at the event. And they don’t get enough credit for it, right? I mean, they’re there to get these guys to give them cigars they can send into more of our guys overseas.
And that’s an astronomical task, you know, just the logistics of it are insane. And, you know, but then for them to be there and be like, hey, is everything okay? Do you need a place to sit? Do you need to get away, you need a bottle of water, you know, whatever. On top of it, they just go so far above and beyond. And those guys, I mean, you know, the guys that are there, they’re not getting paid to be there. They’re volunteering their time, they’re volunteering time away from their families to offer that support, both at the show and beyond. And, you know, so just getting to hang out with them and have that. And now it’s there is really cool. And I think they’re kind of almost like the unsung hero to the groups because of what they’re offering. And they’re not asking for anything in return. They’re not saying hey, come do this, come donate to us, come do anything else. They’re just there.
Scott Thieman 34:07
Really salt of the earth people.
Jake McCluskey 34:09
And I really think they deserve a shout-out out and they don’t get enough credit for what they’re actually doing on the ground at the shows and what they’re offering on the ground at these shows, compared to everybody else.
Scott Thieman 34:23
They did a phenomenal job, honestly.
Ken Thompson 34:27
It is an industry though. So those are the exceptions to the rule. Everybody else is trying to make some dollars and that’s what it’s all about. I mean, you’re in an industry.
Mike Glover 34:38
Right. Because this show is not open to the public. This show is not open to the public. This PCA 2023 is about manufacturers being able to meet other distributors and retailers, cigar retailers, and cigar industry to sell cigars to the reach…….
Jake McCluskey 34:57
And I noticed that you forgot to bring out one box.
Mike Glover 35:00
What?
Jake McCluskey 35:01
You know, the other thing that got picked up there, just here in Virginia is Fuerte y Libre. And you know, Greg, again, amazing guy. Phenomenal guy doing great work, can producing amazing cigars. Every one of his cigars is high quality.
Mike Glover 35:24
I had a midnight Bender as we were setting up for the show.
Jake McCluskey 35:28
Yeah. And you know, again, there’s somebody else. But the thing about the cigar community and I think we all got to witness a PCA 2023 is that everybody’s there to sell cigars, but they’re not pressuring you. You’re walking around, you’re talking to people if they know you like them, they move you. Hey, you might like these guys, and they introduce you to the next guy. You know, you also picked up one more brand too that you forgot to bring, you missed two.
Mike Glover 35:51
Ken forgot to bring out the next one.
Jake McCluskey 35:53
Ken forgot to bring out the next one. I don’t see a GTO box.
Mike Glover 35:57
There’s no GTO boxes.
Ken Thompson 36:00
We got a number. I mean, we picked up eight lines and we haven’t gone through them right.
Jake McCluskey 36:05
GTO is another veteran online. And they make great cigars. And I’m not a super strong cigar guy.
Mike Glover 36:16
The painkiller is phenomenal. It’s an awesome cigar.
Jake McCluskey 36:20
It is an amazing stick.
Ken Thompson 36:22
That word is gonna get banned from this show, we’re not gonna be able to describe is anything is phenomenal.
Jake McCluskey 36:28
So we’re gonna have a list of words that we’re not allowed to say after the show.
Scott Thieman 36:32
Just have a sign up here that says don’t say these words.
Jake McCluskey 36:36
But the thing is, with the show those if you walk around, and you’re genuine, and you’re talking to people, you’re gonna learn a whole lot. And with the cigar industry, you know, there’s people there and I got to witness and I’m not gonna call anybody out. But they walk up and they go, hey, what can you give me to help promote you, and you see these guys run them off. And if you ever get the experience to go to PCA 2023, the one thing I can tell you is you’re not there for you, you’re there, especially if you’re not a manufacturer, you’re not a retail shop. And you get, I’m gonna just say it this way, you get blessed to go in with somebody else. It’s not about, that go in there and hang out with the industry and just watch the industry. You’re gonna smoke the coolest cigars, there’s no doubt about it, they’re gonna offer them to you. But don’t be that influencer that saying, hey, I can do this. And I’ll post pictures. If you give it to me.
Ken Thompson 37:29
I personally saw one. I only saw one cigar Weasel there who had this huge bag had a frickin shopping bag. And he’s just going through to the different vendors and just like scooping up as much as he can. And these aren’t, the handouts are one at a time. But this dude’s he’s taking some and he’s just shoving it in the bag without even asking. I don’t know what retailer this guy was a part of, but he was definitely good his year’s worth of cigars.
Jake McCluskey 38:02
But that’s the thing if you go there.
Scott Thieman 38:04
I did notice that I didn’t say is how much the industry supports one another. It is only hospitality service that I know of. Alcohol, cigarettes, whatever you name it, where people actually, as Jake said, it will send you over to. Hey, have you tried this guy’s cigar? These things are phenomenal. And all of them did that. And I threw that in there just before.
And they just won’t tell you about it. They actually take the time, take you over there and introduce you to the person that owns the company. They actually go out of their way to help you.
Jake McCluskey 38:53
I don’t want to be a dead horse. But I want to defend phenomenon for just a second. I smoked a lot of cigars PCA 2023. I think you can’t go there and visit booths and not smoke a minimum of 8 to 10 cigars a day at PCA 2023. If you’re walking around. I smoke some pretty crappy cigars. No, no names mentioned. Not gonna call anybody out. Because everybody’s palate is different. What I think is crappy, you might think is phenomenal. But I will say that even though we use that word a lot today.
Ken Thompson 39:31
You use that word.
Mike Glover 39:32
We, the three of us use that word. Use that word a lot today. I would also defend that by saying every stick in our humidor is probably pretty close to a phenomenal if not a phenomenal stick because that’s what we want to carry.
Ken Thompson 39:51
We really don’t have any duds.
Mike Glover 39:54
We don’t have any duds in that Humidor. So again, my palate is different than, his palate is different than, his palate is different than, his palate is different than your palate, you’ve got to make the determination on your own. I’m just sharing with you my experience with these cigars, we wouldn’t carry these cigars if we didn’t enjoy them. If we didn’t think they were good construction if we had bad draw issues, if we have cigars blowing up in our hands, or if we had bad tasting experiences with any of these cigars, we wouldn’t carry them guys, that’s not who we are. We’re not going to carry a line just because somebody else is selling a baton of them.
Jake McCluskey 40:35
I mean, especially, I’ll defend Mike with this too. Every cigar in there we’ve all smoked, at least a majority of that line, and had conversations about it. Are they worth bringing in? And so when you’re picking up a cigar from Toro, understand, you’ve got years of experience and cigar smoking, going, hey, is this something that we want to share with more people, and that way, they don’t come to the site. And it’s not just like, some rep calls up and says, hey, I want you to carry the cigars. I doesn’t cut it here.
Mike Glover 41:16
And listen, I can tell you, no less than two or three times a week, I get people sliding into my DMs, Hey, can I send you some cigars? Sure. You know, these are boutique brands that want to get known, they want to get out there, they want to sell their sticks. There are sometimes reps and sometimes owners of boutique brands. And I’ll always say yes, please feel free, send us some cigars. And I will sit down with these three guys, and we will sit down and share them and smoke them. If we like them, we’ll look at the brand. But that just because we like it doesn’t mean we’re necessarily going to bring it in either. There’s a lot of decision making that goes into what brands we pull in, not just whether or not we like it. It’s got to be marketable, we have to think that our target market of cigar smokers would enjoy them and is at least aware of the brand. Because you know, we’re a small brand too, we can’t afford to market for every company that we bring on.
Ken Thompson 42:18
Turning into an infomercial.
Mike Glover 42:21
It’s okay, it’s our podcast.
Jake McCluskey 42:23
But I think it’s important though, for people to understand how you guys picked the brand. You’re not just saying hey, you gave me a phone call, give me 10 bundles, or give me 10 boxes, or give me 10 or whatever. And we’re gonna move on. There’s work that goes into that. So that you guys know, I mean, as a cigar buyer, I think it’s important to know, because how many shops take the time, how many people take the time to actually do that? And I’m not, you know, I mean, obviously, if you are going to human or 2000 facings. That’s not going on. But if we’re saying, hey, these are boutique brands, and these guys are doing it right, there’s a lot of work that went into deciding, did they do it right? Is this something that you guys are gonna back as a company, as a good quality stick? And again, like Mike said, not every cigar hits everybody’s tasting, though.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad cigar. You know, like me and Scotty talk about this all the time. I look at a cigar more to how does it burn. What’s the construction? You know, was it a good smoking experience. Even if I don’t like the taste of it, I’m not going to tell you it’s a bad cigar. Because it didn’t hit my flavor palate. And that’s the benefit of having four individuals that smoke a lot of cigars, looking at these because by doing that, we get that input. But if we can smoke a couple rounds of cigars from a brand and they have good construction, good burn, good quality control. We get a lot of insight, right?
Scott Thieman 43:48
We get in relationships with the companies and how they’re run.
Jake McCluskey 43:57
Like today, I smoke the La Madonna. And it’s a very strong cigar, it’s a great cigar. But when you’re walking into a limited run, like La Madonna, you know what you’re getting with the company. You know you’re gonna get a good stick, you know you’re gonna get a good burning. You know, it’s a strong cigar. I was actually trying to convince Ken to smoke a day just so you guys could watch King go green. Just got on film, so I thought it’d be hilarious. You know, but nonetheless, I couldn’t talk him into it. So I had to smoke it, twist my arm, I’ll smoke a great cigar. But you know, that’s the thing is it’s you know, and that’s the benefit of PCA 2023, right? You get to try the stuff, you get to talk to other people, you get to talk to other people smoking the cigar, be it a shop owner, another manufacturer, another person there that’s doing a podcast that’s there for media. And you get to hear about all those things on what they think of that cigar and that brand. And you get that education and that information. And that’s really what PCA 2023 is about, right? It’s about the community. It’s about the education and it’s definitely about the cigars.
Mike Glover 45:00
I agree.
Ken Thompson 45:01
You say community, but it is also industry.
Mike Glover 45:05
It is but industry is a community.
Ken Thompson 45:08
Yeah, that’s true.
Scott Thieman 45:09
It is a very different style industry.
Jake McCluskey 45:14
Right. I mean, because like, you know, you guys noticed…..
Scott Thieman 45:16
Because you know that if you went to like I said that any other hospitality, any trade show it’s almost, you know, Doggy Dog where it is not. I don’t see that as much with cigar industry.
Mike Glover 45:30
I think it’s because it’s so small. I mean, when you stop and think about it, it’s really a smaller community, the number of manufacturers, everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows what everybody’s doing. Everybody wants to know what everybody’s doing. And the bottom line is, there’s enough to go around for everybody.
Scott Thieman 45:52
That’s exactly right. And there is a cigar that will hit everybody’s palate.
Ken Thompson 45:58
Yes. Sounds like we’re wrapping this up.
Mike Glover 46:00
And I think we’re at the end. I think we’re at the end. All right, guys. We hope you enjoyed this episode. It was a little different than our normal episodes.
Ken Thompson 46:08
Now it was exactly like we normally do.
Jake McCluskey 46:11
Little more shit talking, a lot more fun. And, you know, we are what we are.
Mike Glover 46:20
We are what we are. We hope you enjoyed it anyway, regardless of you know how we act or behave. We hope you learned something on our phenomenal podcast. We hope you come back. Hope you have a phenomenal week. And we’ll see you next time guys.
Scott Thieman 46:35
Phenomenally.