Welcome back everybody to another exciting episode of the Toro Cigar Lounge podcast.
I'm your host Mike Lover aka 757 Cigar Mike.
Stay tuned today ladies and gentlemen you're not going to want to miss this one.
Today we're talking about cigar brands you should know about if you don't already.
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And we are back again.
I'm your host Mike Lover aka 757 Cigar Mike and today we are talking about cigar brands
that you should know about if you don't already.
You're not going to want to miss this one ladies and gentlemen.
There are some three kick ass brands we're talking about today.
All veteran owned companies all fairly new to the Toro Cigar Company website and these
are cigars that you will absolutely love.
So let's get right into it.
Who do we want to start with?
Let's start with.
I was just saying I said we do it when the order you brought them in.
Okay.
Go ahead Ken.
What were you going to say?
I believe that's Hermanos.
Okay.
Hermanos.
Okay.
Hermanos.
Brother in arms.
HDA.
Brother in arms.
And what an amazing veteran owned cigar brand.
Here is a box of the cataclysm.
Right.
We've got several in stock.
And they also do the veiled mutiny and the descending shadows, which I believe Ken is
smoking right now.
The descending shadows.
The best part about this brand is we offer the HDA sample pack.
So you can try if you've never tried HDA and you want to try their cigars.
This is the perfect, absolute perfect way to try their cigars.
Great three pack cigar sampler and you can't go wrong with them.
No.
So go ahead.
I was going to say what's cool about them is they actually took the time, a lot of time
to really learn about it.
And they didn't just like jump in feet first.
They took the time to get the education.
And I'll say this, they rolled those out and they really did drop three banging cigars
out the gate.
You know, they're like, it doesn't, there's not a, there's not, and you know, I mean,
I'm not a super dark rapper guy or strong cigar guy and every one of those was killer
out of the gate.
Yeah.
What I was going to say is like, this is, this is really not a first time cigar smoker
type of cigar.
This, this is like the connoisseur type of cigar.
This is, you've been smoking for a while.
You know what you like.
There's a lot of flavor.
I mean, it, this isn't something you hand to somebody who's never smoked before.
That's for sure.
Not, not one of them is going to be, going to be an easy, you know, light little smoke.
I would say that, you know, if I was going to hand somebody that was new to the cigar
world with them, hadn't smoked a bunch, the cataclysm was got to be the way to go.
Yeah.
Medium to medium plus, you know, Havana hits all the right tasting notes.
That's a cigar I'd be pretty confident to hand somebody that's new into the cigar world.
Well, new hasn't had a few cigars already though, right?
Yeah.
I wouldn't hand that.
I wouldn't hand you that as your first cigar ever.
No.
I mean, unless I didn't want you to come into the industry, then maybe I could use it to
get rid of you because you're a pain in the ass.
That's possible.
But, you know, but, but, you know, no, I mean, I, but even if you've only had, you
know, four or five cigars and you're really starting off, I think the cataclysm was very
approachable.
Yeah.
Um, you know, and so I really think they, they did it right, you know, and I mean, I
know we've all smoked a lot of them and man, their construction, their burn, their draw,
the things that, you know, that I look for in a cigar that aren't, you know, opinion-based
and they just, they, they hit it on the head.
Yeah.
You know, they just, they did it right, you know, because I mean, you know, I mean, I'm
not going to talk about taste, dude.
That's, that's personal.
Dude, that's your opinion on the taste.
And uh, I just don't care if you don't like the taste of a cigar.
That's you.
That's not the cigars fault.
Yeah.
Find what you do like.
So this, this has excellent, these, I have not smoked a single one.
That's had a single issue.
Excellent draw, excellent construction.
And the thing, one of the things I like, and I have to pull it back some to get the whole
thing on the screen is the size of it.
You can smoke this for like a solid hour or more.
If you're a slow smoker, this is over a solid hour smoke.
Each of them, the three that we carry are the same, same sizes.
But when, when you have time to, to sit in a joyous cigar, you have a substantial cigar
right here.
It's not a 15, 20 minute smoke.
This is a solid hour or more.
Oh yeah.
For sure.
And again, I think the, the Jake's point, you know, they're brand.
New cigar brand.
They are legitimately brand new.
They're what, three months old at this point, Jake?
Three, four months.
April.
April, I mean, officially, yeah, you know, but officially they came out, they got their
cigars and started, you know, moving them in April.
So, you know, five months, maybe five months old, five months.
But I mean, that, you know, again, like I said, I think they really took the time to
do the cigars right.
And then they really took the time to really get really good images and talk about their
cigars and really get the information out there.
And you know, it's all, you know, I think to be successful in the cigar world, you know,
being in the military and everything, right?
Details matter.
And you can't just, I mean, there's companies out there that we've had that have great cigars
that you've never heard of.
Right.
And you go online and you look and they have not that great images, you know, they're not
putting that, you know, they're not putting their best foot forward.
And these guys really took the time to like think about each one of those individual pieces
and make it happen and then released banging cigars to back it up.
Right.
And, you know, I think that's really important, you know, like the process they followed, you
know, and then they're just likeable guys.
Yeah, they absolutely are.
You know, Zach and his entire Andre, Zach and Andre did a great job.
I think they did a great job of industry research.
They did their homework before they just jumped in.
And I think a lot of brand new boutique brands don't take the time to do that.
They found the right factory.
They did their own cigar blends.
They worked with the master blenders at that factory.
They did their own blends.
They came up with their own unique cigar blends and their own unique marketing and branding.
And then they just did three cigars, all the same Vittola.
And that's it.
And that's all they're focused on right now is getting their brand out there to the world
and they're doing a great job doing that.
And you know, obviously working with Toro's a great first step for any new cigar brand.
But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, they're still they're doing a great job
getting into the lounges, getting into the breaking mortars.
And they brought on some good reps.
John Aldi comes to mind right off the top of my head.
He's out there killing it, knocking on doors and getting HDA cigars into shops all over
the Eastern Seaboard.
So it's great to see a veteran owned company start it, but do it the right way and come
out of the gate strong.
And there's no better way to do that.
There's a couple of others that we're going to talk about that are doing it right also,
which is why we're focusing on them today.
But at the end of the day, HDA is definitely kicking it out right.
And we're so glad that they're on board with us and we're on board with them and doing
some great things.
They will be at our Veterans Day event.
They plan on coming down for our Veterans Day event and they will be a sponsor of our
Veterans Day event on Saturday, November 9th.
You're interested in that.
Pay attention to social media and emails.
You'll be able to buy your tickets very soon.
And the other thing I was saying out there, if you're listening to this and you are a
veteran or law enforcement boutique or craft brand, right?
You're just starting out.
Man, hit one of us up.
You know, here at TORRA, we're always looking to support our veteran brothers or, you know,
our law enforcement guys, our firefighters.
Hit us up.
If we don't know you exist, hit us up.
You know, let's have a conversation.
You know, we found a lot of great cigars by somebody just, you know, some company reaching
out and saying, hey, have you heard of us?
Let's do something.
We've gotten quite a few.
So I think one of the things that's kind of a mistake is that a lot of brands would just,
they think that the last step is getting into the humidor.
You know, you've sold your cigars to the store, but there's another step after that.
You've still got to let people know why they need to smoke your cigar.
You've got to put it in front of people's eyes.
And sometimes if you just get it in our humidor, we can't do all of the work of selling the
cigars for you.
You've got to help us out there, you know?
And that's one thing that these guys have done with the way they market.
Yeah, they've been a great partner in helping us bring awareness with their brand.
And that's something that not every brand works with us so well on, but HDA was definitely
worth it.
So if you haven't tried HDA cigars, give them a shot.
Veteran owned company, three solid cigars.
You can't go wrong with any of them.
If you haven't had any of them, I suggest the sample pack.
That way you can try all three before you order a box or a five pack or something you
don't know if you even like.
Give it a shot.
Yeah.
I think you, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
All right.
Number two, that would be the second in order, silent hero cigars.
So we got, we got five different cigars and four different, four different styles.
So we got the Candela, we got a Habano, we got a, all right, help me out.
Okay.
So we have a Habano box for us, a Connecticut and a Maduro.
And a Maduro.
And there's two Habanos.
Yes.
There's a regular and a box for us.
Yes.
And then the Candela.
And then the Candela, right.
Right.
So another, another, imagine that veteran owned cigar company brand new.
And the owner is a name is Bryce.
And man, we just absolutely love this guy.
He is so salt in the earth and down to earth.
And you know, he's one of the few veteran owned cigar companies that's actually trying
to actively give back to the veteran community.
And the way that he does that is 10% of all of his cigar sales, all of them go back to
a veteran nonprofit organization to support veterans, PTSD, dog zinc, a variety of different
things.
I think he kind of tries to spread the wealth out as much as possible.
But at the end of the day, he's giving back 10% of his profit to support veterans, veterans
in the United States military.
And you know, I think he's the only one actively doing that right now.
I don't, I can't think of another brand that's that that's that's committed to that as a
business process.
So you know, hats off price, man.
You're, you're, you know, that alone warrants trying silent hero cigars.
If you've never tried them, that alone warns it.
But beyond that, the scar constructions, the flavors, he hands down his Candela.
That was my new favorite Candela period.
End of discussion.
Yeah.
And what's, what's nice with his is there's a cigar in that sample pack for any level
of cigar smoker.
Right.
I mean, if you're the guy who likes lighter cigars and you're starting to that journey
into stronger cigars, that's a great way to do it because you've got the Connecticut
and the Candela and you've got some in his Havana's are medium.
They're not, they're not over the top Havana's, you know, so, and then, and the Maduro is
only like a medium plus.
It's not even a full in your face.
And so the, the benefit is like, you know, if you're kind of just on that journey and
you're trying to figure out what you like and what strength, you know, you don't like
super strong cigars and you're trying to find stuff.
I think that's a great way to do it as a sample pack like that because you get the range with
it, you know.
And then every one of the cigars is good.
You know, everybody that smoked them that I know has enjoyed them a lot.
Right.
And then what, well, one thing you have to consider is if you're doing something good
by buying cigars, that's a great reason to buy cigars.
So if you have to justify this to your wife, if your wife is saying, what's, what's this,
what's this on the credit card we have here?
And you're like, listen, I'm doing good.
You know, I'm helping the world.
Come on.
I'm giving back.
We're giving back.
You and I are giving back baby to the veteran community together.
I gave you credit.
Well, when you say we, it ties them to that process.
We're giving back honey.
Just a few hundred dollars with the cigars and a lot of good in the world.
That's a lot of good.
You know, but no, 100% and that he started doing that.
And I mean, I know Bryce's story.
I've talked to Bryce.
I've talked to that Bryce on here.
I think that's why he's doing, he's looked at that as the beginning.
He understands the value of giving back the value of getting, you know, guys help the
value of a service dog.
And so, you know, it's really nice to see like from the beginning, he said, Hey, this
isn't an afterthought.
This is a, from the day one, this is what I'm doing.
Right.
Yeah.
It's not like a get rich quick scheme or get your, your face out there and into the industry
to try to be some sort of player or something like that.
And he's, he's definitely one of those, uh, few people who, who started with a very long
game in mind.
He didn't, this, this isn't some sort of just like hair, hair brain scheme that a couple
dudes got together and said, Hey, let's make a cigar.
Well, and you know, me and him have joked with the, with the going joke in the cigar industry,
how do you make a million dollars?
Start with two.
There you go.
Absolutely.
But you know, the most impressive thing about price to me is his age.
He's 26 years old and he's already, uh, he's an old soul.
I mean, honestly, he hangs out with 30, 40, 50 year old guys on herds with us and he fits
right in.
And he's like, he, you know, he's, it's like he's a brother.
He's just such an old soul and he thinks about the world in a much more mature way than most
of the 26 year olds I know in my life.
And, um, at the end of the day, that speaks volumes to me.
I'm so excited for him and his brand to see, I can't imagine where he's going to take this
by age 30, 35, 40, 45, or by the time he's 50, you know, hopefully he's the next Nick
Bardomo, uh, or Drew estates or, uh, Padrone cigars.
I mean, you never know, right?
What tomorrow's going to bring.
But if anybody at a young age has potential to do that, I see that in Bryce because of
what he did on his very first effort with cigars.
It's amazing to see.
I would have never been able to do that at 26.
There's no, no freaking way.
No, there's no way.
Yeah.
Other priorities.
I did.
Well, Bryce is seeing a lot of stuff that another that very few teenagers and young men has
seen is he's taken responsibility, uh, the responsibility of being a veteran.
And that doesn't come free.
You know, there's a big cost that he's paid, uh, to, to serve the country.
And so that's, that's part of what makes him an old soul is that he's, he's not innocent.
He knows what the world's like.
And so he looks past some of the, the money and the fame sort of things.
And, and it really has a foundation.
Absolutely.
No doubt.
Absolutely.
No doubt.
And he's doing, he's killing me.
He's just, he's such a nice guy.
We're going to have him back on the podcast.
I think, you know, uh, we'll try to set that up.
And, and we've had him on as a veteran spotlight.
And yes, we did talk about, uh, Silent Hero cigars on that, but mostly refocused on Bryce
and his veteran service, but we should definitely have him back as a manufacturer, as a guest
on the, on the podcast and just focus on the cigars.
And because he's got a great story.
He's got a great, um, uh, attitude and personality and you guys are going to love them.
And if you don't fall in love with him and his cigars, you know, you don't have a heart.
Yeah.
You can participate in his story by experiencing his cigars.
Exactly.
Yeah.
No, he's, he's one that, uh, that sample pack, I will tell everybody is, is well worth it.
You're going to enjoy it all.
Oh yeah.
All right.
So as soon as you get it, smoke the condola first, you won't be disappointed.
Well, yeah, I agree.
I think, I was going to say something.
I'm going to let everybody make their own mind up, but here we go.
Okay.
Uh, moving on to the latest edition and by latest, I mean this past week, we've added
BAMF cigars, badass motherfucking cigars.
Woo.
Man, it's just a phenomenal guy and Ken's holding up the nine cigar sampler and that's
almost not quite, but almost every cigar in the lineup for BAMF cigars.
And I'm actually smoking one of the green kips right now.
It's a shape like a bullet and it's got a green tip, candela tip.
Uh, it's hard to see.
There we go.
Um, but wow, what, what a great line.
What a great guy.
What a veteran own.
Now Jake, I'm going to address this with you specifically because you've addressed
this on the internet because I know how you like to challenge internet trolls.
Ish is a veteran tour faults.
100% true.
He didn't serve in the United States military.
So exactly.
Really?
So you're only imagine if you're serving the US military, what military you served
in, if you like, well, unless it's like, you know, North Korea.
Yeah, that doesn't count.
You know, if you're a Taliban military, that doesn't count.
But if you're a Taliban, yeah, that's not military.
That's not really a military anyway.
You probably have a nice beard though.
You probably have an excellent beard.
If you've served in any country in Europe and the military and you served honorably,
you're a veteran.
You put the uniform on.
You, it's pretty, it's pretty straightforward.
Did you sign on a dotted line?
Your ass over to your government to abuse as they see off fit for a certain period of
time to put your life on the line, to put your life on the line to serve your country.
And it's, it's, it's dead.
And he's got a great story, but just not his story.
His cigars are so uniquely different.
Oh, unique is the keyword there.
Unique.
There's no other way to say it.
They're unique.
If you have a smoke, like, you know, we know that you, you know, we got the blood of Lottin
and they sold out in what 48 hours?
48 hours.
The camera, the camera, 30 minutes, less than 30 minutes.
They were gone.
The thing is like, who else is using Transylvanian tobacco?
You know, he's got the Irishman using Irish tobacco or the Mafioso using Italian tobacco.
Nobody else is doing this stuff.
So his cigars are really unique.
And people like with, you know, with the blood of Lott, the one thing that, you know, how
many times have we been asked, well, what's the cars that like, it's not like another
cigar.
Yeah.
What are you going to do in something like him?
You know, so his are really unique.
And even his cigars that don't use those really unique tobaccos, even his other cigars are
unique because he doesn't want them to be like another cigar.
He's worked very hard and put the time into make them not be like another cigar.
You know, or like, you know, his African piero that's not the camera that's a 660 African
piero, it's got five or six different regions of Africa, African tobacco in it.
That's all that's in it.
Yeah.
Well, who else is doing it?
Nobody.
You got one that's shaped like a shotgun shell, which is pretty kick ass by itself.
I mean, just, just, just to smoke something that's looks like a shotgun shell.
It's an interesting concept.
It's a cool idea.
I love it.
But, but that's a great cigar and it's a great under $9 cigar.
Yeah.
You know, and that's a great cigar.
Like if you have a union job, right?
You got a job where you get 15, 20 minutes to have a smoke break.
That's a perfect cigar for a smoke break.
Yeah.
You have your cigar, you get to unwind a little bit, you go back to work.
Yep.
You know, and like, and I really think there's a lot of, I think he's just had a lot of thought
into what he's doing, right?
It's not like, oh, I'm going to do this as cool.
I'm going to do this as fun.
You know, he does a lot of it to pay homage to his past, to pay homage to his brothers.
He also does a lot of it to be different and unique.
And he really, really he is probably the most unique cigar brand out there.
And I'm stoked that, you know, Toro's carrying it.
I mean, me personally, you know, the African Cameroon Piro is one of my top three favorite
cigars ever.
I mean, it holds two, it's currently BAMP cigars is holding two of the spots of probably
my favorite cigars and the top five, you know, and it's the Transylvanian, the Bulls.
The Blood of Lod and the African Cameroon Piro.
I mean, those are just two amazing cigars, but it's great to see somebody doing something
different.
Oh yeah.
And when you talk about different, you got something like the barbed wire.
I cannot wait to smoke this cigar according to, yeah, according to Isis, as far as I can
tell, that's just one of his top sellers right there that.
Yeah.
That is his number one top seller.
It's a very cool cigar.
Yeah.
And, you know, we learned something today.
We had him on an earlier recording session podcast, which you guys would see, have seen
last week.
Last week, couple of weeks ago, sometime recently, was that that additional little barbed wire
wrap around it serves two purposes.
One is aesthetics is the look.
And so you get to name it the barbed wire.
But number two, it cools the burn down.
So when you start, when the wrapper starts approaching that barbed wire wrapping on the
outside of it, it slows down the burn of the wrapper.
So it cools it down and maintains your flavor.
It doesn't overheat the cigar.
Learn something new every day in this industry, ladies and gentlemen, every day.
And you know, like you said, we had this on a past show.
I think it's really cool that he's about, you know, next year, 2025, he's released in
a car, a cigar called around the world.
It has tobaccos from 17 different regions in it.
Like I have no idea what that's going to taste like, what it's going to be like.
But you know what?
I'm excited to find out.
Like I'm really excited about that.
Like of all the stuff I've heard coming out of all the stuff you see, you know, you hear
in the industry, that's the one thing I can really say I'm really excited about is that
cigar.
So I would say I'm going to say something about that.
So prior to smoking issues, blood of VLOD cigar, I would have second guessed that I would
have said some tobaccos from around the world, from Italy, from Europe, all I would have
been like, you got to be kidding me.
What's that cigar going to taste like?
I'm not interested in that.
I want DR.
I want Nicaraguan tobacco because that's my go to.
After smoking the blood of VLOD and the Transylvanian tobacco, I'm with you, Jake.
I am a hundred percent excited for the around the world cigar and to try that 17 different
tobaccos from 17 different regions.
I am beyond stoked for 2025.
I think he's going to release it at PCA.
We'll be there.
So we're going to be early smokers of that cigar.
Well, I'm going to be gently because I'm scared of this.
I'm going to gently be twisting his arm come about January to see if there's any way we
might be able to sample, sample, provide feedback, be part of his tasting board.
Exactly.
That's the car because I'm really excited about it.
And like, and like, well, it really had them on.
The other one was like, I didn't know that the Irishman actually had Irish tobacco in
it.
And now I'm like, what's that going to be like?
Like that's my thought.
Like, okay, the Transylvanian is so good and so unique.
What's the Irishman?
Like that's literally how my brain is going at the moment is like, what's it?
What's the difference?
What's that like?
So Europe, right?
Has a much different growing season than South America's and, you know, Dominican Republic
and Nicaragua growing seasons much longer there.
But in Europe, just like North America, the growing seasons much, much, much shorter.
Yeah, one harvest instead of two.
And the plants don't get nearly as tall, right?
So in the DR in Nicaragua, where you get a 36 or inch plant to harvest, you're talking
about 18 or 20 inches to harvest in Europe.
So the flavor profiles are going to be much different.
I'm super excited to give that a try as a boutique cigar guy.
That's who we are.
That's who Toro is.
Right?
We love experimenting and finding new brands and flavors for our audience and our customers.
And man, I am super, super excited about that around the world cigar.
Well, I can tell you who's probably not super excited about that.
And that's going to be the roller who has 17 freaking leaves in front of him.
Did I put this one in?
Did I put that one in?
Looking down at that recipe card, that's going to be interesting.
Right?
But I mean, that's the thing though, it's like, you know, because cigars are all about the
experience, right?
We talk about this all the time.
And there's hundreds, if there's thousands and probably hundreds of thousands of cigars
out there.
And, you know, the ones that we say, Hey, these are my favorite.
These are the ones I really enjoy.
It's not.
So I'll pick on you, Mike, like with the San Andreas rapper.
There's probably five or six that you really enjoy and one of them has climbed to the top.
But they're all very similar.
They are.
Right.
They are.
You get something like the Transylvanian.
There's nothing like it.
There's nothing to be similar to.
And I have a funny feeling the Irishman's going to be the same way.
And it's the experience, right?
Yeah, it's different.
Why?
Because nobody else is doing it.
Exactly.
And what's it mean?
You know, and that's the thing is like cigars are about the experience.
Then you get something that just kind of takes you and shakes you, you know, ruins everything
you thought about cigars.
And you're like, okay, what's next?
Now you look at cigars differently.
And actually, I'm going to say this.
I feel really bad for everybody that's bought the blood of lot.
And I say this because of this, it is going to change your outlook on all cigars.
It will.
And you're going to look at cigars completely differently.
And it's going to, it's just, it's going to happen because it's so different, so unique,
right?
That it's going to change.
You're just smoking a cigar and be like, oh, well, okay.
And you're, you know, and that's, that's the thing is like, it's really, I really think
it's game changing what he's doing.
You know,
Yeah.
So we're kind of on the cutting edge here.
This is like, this is like breaking news really because it really is.
Yeah, our, our audience is into boutique cigars, but, but not all of our audience.
So if you're one of those guys who are out there who just go to the major, you know,
you go to this major lounge, you pick the one thing that you smoked day in and day out.
Every time you hit the golf course, you got a peddermal or a peddron or whatever you got
in your hand, you got to, you got to dip your toe into the boutique or craft.
I think we, we should probably try to make craft the, the, the go to here.
John Alde would be happy with that.
Yeah.
Someone's got to, someone's got to really take the lead on that.
If you try these freaking craft cigars, it's going to change.
It's going to change you.
Right.
And even if you don't go to like the Transylvania, if you say, Hey, I'm going to, yeah, I smoke
legacy brands only and I want to go try a craft cigar to see what the difference is.
Get some HDAs, right?
Yeah.
And you're going to notice a completely different cigar experience.
I mean, you know, we talk about the guys occasionally, look at the guys over at cigar
dudes podcast.
I'll throw them a shout out, right?
Absolutely.
Right.
They were all smoking legacy brands, legacy brands, legacy brands.
They joined honor and ass with us.
We started talking about craft cigars.
They're like, what are those?
And now they're all like, what, what have we been missing this whole experience?
You know, so that's really where I think as a whole, the craft cigar industry is very
unique because they're doing stuff that other people aren't doing.
And in Mike, we've talked about this, you know, when Padrone or Fuente or LFD or whatever,
right?
Pick your major brand.
When they're rolling a cigar out, they're having to roll a cigar out that's going to
appeal to the masses, right?
Cause they're creating hundreds of thousands of these to make it up for it.
Right.
But then you get the boutique guys, all three of the ones we've talked about today.
They're not trying to create cigars for the masses.
They're trying to create cigars for the cigar connoisseurs.
I don't know if you think about craft beers versus regular beers, right?
Those craft beers aren't made for everybody.
They're made for the people that really enjoy something unique.
And, you know, and so it doesn't, you know, yeah, we're, we're talking a bunch about the
uniqueness of what it is to do because he took it to a different level, but still the
craft level is still completely different than the legacy level because they're doing
stuff that doesn't have to appeal for a million cigars to appeal to everybody.
They're getting to say, Hey, I'm going to do 10,000 of this really cool cigar and I
only got to appeal to a lot smaller audience and have something that's different from everybody
else.
Exactly.
You said you felt bad for people that, you know, try these cigars.
I tell you who I feel bad for, honestly, is the legacy brands.
And you have a craft cigar manufacturers that are doing this level of flavor experimentation
and doing it so well that once the average cigar smoker makes that shift to craft cigars,
legacies, I rarely smoke a legacy cigar.
Now, unless I go into a lounge and I, and I don't see a boutique or a craft cigar brand
on the shelf and I'm forced to smoke a legacy brand is the only time I'll smoke a legacy
brand anymore.
And it does happen.
You know, a lot of lounges, a lot of lounges just carry legacy brands and I understand why
they need to make sales and those are their go-tos.
But if they have a craft cigar on their shelf, I'm going to that brand right off the gate,
especially with somebody I've never heard of.
All right.
The legacy brands, they're probably at this moment when they hear you say that they're
just going to dump a pile of cash into a bathtub, sit and soak in that cash and cry
and dry their eyes with $100 bills and be like, oh, I wish I was the craft brand.
What I think is interesting too, the craft brands, right?
Look at like, look at how big the other craft industries are, right?
Like I talked about beer, right?
Blown up.
Craft whiskey and bourbon industry.
Blown up.
Why?
Because cigars is next.
But I think the reason is people want something unique.
People want and craft cigars usually what you find is the construction, the burn, you
know, the draw, that's a cigar, right?
If it's done right, it's across the board.
Yeah.
Look at that burn alone.
Perfect.
But when you get to craft, you get a different thing.
You get more tasting notes.
You get more pronounced tasting notes.
You get stronger tasting notes.
And you get them in very unique combinations that aren't the same as everybody else.
And that's where the craft cigar industry, I've not met a single person yet that started
the journey of craft cigars and went, oh, I don't like them.
I'm going back to legacy.
It's always the other way around.
It's soon as they get them.
I've no, I know guys that have cleaned humidor is out of legacy cigars to make room for craft
cigars because there's, you know, myself included, you know, when I finally hit the boutique
world, I had probably about 800 legacy cigars.
They were gone in three months and I did not smoke them all.
They were, oh, you need cigars.
You're short on cigars because of what this reason or that or, oh, you're getting married
and a bunch of your buddies are coming up and you need cigars.
Here's, you know, cigars.
I did whatever I could to free up room for craft cigars and never look back.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I agree.
It's a revolution that one of you said it earlier.
It's cutting edge and, you know, we're, we're right there on the cusp of it.
We're right there, you know, helping to bring craft cigar awareness to the average cigar
smoker.
So if you're a legacy guy and you haven't tried a craft brand, you know, check out Thorough
cigar company.com because it's primarily what we're caring to say this.
I'll say this.
If you haven't tried a craft cigar brand, you haven't smoked a cigar.
I think that's a fair statement.
If you haven't, if you haven't tried a craft cigar, yeah, if you haven't tried a craft
cigar brand and all you're doing is buying four or five legacy brands, you're missing
out and I don't, I'll tell somebody that, man, you're not really smoking cigars yet.
You haven't jumped over, get over the fear of it, buy them.
You might not like every one of them, but you know, go over to Thorough, buy some sample
packs.
Heck, I'm going to plug probably the safest sample pack on the site.
Go buy Ken's coffee sample pack and I guarantee there's going to be a craft cigar in there
that you're going to like.
Mine is the beginner, beginner cigar smoker, but then we do have a coffee sampler.
I will plug one other sample pack that I think if you have never tried craft cigars before
that you need to try and that's the family by loyalty sample pack.
If you've not tried a craft cigar, you're looking for a sample pack and you like full
flavor but medium body.
Family by loyalty is where you need to be for your, your first craft cigar.
You will fall in love with craft cigars.
You will never look back and then you're going to be hunting new and different flavor experiences
and hey, you know, we got a website full of them so you can hunt all day long to find
your favorite cigar.
Yeah.
If we got them in stock, I mean, they're in and out.
We announced something new.
People are snatching them up.
Don't worry if you see an out of stock, it'll be back at some point just to sign up for
that email reminder.
Yep.
Let me, let me, let me say this.
We don't know every brand out there.
We don't know every craft brand out there.
If you've got something that we need to know about, let us know about it.
We smoke tons of stuff that we, we don't sell because it's not necessarily in our wheelhouse
but people do need to know about all of those brands out there.
Absolutely.
I'm testing a new brand next week.
They reach out to me and there's a sample back coming in and I'm going to give them
a shot and if they're, if they're good as I've been told, I'll be reaching out and we'll
be getting them for everybody.
The rest of the guys on this and taking a look.
Yep.
Which we're happy to do.
We love exploring new brands, new flavors, new profiles.
And if it's something, I will say this, in order to get on the shelf in our humidor,
you know, it's by committee, no one person smokes a cigar and says, oh, we're bringing
this in.
It's not me.
It's not Ken.
It's not Jake.
It's all three of us have to go.
This is a great flavored cigar and a great quality cigar construction and it's a good
value, right?
The cigar is worth the price that the manufacturer is charging.
If any one of those is off, we pass politely, you'll probably never hear about it.
We don't do bad reviews because it might be somebody else's cup of tea.
They might like that cigar.
But at the end of the day, if you get through all three of us, we're going to put you on
the shelf, baby.
All right, guys, let's wrap this one up.
I think this was a great show.
Yeah.
Hopefully, hopefully everybody learned something.
Hopefully everybody learned a little something.
So if you liked the show, do us a favor.
Like comment and share on the video on YouTube.
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And you know, every little bit helps us reach a new and bigger audience.
So we appreciate it.
If you have questions, please drop your questions in the comment section.
If you have a question for one of our manufacturers, if you drop it in that comment section, we
will reach out to that manufacturer and we will get a response for you or we'll tag the
manufacturer and let them come and respond for you.
But at the end of the day, we love to hear from you.
We love the comments, good, bad, and even the ugly comments because every now and then
we do a comment show.
And I think we're overdue for one of those.
And I think we probably have some decent comments.
We can just do an entire show on responding to your comments or questions.
So it's been a while since we've done that.
I think we should put that on the schedule, guys.
Put that on the schedule.
And also, I want to throw this out there.
We are up to date on Rumble.
We just, we put a few, we put a few shows out on Rumble.
They didn't do much, but I think Rumble is probably going to do more in the future.
So we're up to date.
You can catch all of our shows there.
You're probably going to go live on Rumble soon.
So we want to get a kickstart there.
If you're on Rumble, look for us there.
That'd be great.
You can also find us on, what is it, iTunes podcast and...
Yeah, you can use it for the audio version.
Yeah, the audio versions are everywhere.
You can find podcasts.
You can find us.
Check us out.
Check out Taurus Cigar Company.
But guys, we appreciate you being here.
We appreciate you watching the show.
And as always, remember, be a man, smoke a cigar and carry a gun.
Till next week, guys.
We love you all.
Till next week.