Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Turnbuckles & Stogies - Sunday Morning Coffee and Cigars

Transcript

Turnbuckles & Stogies - Sunday Morning Coffee and Cigars · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

• 0:00
  The station where our veterans voices are heard MB R talk Hey
• 0:06
  thanks for supporting our channel by watching and
• 0:08
  listening find. Us on the web at MB radio dot.
• 0:41
  and if nobody at home knows who this guy is, this is the big
• 0:44
  dog. And he did get a tip from the
• 0:47
  Brooklyn prodigies earlier on. They had travel issues but not
• 0:52
  due to them being scared or anything like that.
• 1:45
  What is up? What is up?
• 1:47
  It is I, the big dog, the OG. Let me bring OG up and the
• 2:00
  vanilla gorilla. What is going on?
• 2:03
  Everybody has everybody doing this morning.
• 2:06
  What is happening OG? What's up, my man?
• 2:10
  What's going on? Happy Sunday.
• 2:12
  Happy Sunday. So today we are blessing you
• 2:18
  guys with two guests. We're going to have Bobby
• 2:24
  Knuckles from Knucklehead Cigars and Drifting Drams.
• 2:30
  But before we do that, let's talk about some NXT.
• 2:36
  I caught that ending. Did you see the ending of NXT?
• 2:41
  I I have not caught up on that episode yet.
• 2:46
  Why are you messing with my layout?
• 2:47
  Neither have I, but the ending was great.
• 2:56
  I'm going to let you know. Hold on.
• 2:59
  There's another Part 2 that is. There's another fight too, that
• 3:11
  is part of NXT. Now you know who he is.
• 3:18
  His father was in there and his father passed.
• 3:24
  So let's talk about GCW's homecoming.
• 3:32
  Well, night one, night one, tonight is night 2.
• 3:35
  Great fucking show. It was very good.
• 3:40
  Can't hear you, can't hear you Can't hear you.
• 3:46
  Can you hear me? It's frozen.
• 3:56
  Yeah, Can you hear me? I hear you Now.
• 3:58
  There we go. So did you watch GCW?
• 4:03
  No. What are you waiting for, buddy?
• 4:09
  There was a lot on last night though.
• 4:11
  It was a lot. You had ACW live from Barton
• 4:15
  Orchards last night, which that was.
• 4:18
  That was an interesting show to say the least.
• 4:20
  Yes, Barton's Orchard. That's another show I want to
• 4:23
  talk. About They also were pros, every
• 4:26
  last one of them, to be able to do that the way they were.
• 4:29
  Yes, because the ring broke. And like, you know, like they
• 4:31
  put out a tweet that said a kudos to those two guys because
• 4:36
  the ropes broke. Anybody else would have turned
• 4:38
  it into a brawl or something like that.
• 4:42
  And, and they were professionals and they went in there and
• 4:45
  actually gave you a match. Yes.
• 4:47
  Working with two ropes. So being that we have two people
• 4:52
  with us today, let's bring them up.
• 4:59
  And here we go. The interview of the week is
• 5:09
  brought to you by Jersey Mike's, a sub above.
• 5:17
  So we got Mr. Bobby Knuckles and drifting drams.
• 5:21
  What's up fellas? What's going up?
• 5:24
  Everybody, The whole. Lot going on.
• 5:28
  Well then just enjoy. Happy Sunday, man, Happy Sunday.
• 5:31
  Great day. It's nice out just hanging out
• 5:34
  man. Thanks for having me on.
• 5:36
  I appreciate it. It's really.
• 5:37
  Cool. Really cool.
• 5:41
  I don't have I don't have coffee, but.
• 5:45
  Well, I I got, I got a little left.
• 5:49
  Nice, nice, nice, Yeah, so. How's.
• 5:53
  How's. Everybody doing, man.
• 5:56
  Good. Good, good, good.
• 5:59
  So let's get into why you're on our podcast.
• 6:06
  You're on our podcast to let us know how you got into cigars,
• 6:09
  Bobby. Yeah, and drifting drams.
• 6:12
  You're going to tell us about your coffee, because I fucking
• 6:15
  love your coffee, by the way. Awesome, glad to hear it.
• 6:20
  Awesome, who wants to go first, Bobby or drifting drams?
• 6:23
  No, I want to hear. I want to hear about the coffee.
• 6:26
  So tell us about the coffee that you sent us.
• 6:30
  Which I'm drinking right now, which is the cigar blend.
• 6:33
  And. Oh yeah.
• 6:34
  I was drinking the ones that you sent us before.
• 6:39
  You drank. You drank most of them.
• 6:41
  Cigar, I think. Yeah, it was Cigar Blend and
• 6:44
  Action Jackson. Action Jackson.
• 6:46
  You drank most of them. Well, don't complain.
• 6:48
  You got two more. Shut up.
• 6:50
  What? Are you doing?
• 6:54
  That's what we like to hear, people fighting over our coffee.
• 6:58
  OG what are you drinking? I'm I'm drinking the the cigar
• 7:02
  blend. They sent me a couple of the
• 7:05
  Keurig cups. Yes, really cool.
• 7:07
  Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it.
• 7:09
  Excellent coffee. It is so tell us how you got in.
• 7:15
  Smoke this one. Putting out Cigar Blend in
• 7:18
  action Jackson's. Yep.
• 7:20
  So, so I mean, we started roasting coffee a few years back
• 7:24
  now as just a, a passion project, right?
• 7:26
  Just, we, we lived in Seattle for about 3 years, which was a
• 7:32
  really fun experience, but we're really glad we're packing about
• 7:34
  again. But when we came back down here,
• 7:37
  we couldn't really find great local coffee.
• 7:39
  And so we decided we'd do it ourselves, right?
• 7:42
  So we've been doing that for about 3 years now.
• 7:45
  I have gotten into cigars as almost a form of meditation,
• 7:51
  right? There's so I'm, I'm former
• 7:55
  military as well. And along with that plus work,
• 7:58
  there's everything, right? And so it's sometimes we need
• 8:02
  something to help us focus. And so I've gotten into cigars
• 8:04
  over the past three or five years as a result of that.
• 8:08
  And all coffee tends to go at least OK with a cigar, right?
• 8:14
  But we wanted to make one coffee that would go well with any
• 8:17
  cigar. And so that's kind of what we
• 8:20
  set out to do. We sent it to, I don't know, a
• 8:25
  dozen or two dozen people and tweaked it and tweaked it over
• 8:28
  the course of about three or six months until we can with what we
• 8:31
  have now. Similar thing with our churro
• 8:33
  blend as well. Both of them just made to to
• 8:36
  the. So the churro was made basically
• 8:38
  dessert. The cigar blend was made for
• 8:41
  just that, to bear with cigar, to work with anything.
• 8:45
  And yeah, so that that's what we started at.
• 8:47
  We, we just kept at it until basically until people stop
• 8:51
  wanting us to tweak it. And then we've said, OK, well,
• 8:54
  if nobody could find something wrong with it at this point, it
• 8:56
  must be good. So that's that's how Cigar Blend
• 8:59
  came around. Well, I'm going to tell you I
• 9:02
  normally drink beer on the podcast, but today I'm honoring
• 9:08
  you because I love your fucking coffee, bro.
• 9:11
  I need some more. I need some more coffee.
• 9:15
  Yeah. And then the action Jackson, we
• 9:18
  have three dogs, well, two dogs and then one is Ethan's mom.
• 9:23
  And so those are our three like core blends, which one is action
• 9:26
  Jackson, who is literally zero to 100.
• 9:29
  Then we have boss lady who that's why Ethan's in a folding
• 9:32
  chair because she's on the love seat next to me.
• 9:37
  And then the big, the big oaf is the great game Delilah.
• 9:40
  So that's why it's called a Delilah.
• 9:45
  You just took your head at her. So the action Jackson is meant
• 9:48
  to get you going. It has a little extra caffeine
• 9:50
  in it so it really like jumpstart your morning and get
• 9:53
  you ready. To I drank that at 6:00 in the
• 9:56
  morning. I was kind of wired up a little
• 9:58
  bit. You.
• 10:00
  Know so it's a very good coffee and I wish you very well and I
• 10:05
  want to thank you for your service and the service and man
• 10:09
  I got to tell you bro it is a good coffee the.
• 10:13
  Coffee, yeah, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
• 10:16
  The the cigar blend when you when I was brewing it was giving
• 10:21
  off like cinnamon, like a cinnamon, a cinnamon note as it
• 10:25
  brewed throughout. The whole.
• 10:27
  House. Yep, Yep.
• 10:30
  And it. It was interesting because
• 10:32
  that's the first time I've ever brewed coffee and had such a
• 10:36
  strong note just off of it being brewed go through the entire
• 10:40
  house. Yeah, yeah, we've, we've got a
• 10:44
  lot of guys who started off buying it to smoke cigars and
• 10:49
  their wives have requisitioned it after just smelling it while
• 10:53
  it was brewing, right. What?
• 10:56
  Is the average. Piece honestly, we're kind of
• 11:01
  all over the place. So our name drifting grams came
• 11:04
  because we were in the whiskey community first, as you can
• 11:06
  probably tell behind us, right? We, that's, that's kind of where
• 11:11
  we started, where we, it was just a, a fun, a fun community
• 11:15
  to be. And it still is.
• 11:16
  We're still a major part of the whiskey community.
• 11:19
  But so that's, that's the, the group that helped us kind of get
• 11:22
  started. And from then it's been super
• 11:25
  organic. We're, we're in, we get, we get
• 11:29
  a bunch of people who are cigar smokers.
• 11:31
  We've got what 3 or 4 different wholesale customers around the
• 11:35
  country now cigar lounges. And so we're, we're in the
• 11:40
  number of cigar lounges. So Pennsylvania, Arkansas, West
• 11:45
  Virginia, we were. With Torre for a.
• 11:48
  While where in. Where?
• 11:49
  In Pennsylvania, are you? So it's at the Cigar vault in
• 11:54
  Oakdale, PA, just outside. Oh yeah.
• 11:55
  That's not far. Yeah, That's not far from me.
• 11:57
  I live in Pittsburgh. Yeah.
• 11:58
  So. Yeah.
• 11:59
  So Gorman and. Miguel are huge supporters of us
• 12:02
  and have been for a long time and so they serve exclusively
• 12:05
  our action. Jackson as their espresso.
• 12:09
  I didn't know about you until Joey said, oh, I got coffee
• 12:11
  coming. I said, well, who else?
• 12:12
  Well, no. I had actually heard about you
• 12:14
  guys through the cigar clowns. Yeah.
• 12:16
  Right clowns, Joe and they. When they were on our show, they
• 12:19
  had actually mentioned you guys and I was like, oh, they're
• 12:23
  like, yeah, they're like, I know you guys like coffee and, and,
• 12:26
  you know, they made A and then he was telling us about your
• 12:28
  cigar blend and I'm like, that sounds interesting.
• 12:30
  I'm like, I have to, you know, reach out and and see if we can
• 12:35
  coordinated to have them on and, and, you know, drink their
• 12:38
  coffee while we're smoking and just kind of, you know, like he
• 12:41
  said, pair it together because that's what it was made for.
• 12:44
  And it's a really good pair. So now, Bobby, let's get to you
• 12:49
  about your cigars. Yeah.
• 12:51
  First of all, I want to thank, I want to thank everybody who
• 12:54
  served for thank you for your service, for sure.
• 12:57
  I have a son in the military now.
• 12:59
  He's in the Navy. He's currently serving.
• 13:02
  But I, I, I, I can't say enough about, about veterans and, and
• 13:07
  you know, people who serve this country.
• 13:09
  It's, it's it, it hits home with me, you know, and I really
• 13:13
  appreciate it. And so, but yeah, I, I started
• 13:17
  in January. I was in, I worked in the oil
• 13:21
  field for about 1515 years and it was time to get out.
• 13:26
  I'm getting too old for that stuff, man did say I'm 52 years
• 13:29
  old now, man. It's too hard.
• 13:31
  And so I decided that, you know, I was going to start my own
• 13:35
  brand. It's something that I always
• 13:36
  wanted to do. I've always had a passion for
• 13:39
  cigars. I've been smoking cigars for
• 13:41
  probably 20 years and I, you know, is, is crazy as it sounds
• 13:47
  like if I didn't do it now, I wouldn't do it.
• 13:49
  So I got in, I got, I got in contact with some people who
• 13:54
  have a tobacco area in Nicaragua and I got with them and we made
• 13:59
  a couple blends just, you know, just a, a lot of over the years
• 14:04
  smoking cigars, man, you just you, you, you find the ones you
• 14:08
  like, you find what you like about certain ones and you kind
• 14:10
  of dissect it a little bit. So I kind of just dissected
• 14:13
  different blends that I liked. You know, I was always a always
• 14:17
  a Drew estate smoker. I love Rojas, I love drone
• 14:21
  whoever, but I I it was just dissecting everything that I
• 14:26
  liked. It did come up with something
• 14:27
  that you know of my own. So I created the Habano, which
• 14:33
  you guys smoke the Habano, correct?
• 14:35
  That's what I'm smoking. Now is the Habano Thoro.
• 14:38
  OK, the Habano Thoro, I don't know which.
• 14:40
  One I'm smoking, I'm smoking. That looks like the Maduro
• 14:44
  that's what I had is there. Is there cellophane on it or are
• 14:46
  there no cellophane? Yeah, there was cellophane.
• 14:48
  Then that's the Maduro. Yeah, Yeah.
• 14:50
  That's how I told the difference, because if there was
• 14:53
  cellophane, then that was the Maduro.
• 14:55
  No, cellophane was the Habano I. Smoked Albano.
• 14:58
  I smoked the other one. It was freaking great bro.
• 15:01
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 15:02
  I like the the the Habano and the Maduro are the same exact
• 15:07
  blend. The only thing that I did is
• 15:09
  that Habano has an Ecuadorian wrapper.
• 15:12
  So even though it's Nicaraguan, it's not a Nicaraguan Bureau but
• 15:16
  have an Ecuadorian wrapper on the Habano.
• 15:18
  All I did is I took the same blend and I put a Mexican San
• 15:22
  Andreas on the Maduro. So.
• 15:25
  And when you do something like that, for a lot of people who
• 15:28
  don't know, just by changing the wrapper can completely change
• 15:33
  the entire blend of the cigar it it.
• 15:35
  It it changed the whole profile. I mean, yeah, with the Habano,
• 15:39
  you know it, it's the the Habano's pretty consistent
• 15:41
  flavor wise the whole way through.
• 15:43
  I see it like, but with the wrapper on the Maduro, this one,
• 15:48
  the Maduro seems to change a couple of times.
• 15:51
  Like you get that pepperiness, then you get that cocoa, then
• 15:54
  you get that kind of like vanilla Y marshmallow flavor
• 15:58
  through it and then it ends peppery again.
• 16:00
  The Habano is seems to be a a little bit more consistent.
• 16:04
  And you're right about the wrapper.
• 16:05
  It's amazing what a wrapper can do.
• 16:08
  You know, it's it's, it's, it's it's I, I didn't know.
• 16:12
  I learned that over over time and, you know, but yeah, so I, I
• 16:17
  got into it in January, opened up an online store.
• 16:21
  I'm in a couple shops around Pittsburgh.
• 16:24
  I'm in Punta Gorda, FL, Uniontown, Belle Vernon.
• 16:30
  I'm slowly growing. I'm actually this week I'm going
• 16:34
  down to talk to the Leaf and Bean.
• 16:36
  I don't know. You guys are familiar with Jim
• 16:37
  Robinson Island, Jim. Yeah.
• 16:40
  Yeah. So I'm going to go down.
• 16:41
  I talked to him the other day and he's in St.
• 16:44
  Augustine, FL, but he told me to come.
• 16:46
  I'm going to go down and talk to his manager down there and
• 16:49
  hopefully bring him into the Leaf and Bean as well.
• 16:51
  So it's been, it's been fun. It's not easy.
• 16:55
  It's just like anything, man. It's a lot of work.
• 16:57
  It's a lot of regulations, a lot of hoops you got to jump
• 17:00
  through, man. We're we're, we're getting ready
• 17:05
  to put out our own cigar just. As kind of like a a test run
• 17:11
  just to see. Our cigar is coming out.
• 17:14
  OK, probably. By the end of September, it's
• 17:20
  it's called the well. I don't know what we're going to
• 17:23
  call it. I don't know what our name for.
• 17:26
  It's going to be well. Anyway, it's like the pig.
• 17:29
  It's. A It's a small, almost like a
• 17:33
  flying. It looks kind of like a flying
• 17:35
  pig. She's a little smaller.
• 17:37
  OK. But that's, that's kind of what
• 17:42
  we decided on for the first run, just to kind of set us, set us
• 17:46
  aside because a lot of people don't use that size.
• 17:49
  Sure. And it was just like when we
• 17:51
  were smoking them, you know, kind of like you, we were trying
• 17:53
  to figure out what we like, what we didn't like.
• 17:56
  And we've smoked, you know, a a robusto, a Toro.
• 18:02
  Those are your two common sizes, you know.
• 18:04
  Yeah, it went. To like we did a Connecticut
• 18:06
  robusto, A Cameroon Lancero 7 by 42, but you know, Toro Hobano,
• 18:11
  Toro Maduro and then the little, as I say, pig size.
• 18:17
  I don't. Want to be like everybody else
• 18:18
  and put out the same stick if. I can put out if I can.
• 18:22
  Put out a pig, as I call it a fine pig, so is.
• 18:28
  It it's more like it's more like a nub size then or more like
• 18:31
  like do you ever have the firecracker from a caliph?
• 18:35
  Hold on, I'll show you. I have a picture of it.
• 18:37
  Let me see what he said it is. It's called.
• 18:40
  It's called the. Aftershock that's.
• 18:42
  What it looks like. Oh.
• 18:44
  OK, Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's awesome.
• 18:46
  Yeah, not a lot of people do that because it's supposed to be
• 18:51
  a limited and ours is going to be a limited per SE.
• 18:58
  So, you know, we're trying to combine things together to put
• 19:06
  our name. I mean, we've been doing this
• 19:08
  going on four years. And when we started, it was me,
• 19:11
  Joey and OG and OG left and it was me and Joey.
• 19:17
  OG came back this this year. So, you know, this was in the
• 19:22
  works after he left, but our next, our next, our next run,
• 19:29
  he's going to be included. You understand?
• 19:33
  And people think, why do you do that?
• 19:34
  I'd say because me and Joey did this.
• 19:38
  It was me and him by ourselves. I got the contact, I called him
• 19:42
  up. He sent us cigars, we smoked
• 19:45
  them. He printed out the labels for us
• 19:46
  and they were great. And I'll tell you right now when
• 19:50
  they come out, I hope everybody can buy them and like them.
• 19:53
  And if you want them, Joey give you the information for sure.
• 19:56
  Or, if you want Bobby Knuckles. And that's what your label's
• 19:59
  going to look like. That's what your.
• 20:00
  Label's going to look like that's.
• 20:02
  That's that's a that's a that's a bad ass label, man.
• 20:05
  They. Look basically like the the bag
• 20:08
  behind us, it looks like we took, we had them take kind of
• 20:13
  our championship belt in the middle and essentially put it on
• 20:19
  our cigar bands. So yeah, that's, yeah, that's
• 20:21
  awesome. That's awesome.
• 20:23
  So let me ask you this, Bobby. Have you, have you decided, or
• 20:28
  have you and drifting drams decided to work together to get
• 20:33
  you a coffee to go with your cigars?
• 20:37
  I, I've, I've actually been kicking that around and actually
• 20:40
  I would like to do that. I was thinking I would like to
• 20:42
  come out with a knucklehead coffee, to be honest with you.
• 20:44
  So yes, Well, dude. We got the people right here.
• 20:46
  Talk to them bro. This.
• 20:48
  We're going to. Yeah, what the for sure, Bobby.
• 20:51
  Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great.
• 20:53
  Let's, yeah, let's, let's definitely talk about it because
• 20:56
  I can, I can get them. I can get the coffee in the
• 20:58
  cigar lounges and I'll put it on my, on, you know, on my score,
• 21:01
  you know, But yeah, it's definitely something I want to
• 21:04
  do. I love coffee.
• 21:06
  I love coffee with a cigar, you know, and so far I've heard
• 21:10
  great, you know, great things about it.
• 21:11
  I, I definitely, I, I, I for sure want to try it.
• 21:14
  I want, I'm interested in that cigar blend for sure.
• 21:17
  And then maybe yeah, let's, yeah, let's that cigar.
• 21:20
  Blend is is interesting when you brew it, Bobby, it really is.
• 21:23
  It is. It yeah, you still did a lot of
• 21:25
  like cinnamon. It's such a different.
• 21:28
  Like almost like aroma that you wouldn't get from a regular
• 21:33
  coffee, whether it's a dark roast, a regular brew, espresso,
• 21:37
  it's, it's a totally different aroma when you're brewing it.
• 21:41
  It's it's wild. So.
• 21:42
  OG What do you think about the coffee?
• 21:45
  I listen, I got, I didn't get the cinnamon.
• 21:48
  I got a little hint of cinnamon, but I got more like of a caramel
• 21:52
  kind of to my coffee. Excellent coffee.
• 21:55
  I love it. And what a fantastic like coffee
• 21:59
  and cigars are just a natural pairing.
• 22:02
  I mean, if you think about coffee and cigars, they're
• 22:05
  essentially grown in the same environment and they're sharing
• 22:09
  the same nutrients in the soil together.
• 22:12
  So it's natural to have those, you know, those common earthy
• 22:16
  flavors, those common cocoa, you know, the nuttiness, the
• 22:21
  woodiness, that's kind of common bond that cigars and coffee
• 22:25
  have. So it's just a natural pairing,
• 22:27
  you know what I mean? It's, it's, it's great.
• 22:30
  And when, then when you can bring a specialty coffee like
• 22:33
  this into the mix and really tap into the nuances of the cigar
• 22:42
  through the coffee, because the acidity in the coffee enhances
• 22:48
  those flavors of the cigar. And I feel like in this
• 22:51
  particular blend that you guys sent me, I think you did a great
• 22:54
  job. I, this is my first knucklehead
• 22:57
  cigar I've ever had and I, I loved it.
• 23:01
  I took my first two puffs before I I took a sip of the coffee and
• 23:06
  almost immediately, like you were saying before Bobby, like
• 23:09
  this, almost when after I took the sip of the coffee, cleansed
• 23:12
  my palate. I got more out of the cigar
• 23:15
  instantly after that first first sip of the coffee.
• 23:19
  So both of you guys, thank you for coming on.
• 23:22
  This is listen, I'm just loving sitting back and listen to you
• 23:27
  all talk, man. I'm learning a lot from all you
• 23:29
  guys. Yeah, you are.
• 23:31
  You are right OG. It brings out a sweetness in the
• 23:33
  cigar. So let me ask you a question.
• 23:39
  Do you smoke cigars besides your husband?
• 23:43
  No, I do not. I, I, I can.
• 23:48
  I like to smell the cigars and that's kind of where I come in
• 23:52
  where I have like an idea for a pairing for a coffee because we
• 23:55
  do cigar and coffee pairings and whiskey pairings with some
• 23:59
  friends of ours on YouTube. It used to be once a month we
• 24:02
  took the summer off and we're going to start that up again.
• 24:05
  So we kind of vet these pairings and then send it out to people
• 24:09
  that want to sign up for it and come together.
• 24:11
  But I get to kind of do the first round of, hey, this is a
• 24:15
  cigar. What do you think is going to go
• 24:16
  well with it? And so I'll roast some, it'll
• 24:19
  sit for a little bit and then Ethan will go ahead and try the
• 24:23
  pairing out and say yay or nay. And then we, then we get it out
• 24:28
  to, out to the folks that, you know, signed up for it.
• 24:32
  So can you? Can you?
• 24:34
  Oh, sorry. Perfect.
• 24:36
  Oh, I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry.
• 24:37
  No. No, no, no, please.
• 24:39
  You go. You go if.
• 24:41
  You're looking for, if you're looking for something to smoke,
• 24:43
  maybe to just start out. I actually have a chocolate
• 24:46
  Hobano. Oh.
• 24:48
  That's fun. Yeah, it was something I messed
• 24:50
  around with. I got AI got a couple bundles of
• 24:52
  them, you know, just to see how, just to see how they would do.
• 24:56
  And if you're interested, I'll, I will send you, I'll send you
• 25:01
  one or two if you want to try them out.
• 25:02
  It's, it's, it's, it's an odd, it's, it's like, I don't want to
• 25:05
  say it's infused, but it is infused.
• 25:07
  But basically they took the Hobano and rested it in a room
• 25:11
  with a bunch of infused cigars and it came out as a, as a, as a
• 25:15
  chocolate. And I mean, I got people that
• 25:17
  people are like, like when I, I'm talking to them, I probably
• 25:22
  going to get more of them, But I talked to him about it the other
• 25:25
  day and they, they're, it's going to be a little while, but
• 25:28
  I do have some if you're interested in trying them.
• 25:30
  I mean, it's a nice, it's a nice after dinner smoke.
• 25:32
  It's a nice like if you're not, if you want something a little
• 25:35
  bit sweet, you know, just to kind of like start out with it's
• 25:39
  it's it's the perfect cigar. You know, I even have friends.
• 25:42
  I have friends that you know that they won't, you know, don't
• 25:45
  smoke infused like your acids, your fat pawn and Betty's
• 25:48
  whatever, which I have nothing against them.
• 25:50
  I I, I don't mind them, but they, they even, they even like
• 25:54
  the die hard smokers, man, they're like, they're like, what
• 25:57
  the Hell's up with this chocolate freaking cigar?
• 25:59
  I didn't, I didn't, I didn't have them at the time.
• 26:00
  I was going to send you guys some, but I didn't have them at
• 26:02
  the time, but I have them now. So I'll get you guys some too
• 26:05
  for sure. But it's interesting, man.
• 26:07
  It's it's an interesting blend, but I don't know if it's going
• 26:10
  to take off. It's just, I just messed around
• 26:12
  with it, you know, I mean, it's. Always good to have something
• 26:15
  like that in your portfolio because there is somebody who's
• 26:19
  not going to want to smoke, you know, a regular Habano or a
• 26:23
  regular Maduro. They're going to want something
• 26:25
  different. And sometimes those blends
• 26:28
  because that, like you said, they're not infused, but they,
• 26:31
  they did it the right way and let it rest in that kind of room
• 26:35
  where they didn't infuse the leaves themselves.
• 26:38
  They just let the natural kind of sense from all of their,
• 26:44
  their cigars rest in that room. And it it just, it seldom made
• 26:48
  something good so. Guys, on that note, we got to
• 26:51
  take a 5 minute break and we'll be right back.
• 26:53
  All right, let's go with that one.
• 31:27
  What is up What is up? We are watching turnbuckles and
• 31:30
  stogies pod. Check us out on all streaming
• 31:33
  networks, including. Amazon and Roku and.
• 31:35
  Roku Yes, and we got to give a shout out to all our sponsors.
• 31:41
  Jeez, I can't even go through shout out to all our sponsors.
• 31:44
  NBR Radio. Come on, Roc.
• 31:49
  Jersey Mike's baby Jersey Mike's.
• 31:51
  Jersey Mike's NBR Radio actually big shout out to our merchandise
• 31:58
  sponsors, our new found partnership with the great
• 32:01
  people over there at 4 Johns apparel if you.
• 32:04
  Want our stuff go to 4 Johns. We got turnbuckles.
• 32:07
  And we got the first drop of merchandise on there.
• 32:10
  You have the LJN inspired turnbuckles and Stogies action
• 32:14
  figure design. You have our logo which you can
• 32:18
  see on the flag behind us. You have the logo that 4 Johns
• 32:23
  created for us as well as the first exclusive 4 Johns and
• 32:28
  turnbuckles and stogies hat is live on the website.
• 32:31
  Go there, pick yours up. They make some great
• 32:35
  merchandise. They have a shirt that has all
• 32:37
  of the wrappers on it for your cigars.
• 32:40
  Well, don't. Get the one I got.
• 32:41
  That. One's not up there anymore.
• 32:42
  He hasn't put it back up yet. They have Smoke and Sounds
• 32:46
  podcast on there. They have limited run
• 32:49
  collaborations with other podcasts as well.
• 32:53
  But those guys over there are great.
• 32:55
  They're veteran father and son team that they they were on the
• 32:59
  show. If you go back and look at their
• 33:01
  episode, we we talked all about them and kind of their journey
• 33:05
  into cigars and doing merch. And then after the show was
• 33:09
  over, we kind of sat down and had a conversation and, you
• 33:12
  know, now we are exclusive partners with them and it's us
• 33:16
  and smoking sounds and two of their exclusive podcast
• 33:19
  partners. So, so big shout out to the team
• 33:22
  over there for everything they're doing.
• 33:23
  And they, they're good because they like working with us.
• 33:26
  And I kind of send them designs and we throw back and forth and
• 33:29
  kind of meet in the middle at sometimes on what'll work best
• 33:32
  and what won't. But those designs that they
• 33:34
  have, you won't see anywhere else.
• 33:37
  Correct. You won't see anywhere else but
• 33:39
  for John's shout. Out to.
• 33:41
  Him I got questions, I got questions for coffee.
• 33:44
  I got questions for Bobby and his cigar.
• 33:47
  So Bobby, I'm going to I'm going to come back to you after, but I
• 33:50
  got to get back to coffee. I don't just drink coffee.
• 33:53
  I'm a coffee affectionato. I it is in my bloods.
• 33:57
  I'm pretty sure my blood is made-up of 99% caffeine.
• 34:03
  I live off of it. So for the coffee aspect, where
• 34:09
  do you where are your beans grown from?
• 34:11
  What? What beans do you guys utilize?
• 34:14
  Is it 1? Is it several?
• 34:16
  And how involved are you in the process of actually making the
• 34:21
  coffee? Yeah.
• 34:22
  So we actually, we have some wholesale suppliers websites
• 34:27
  that we go through, right. One of our big ones is Genuine
• 34:30
  Origin where they work directly with the farms to import it into
• 34:34
  the US and then we buy 65 LB boxes of green beans from them.
• 34:39
  So our possibility, possibilities of different
• 34:44
  origins are endless. So for like the Cigar Blend, for
• 34:47
  instance, it's, it's made-up of two different beans.
• 34:51
  It is Colombian and Tanzanian. So the Tanzanian gives it a
• 34:56
  little bit of fruitiness. The Colombian is like the big
• 34:59
  chocolate punch that you get. And then there's a company out
• 35:03
  of, I think it's out of New York, NY and Florida that you
• 35:07
  know, offer infused beans that then we use for that plant to
• 35:13
  get it to go to it's, it's not like your typical flavored
• 35:19
  coffee, right? Right, it's not.
• 35:22
  All flavored, it's a very small percentage.
• 35:25
  It's like less than 10% is flavored and OK, you don't need
• 35:30
  much. Yeah, think.
• 35:32
  Of it like what Bobby said where he had the the the semi infused
• 35:36
  cigars by putting them with other infused cigars, right.
• 35:39
  It's that kind of relationship where it's got a hint, but just
• 35:42
  a hint. It's not like you're like.
• 35:44
  Over overpowering or anything? So yeah, we source, we source
• 35:50
  beans. Like right now we we have a new
• 35:53
  one that we have from Nicaragua that is berries, chocolate, a
• 35:57
  little bit of lemon. We love it.
• 36:01
  And then as far as how we get them green so they're unroasted
• 36:06
  and then we roast them 2 lbs at a time.
• 36:08
  We have a very small roaster. So we are doing on a very small
• 36:13
  scale and I roast, I roast primarily all the coffee and we
• 36:18
  roast it to order. So if you place an order on our
• 36:20
  website, then we roast it within, you know, the week and
• 36:25
  then mail it out so it is freshly roasted.
• 36:27
  We grind coffee to French press, espresso.
• 36:32
  I'm happy to work with people on grind because a lot of people
• 36:35
  use mocha box and so it's a little bit different of a grind
• 36:39
  than an espresso or a drip. It's somewhere in the middle.
• 36:44
  But you know, we're small enough that we still offer like we're,
• 36:49
  we're easy people to get a hold of.
• 36:53
  And so yeah, that's, that's kind of how we our operation here.
• 36:57
  And it's a passion project still the full time jobs.
• 37:01
  So it's, it's a it's a passion project that's something that we
• 37:05
  enjoy doing together. So.
• 37:07
  Do you do this? What's your?
• 37:08
  What's your? Like what's?
• 37:09
  Your What's your preference? Personal preferences when you're
• 37:14
  making the coffee, meaning do you like a French press?
• 37:18
  Do you like the pressed coffee? Do you like, you know, to grind
• 37:22
  it yourself and in a regular coffee pot?
• 37:25
  Are you a, what do you call a pod user?
• 37:28
  Do you like the little K-Cup pods?
• 37:30
  Like what's your personal preferences when it comes to
• 37:33
  your personal consumption of coffee?
• 37:37
  Yeah, so. As far as like the the best,
• 37:43
  I'll say value for effort, it's got to be the mocha pot, right?
• 37:47
  It's you get like that almost espresso level.
• 37:50
  It's thick, it's oily, it just drips, you know, So that's got
• 37:56
  to be the my favorite, right? But day in and day out, we're
• 37:59
  drip users. We've got a a good drip machine
• 38:01
  downstairs and we grind it usually the night before and
• 38:06
  then it's set up to automatically brew in the
• 38:07
  morning, right. Just the the real key in most
• 38:11
  places most places, but. The the pot that we have, it
• 38:14
  almost simulates a pour over where it blooms the coffee.
• 38:17
  So by blooming, you know, we pour a little bit of water, let
• 38:20
  the ground soak in the water for, you know, 30 seconds or so
• 38:24
  and then it to saturate them and then then it drips.
• 38:28
  So that's, that's the pot that we use.
• 38:31
  Just there's so many, you know, there's there's two of us here.
• 38:34
  And then his mom comes over and is here too with us.
• 38:39
  And so we go through a lot of coffee.
• 38:41
  So if we want coffee, Oh, yeah, we gotta, we gotta make it in a
• 38:44
  little bit larger of a scale if we have the time.
• 38:47
  Yeah, yeah. For sure, yeah, I, I work in
• 38:50
  the, I work in the, my 9:00 to 5:00 is in the medical field.
• 38:53
  So I'm up at like 334 o'clock every morning.
• 38:56
  But it is, it is getting, it's hustling from the moment I wake
• 38:59
  up. So I'm not going to lie, I like
• 39:01
  the I like the K cups. I like a little pot cup because
• 39:04
  it's quick and it's easy. But I'm very particular in what
• 39:07
  I order. You can tell the difference by
• 39:10
  the way, at least I can in the K cups, whether it's quality
• 39:13
  coffee or not, almost, almost instantly, not even on the sip
• 39:18
  on on the brew when it's brewing that the aroma that comes out of
• 39:22
  it. You can really tell if it's an
• 39:23
  inferior quality bean or if there's a lot of artificial junk
• 39:29
  in it and pesticides in it. You can almost smell that on the
• 39:32
  initial brew. So I'm very particular when I
• 39:34
  order my K cups on. I have certain blends and brands
• 39:38
  that I only will drink in my K cups.
• 39:41
  Yeah, and so for K Cups, 'cause I know that's what we sent you
• 39:44
  guys, we fill them all by hand. So I grind it to a specific
• 39:50
  grind size for those cake hubs. Even found this company that
• 39:54
  sells them out of Seattle, like fillable ones.
• 39:57
  And the the nice thing about them is they have a filter
• 40:01
  inside that allows you to fill custom.
• 40:03
  Proprietary filter that. Allows you to fill them with
• 40:05
  more coffee. So I weigh it out by grams.
• 40:08
  So there's anywhere from 11 1/2 to 12 1/2 grams of coffee in
• 40:13
  each one of those pots. And it's all done by hand.
• 40:17
  You know, they have, they have the the seal already done, but
• 40:21
  you still have to go press it, you know, grind it, you let it
• 40:24
  wait, you let it off gas. If not, it'll pop that seal up
• 40:28
  if we're not careful, if we do it too quickly, especially in
• 40:31
  shipping, not ground, right? If we ship it air or something
• 40:37
  like that, then they could they could pop.
• 40:41
  So we're that's we fill them all by hand and.
• 40:44
  Yeah. But so in perspective, we popped
• 40:47
  open other pods from other brands, right.
• 40:50
  And six, 8 grams of coffee is what you're getting in those
• 40:53
  pods normally. So yeah, or sometimes instant
• 40:56
  coffee right after the after it brews, you've got an empty pod,
• 40:59
  there's nothing left. And so, yeah, you're absolutely
• 41:02
  right. There are a lot of companies
• 41:03
  that are, I would say phone at the end, right?
• 41:07
  They're they're doing cheap things.
• 41:09
  Exactly. Yeah, you're not getting as much
• 41:12
  coffee with certain brands. I won't say them.
• 41:15
  I won't say them, but yeah, I know.
• 41:17
  And I, that was the first thing I noticed about your coffee.
• 41:20
  The longer I I let it set when I made the pod this morning, it's
• 41:24
  still here, by the way, in my Yeti cup and it's still hot.
• 41:27
  And that was made at like 6:30 when I woke up.
• 41:33
  And that's the first thing I noticed the aroma almost
• 41:36
  instantly with the moment that water hit the the K-Cup.
• 41:41
  I was like, oh, wow, I smell caramel.
• 41:43
  That's that's crazy. Joey said cinnamon, but then I
• 41:47
  did get the hint of cinnamon in it.
• 41:49
  But for me, the caramel would just I was like, wow, this is
• 41:52
  this is better than some of the other ones I've, you know,
• 41:56
  consumed so excellent job on that.
• 41:59
  Excellent job on you guys. Wonderful coffee.
• 42:02
  Excellent. Love it.
• 42:03
  Thank you. Very much.
• 42:07
  So Bobby, yes. Sir, I didn't.
• 42:12
  Forget about you, bud, I didn't forget about you.
• 42:15
  So it's a lot to learn about Bob stuff.
• 42:19
  I didn't, yeah. No.
• 42:20
  So I'm a big origin guy when it comes to cigars.
• 42:23
  I love to hear about the origin. You briefly touched about it,
• 42:26
  how you were just a consumer with a passion and it kind of
• 42:29
  took off from there. But tell me about your label.
• 42:31
  I love your label. I didn't.
• 42:33
  Where did I put it? I just had it here.
• 42:35
  I love the label. Excellent detail on it.
• 42:38
  And how'd you come up with the The Knucklehead Like I was that
• 42:43
  a nickname that someone bestowed upon you or?
• 42:47
  Yeah. That's exactly what it was, man.
• 42:49
  That's exactly what it was. I, I had a supervisor back in
• 42:52
  the oil field, man. And he, he, he had everybody.
• 42:55
  Everybody had a nickname, you know, whether it was, you know,
• 42:59
  but, but he called me Bobby Knuckles all the time.
• 43:02
  So, and we had a, we had a like a group text.
• 43:04
  So we all had, you know, it was all label.
• 43:06
  So it, it kind of stuck. So when I, when I decided to
• 43:09
  start this brand, I'm like, I want to incorporate that
• 43:12
  nickname. So I kept the nickname and I
• 43:15
  thought, well, knucklehead, because I'm a knucklehead, you
• 43:20
  know, I thought would, would, would, would be perfect, you
• 43:23
  know? And so it was kind of, it was
• 43:26
  kind of risky a little bit because you got some knuckles
• 43:29
  out there, you know, you have your knuckle Buster, you have
• 43:32
  your knuckle sandwich, you know, or yeah, the knuckle sandwich.
• 43:39
  That's Guy Fietti. Guy Fietti's.
• 43:42
  Yeah, man, it's, it's actually really good, man.
• 43:44
  I really enjoy it. I like the knuckle Buster.
• 43:46
  It was kind of a risky move, but I'm like, I'm like, screw it,
• 43:49
  man, I'm doing it. You know, I'm I so I I kept the
• 43:52
  nickname. I incorporated Knucklehead Cigar
• 43:55
  Company in with a nickname and I'm telling you man, that band
• 44:00
  design I freaking love. I love it.
• 44:02
  It's great. It's the detail is unbelievable.
• 44:05
  It's you know what no one has. I was going to say, yeah, it's
• 44:09
  completely simple. But then you got the intricacy
• 44:12
  on the side of the bands with that.
• 44:16
  I, I, I, I don't know what I, I want to call florally.
• 44:19
  It's not, but it's an, it's like an elegant royal kind of feel to
• 44:25
  it. But then you got that, you know,
• 44:27
  that solid background that really just makes the foil of
• 44:31
  the, the knuckle and the word knuckle.
• 44:34
  And then oddly enough, I really like your name on the bottom of
• 44:39
  it. I really like that signature.
• 44:40
  I think that I've never seen that really.
• 44:43
  And but here's a band here. I mean, it's it's where am I?
• 44:48
  There I am. I'm sideways, so I forget where
• 44:51
  my camera is. But it's a excellent job on it
• 44:55
  clear. Pictures for you guys so you
• 44:58
  could see. What you are you?
• 44:58
  I was gonna ask you like your preference on cigars.
• 45:04
  Are you like what gauge is your favorite?
• 45:07
  What Viktola is your favorite or go to?
• 45:11
  I won't use favorite because I know a lot of people hate that
• 45:14
  term, but your go to and then your go to blend.
• 45:18
  What is your go to blend no matter what cigar you're
• 45:21
  smoking? I, I, I, I am a Toro smoker.
• 45:26
  I, I go back and forth between robusto and Toro depending on
• 45:29
  what cigar it is. I really like my robusto Habano.
• 45:32
  I I I, I do, I do enjoy that one.
• 45:36
  But the Toro is my my my favorite Viatola, mostly
• 45:40
  everything that I that I smoke would will, you know, is is a
• 45:43
  Toro robusto. I do like, you know, I, I don't
• 45:48
  even mind Lance arrows every once in a while.
• 45:50
  You know what I mean? There's certain Lance, certain
• 45:53
  Lance arrows, certain brands you get you get a nice flavor out of
• 45:56
  a out of a Lance arrow. But my fave, my, my go to man
• 46:01
  blend is I, I love, I love Halapa, Candega, Massa, Tepe
• 46:06
  Liguero, you know it, I like the blend that's going to be
• 46:12
  peppery. I like a blend that's going to
• 46:13
  be full flavored. I love an oily wrapper, man.
• 46:16
  That's why with the Maduro, I did a San Andreas wrapper
• 46:18
  because you get the oiliness out of that San Andreas wrapper that
• 46:22
  I, I don't it's, it's just, it's over the top.
• 46:25
  And so that's, that's my, that's, that's my preference.
• 46:32
  You know, when I started this business, I didn't want to come
• 46:37
  out with something very full flavored, very strong to where,
• 46:42
  you know, you have your Connecticut smokers who would be
• 46:44
  afraid to, to to try a Maduro. And then you have your Maduro
• 46:51
  smokers that are if, you know, like if I came out with it like
• 46:53
  like a Connecticut or something, you know, like, like would be,
• 46:56
  would be afraid of it. So I came up with a middle of
• 46:59
  the road like a Habano. And when I talked to them, I was
• 47:01
  like, I want to do something that a Connecticut smoker is
• 47:03
  going to like. And what Dora smoker's going to
• 47:05
  like it's a medium. You're smoking gorilla.
• 47:10
  You're smoking the Habano, the robusto Habano.
• 47:13
  Yeah. I mean, that's that's that's no
• 47:16
  this. Is the horal Habano.
• 47:19
  The. Toro Hobano yeah, the robusto
• 47:21
  was very good though. I smoked that the other day
• 47:24
  actually, and they came in I I smoked one.
• 47:26
  It was it was delicious in. In your opinion, like that,
• 47:29
  that, that cigar, I mean, if I was a Connecticut smoker, A
• 47:32
  Maduro smoker, I think it, I think it caters to both.
• 47:35
  You know, I don't, I've actually had a lot, I have a lot of
• 47:38
  friends and, and people that I know to smoke Connecticut cigars
• 47:41
  and they smoke my Habano and they're like, and this isn't
• 47:43
  this isn't, this isn't that strong.
• 47:44
  I mean it, it is, but it's not, it's kind of hard to explain,
• 47:49
  you know what I mean? I didn't want to, I didn't want
• 47:51
  to scare people away with just coming out with a boom Maduro
• 47:53
  man. And then people are like, man,
• 47:55
  that's too strong for me. You're smoking big dog, you're
• 47:58
  smoking the, the Maduro. That one's a little bit more
• 48:01
  full flavor. Yeah, it is.
• 48:03
  It's very tasty, especially with the coffee I'm drinking, by the
• 48:06
  way. Yeah.
• 48:07
  Yeah, but I, I, I like the oily wrapper.
• 48:09
  I like the, I like the pepperiness.
• 48:11
  I like the, you know, I like the Lehero.
• 48:13
  I love, I love it's, you know, you, you get the chocolatey, the
• 48:17
  vanilla, the leather. I I, I love a cigar that tastes
• 48:20
  like you're chewing on a baseball glove.
• 48:23
  You know what I mean? You.
• 48:25
  Know yeah yeah what I. Wanted what I what I wanted
• 48:28
  that. Earthy, the full earthy and
• 48:31
  100%. Yeah, Yep, that is.
• 48:34
  For the lack of better term, you know, punch her right in the
• 48:36
  mouth kind of cigar, Yeah. See, that's, that's my kind of
• 48:41
  when I, when I think of Maduro cigars, that's my kind of cigar.
• 48:46
  I like when I light up that Maduro and it just right off the
• 48:50
  bat, there's that pepper bomb that kind of punches you right
• 48:52
  in the face and it's like, OK, you know, you're smoking
• 48:55
  something, you know, fuller body and that's all I smoke.
• 48:58
  Is Maduro's Yeah. Yeah, I've, I've always been a
• 49:02
  Maduro smoker. I've always been a full flavored
• 49:04
  smoker. But you know, it, it's, you got
• 49:08
  to, you got to, you got to mix it up.
• 49:10
  You know, I, I actually am coming out with a Connecticut.
• 49:13
  So I'll have a Connecticut out, I'll have a Connecticut out here
• 49:16
  in a few weeks. So we're going to, we're going
• 49:19
  to throw that in there and then I'll have the, you know, I have
• 49:22
  all bases covered, you know what I mean?
• 49:24
  And then, and eventually I'm going to, I'm going to come up
• 49:26
  with something different, you know, kind of like what you guys
• 49:30
  were talking about, you know, something unique, something
• 49:32
  different, you know, something, you know that a lot of people
• 49:36
  don't do. You know, it's, it's, it's,
• 49:39
  it's, it's, it's, it's just a lot of brainstorming, man.
• 49:42
  You got to your brainstorming And, and I work in a cigar shop.
• 49:45
  I see what people like. I see what people buy, you know,
• 49:49
  and, and it is great. Like if it's a learning
• 49:52
  experience all the time. I'm always learning stuff, man,
• 49:56
  Always. And that's what makes the of
• 49:59
  this industry that even even we learned, you know, just like you
• 50:02
  obviously, you know, working in a shop, you learn new things
• 50:05
  every day. Oh.
• 50:06
  Absolutely this question when? You put the cigars out, do you
• 50:10
  put them out for you or do you put them out for the vendors and
• 50:14
  people like me, Joey, drifting drams and people like them?
• 50:19
  I'm sorry I lost you first. Second.
• 50:21
  What would I need? What did you say?
• 50:23
  I'm sorry man. Yes, regards.
• 50:25
  Do you put them out for you or do you put them out for the
• 50:30
  consumers? I'd man, I, I, I, I put them out
• 50:37
  for both man I like, I'm not putting out something that I'm
• 50:39
  not going to like, you know what I mean?
• 50:41
  So, you know, I, I want, I want it to be what I want, but I want
• 50:47
  it to be with what the consumers want as well.
• 50:50
  You know what I mean? So it's, it, it, it's tough, you
• 50:53
  know, it's, it's tough. You know, we all know what we
• 50:55
  like. We all know what we like to do.
• 50:57
  We all, you know, we want to, we want to take that, that idea and
• 51:01
  bring it to people. But you know, it, it, you have
• 51:03
  to, it's, it's, it's, yeah, you, you have to, you have to do it
• 51:08
  both ways, man. You know, like, yeah, I, yeah.
• 51:13
  Now, have you been to the factory that that produces them?
• 51:16
  How, how involved in the process?
• 51:18
  Have you seen every aspect of the process of your cigars or
• 51:22
  or? No, not yet.
• 51:23
  I haven't. I haven't been to Nicaragua yet,
• 51:27
  but most everything that I do is basically, you know, over, over
• 51:31
  the phone, you know, I am planning on going to Nicaragua
• 51:33
  here shortly. They're working with me to, to
• 51:37
  get a, like a tour, like a, to go down and actually see, you
• 51:40
  know, the, the, the cigars being being made blended and
• 51:44
  everything. You know, I, I, I want to 100%.
• 51:46
  I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to do that because, you
• 51:49
  know, it's like I said, you're, you're always learning.
• 51:52
  You're always learning. And I wanna, I wanna learn how
• 51:54
  to roll a cigar. I don't know how to roll a
• 51:56
  cigar. I know how to smoke them.
• 51:57
  I know what I like in a cigar. I know what people like in a
• 52:00
  cigar. But if you asked me to sit down
• 52:02
  and roll a cigar, absolutely I, I, I could have, but I wanna
• 52:05
  learn. I'm gonna learn how to do that.
• 52:07
  I know. I've rolled a cigar, you know,
• 52:10
  I've rolled a cigar, but I don't know how to roll a cigar.
• 52:13
  Like I've been to a scar rolling event and they put let me do
• 52:16
  hands on. I had no idea what I was doing
• 52:18
  or what I was blending. Like I, I didn't know any of
• 52:21
  that. I, like you want to learn that
• 52:22
  aspect. That would be fascinating to me.
• 52:25
  For sure, for sure, yeah. But hopefully, hopefully here
• 52:29
  shortly that that'll be in the works.
• 52:31
  And I'll, I'll actually get a like a hands on of what, what
• 52:35
  goes on in a, in a tobacco area, you know what I mean?
• 52:38
  But yeah, it's, you know, mostly it's just, you know, I, I, I
• 52:41
  have, I have a person in Florida and I talked to him and, you
• 52:46
  know, we, we talk about what we want to do.
• 52:48
  We put a game plan together. And then they have their, their
• 52:51
  team of rollers and master blenders down in Nicaragua.
• 52:54
  That, that, that take care of it.
• 52:55
  And, and so far I've been, I've been, I've been happy.
• 52:58
  I mean, I, I think, I think my product is, I think my product
• 53:02
  is great. It was a lot of work, but I, I,
• 53:08
  I 100% believe that it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a fantastic
• 53:12
  cigar. People are loving them.
• 53:13
  I'm getting a lot of, a lot of, you know, a lot of great
• 53:17
  feedback, you know, so, yeah, I mean, it, it, it's, it's great.
• 53:22
  It's a grind. I mean, you have to hustle, you
• 53:24
  know, you have to hustle. And you know, the, the, the
• 53:29
  thing, and I always say this like the, the thing, the, the
• 53:32
  great thing about the cigar industry and even coffee too,
• 53:37
  that you don't, you don't smoke, you don't smoke tobacco because
• 53:40
  you have to. Right, you know what I mean.
• 53:43
  You smoke. You smoke tobacco because you
• 53:45
  want to and with, with there being there's thousands and
• 53:50
  thousands and thousands of different cigars, man.
• 53:54
  You got your boutiques like me, You have your, your big players
• 53:57
  like Perdermo and Pedrone and Arturo Fuente and AJ Fernandez
• 54:02
  and, and you know, you, you have to be unique.
• 54:05
  You have to be unique. Sell it.
• 54:07
  It it's a it's, it's not easy. It's not an easy sell, you know.
• 54:11
  Would you? Say that's the biggest obstacle
• 54:13
  for you is being creative enough to create a product that is
• 54:18
  desirable that consumers want to rebuy, not just buy it once and
• 54:23
  go, oh, that was good and never buy it again.
• 54:26
  Is that the biggest obstacle? Like how do you create a cigar
• 54:29
  that makes people want more? Yeah, it's it, it's, it's just
• 54:34
  trial and error, man. It's trial and error.
• 54:37
  You know, you if, if, if, if I put out a Hobano and, and, and,
• 54:41
  and people are like you go back to the drawing board.
• 54:44
  You know what I mean? What, what you know, it's, it's
• 54:46
  getting feedback from people, man.
• 54:48
  It the first I'm, I'm only in my first year of this.
• 54:51
  I, I, I got into this not knowing a God damn thing.
• 54:54
  Like I was just like, I'm doing it.
• 54:56
  I'm running with it. And like I said, you learn all
• 54:58
  the time and you know, if, if I would have put out a Habano and
• 55:03
  they, and then people weren't getting any feedback or I wasn't
• 55:06
  getting any good feedback, you go back to the drawing board.
• 55:09
  It's it's just getting them in people's hands, man.
• 55:11
  It's the, the my first year. It's getting people smoking
• 55:14
  them. It's it's going to lounges and
• 55:16
  sitting with the with the patrons and saying, Hey, this is
• 55:18
  my cigar. This is where it comes from.
• 55:21
  This is what I do And and whoop OK.
• 55:28
  Let's get back to you guys, same question for you.
• 55:33
  How hard is it to get it where you got to get it, like into the
• 55:36
  lounges and things like that? I mean, we've kind of wanted to
• 55:41
  grow organically. I think, you know, we want to
• 55:46
  hook people because they like coffee and want them to keep
• 55:50
  coming back because they enjoy the product that we put out,
• 55:53
  right? We're not looking to just try to
• 55:56
  get in a whole bunch of people's hands all at once.
• 55:59
  It's word of mouth that does us the best, right?
• 56:02
  Like y'all found us through the Clowns and other podcasts,
• 56:06
  right? That's what we want.
• 56:08
  We don't. We don't want to grow so big so
• 56:11
  quickly that we can't keep up and we can't keep up the same
• 56:14
  quality. Yeah.
• 56:15
  And so as an example, right, like Black Rifle, Black Rifle
• 56:19
  makes good coffee. Black Rifle used to make really
• 56:22
  good coffee. But whenever they scale, they
• 56:27
  just, they lost some of it, right.
• 56:28
  They can't put out the quantity they're putting out and keep the
• 56:31
  quality the same as it was. It's just it's not possible in
• 56:34
  the coffee arena, right? And we don't want to have to do
• 56:38
  that. So we're, we're intentionally
• 56:41
  growing slowly. That way we can kind of control
• 56:43
  the inputs that that's, we can throw the outputs, right?
• 56:47
  We, we don't want to be another coffee brand.
• 56:49
  And it's like, oh man, they're good, but they used to be really
• 56:52
  good. Right and like.
• 56:54
  Bobby was saying like we, we source a lot of people's
• 56:57
  opinions before we put out, you know, single origins because
• 57:02
  just because I like a certain being roasted a certain way
• 57:07
  doesn't mean everybody's going to right, Whether it be light,
• 57:10
  roasted, dark, you know, we kind of hover in our medium, medium
• 57:14
  dark range. We've dabbled with light, we've
• 57:18
  dabbled with dark, but we have to have that feedback.
• 57:22
  We have to make sure that it's not, you know, it tastes how it
• 57:26
  should. And so there's some people in
• 57:28
  chat that I see like our friend Bourbon engineer, He's, he's not
• 57:33
  far from us, but he's willing to always help us out with sampling
• 57:37
  stuff and telling us, hey, good job.
• 57:39
  I get these notes out of it, you know, or hey, go a little bit
• 57:42
  lighter with this one. See if you can pull out more
• 57:45
  fruit or more chocolate, you know, go darker, get more
• 57:48
  chocolate out of it. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's
• 57:52
  definitely a learning curve. And it's, it's, it's a process.
• 57:57
  How have you, how have you guys dealt with obstacles?
• 58:00
  Meaning what type of like everybody I've talked to and
• 58:04
  asked that question to, it's that how do you overcome that
• 58:07
  mentality of like there's an obstacle and you go, oh man,
• 58:10
  this is tougher than I thought it was going to be.
• 58:13
  How do you how do you bring yourself back to be able to deal
• 58:16
  with those obstacles and move forward and get over those feed
• 58:20
  bumps that are naturally going to come along the way when
• 58:23
  you're starting a company? Yeah, I, I think the answer
• 58:27
  there is deceptively simple, right?
• 58:30
  It's the the old adage of how do you eat an elephant one bite at
• 58:33
  a time. So I've my day job is software.
• 58:37
  And so the one skill that I use every single day is breaking
• 58:41
  things down. You have a problem that comes up
• 58:44
  and it seems just completely insurmountable, right?
• 58:47
  It's massive. Like our suppliers a couple
• 58:50
  years back when coffee prices went through the roof.
• 58:53
  They're still not great, but they're, they were still at the
• 58:54
  roof, right? And so we had to figure out
• 58:57
  like, OK, how are we going to do this, right?
• 58:59
  We don't want to raise prices. We need to, to find the right
• 59:03
  balance here. And so then you just take each
• 59:07
  problem and you break it down until suddenly, Oh, well, that's
• 59:10
  not, that's solvable now, right. And so that, that supply issue
• 59:15
  was a, a big thing for us, right?
• 59:17
  We, we pulled out some new suppliers and we, that's when we
• 59:21
  start. That's when we really started
• 59:22
  with more blends, things like that, because the blends we can
• 59:25
  control the, the quality and stuff a little bit.
• 59:27
  Yeah. So you guys do have a nine to
• 59:30
  five, yeah. Yeah.
• 59:33
  OK. Because I'm retired, so I'm good
• 59:35
  on that. Yeah.
• 59:37
  Yeah, I'm a. Software engineer and Katie's a
• 59:40
  paralegal. Well, congratulations.
• 59:44
  I retired last year and I caught a stroke.
• 59:48
  I caught 3 strokes in February but I'm doing all right.
• 59:52
  I'm doing all. Right, all right.
• 59:53
  Man. Yeah, I laid off the liquor.
• 59:56
  I just drank beer now, so and they tell me how many cigars to
• 1:00:01
  smoke. I said as many as I want and
• 1:00:03
  they go. With you most of.
• 1:00:04
  The time you're lucky if you get one, yeah.
• 1:00:08
  But you know. Now, have you guys visited any
• 1:00:13
  of the factories like coffee bean farms or any other
• 1:00:17
  roasteries to kind of like get ideas on how you guys can, you
• 1:00:22
  know, not but tweak your operation, I guess so to say?
• 1:00:28
  So that is in the works. We were actually planning on
• 1:00:33
  Nicaragua here recently. And then of course now the the
• 1:00:37
  what? The guy's a dictator now.
• 1:00:39
  And so it's like, well, look at Costa Rica or something instead,
• 1:00:43
  right. So we're, we're still figuring
• 1:00:45
  that out. It's, again, it's a challenge
• 1:00:47
  between the the day jobs and everything else.
• 1:00:50
  And again, it seems like every time we almost have something
• 1:00:53
  lined up, then it's like, oh, well, yeah, some world event
• 1:00:56
  happens. Well, shit.
• 1:00:58
  Yeah. No, that's, that got worse
• 1:01:01
  because you know, like we, I, I wanted, I've wanted to go to
• 1:01:05
  Nicaragua to see the, you know, the factories and stuff like
• 1:01:07
  that. Because I, I know a few people
• 1:01:09
  that own factories and they're like, oh, you got to come down.
• 1:01:11
  I'm like, yeah. And then, you know, then they
• 1:01:13
  had the, the war down there and they're like, I had friends that
• 1:01:17
  were going. They're like, yeah, don't go
• 1:01:19
  because with the war it's going to take you this way and you got
• 1:01:21
  to do 2 different planes and, you know, then you may not get
• 1:01:25
  in and all that. I'm like, you know what, I'll
• 1:01:27
  just stay here and then I'll go to the Dominican Republic if I
• 1:01:30
  have to and go to the factories over there instead.
• 1:01:34
  Exactly correct. You know, now, like you said
• 1:01:37
  with the with the dictatorship, you know, that kind of puts all
• 1:01:40
  of the factories, so to say, kind of up in the air because
• 1:01:46
  they don't know if they're going to stay or if they're going to
• 1:01:48
  go or where they're going to. You know it's it's.
• 1:01:51
  It's. Crazy so.
• 1:01:52
  What is the price on your K cups?
• 1:01:56
  Say that one more time. What's the price on your K cups?
• 1:02:01
  So typically they're for a 12 pack, anywhere from 17 to
• 1:02:05
  $19.00, just depending on what what origin.
• 1:02:09
  We do put specials up there. You know, we have free shipping
• 1:02:14
  over $35 and then if you order 50, you get free shipping and
• 1:02:17
  10% off. We're trying to, you know, make
• 1:02:20
  sure that we're doing everything right.
• 1:02:23
  OK, OK. Bobby, same thing with you,
• 1:02:25
  yeah. Ma'am, what's?
• 1:02:27
  The pricing on your cigars. My, my, my, my MSRP is around
• 1:02:31
  12. I, I do 12 on the robusto, 13 on
• 1:02:34
  the Toro Maduro, same price. I, I stick around $1213 a stick.
• 1:02:39
  You know, it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's the middle of the
• 1:02:41
  road. It's, it's, it's fair.
• 1:02:44
  You know, I'm obviously not putting out the volume that a
• 1:02:48
  lot of the big players are, but I, I, I, I, I do enough that I
• 1:02:53
  can keep my costs down. I mean, if you look at it, if
• 1:02:56
  you look at it my perspective, I mean, who am I?
• 1:02:58
  I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm Bobby Knuckles, an old oil field dude.
• 1:03:02
  And here I am with a cigar. You know I can't come out with a
• 1:03:05
  cigar that's $1819. Right.
• 1:03:08
  Right, right. I.
• 1:03:09
  Mean like, but but there are a lot of, there are a lot of
• 1:03:11
  companies out there doing that. They're coming out.
• 1:03:13
  Now now if you get a limited run you could do something like
• 1:03:15
  that. Yeah.
• 1:03:16
  I limited run you, you know, with limited tobacco or you
• 1:03:19
  know, a test run you could do kind of like a one year
• 1:03:22
  anniversary and then do a, you know, $1819 cigar because your
• 1:03:26
  name got there, yes. Sir.
• 1:03:28
  But you know, that's The thing is if if you got it, let's say
• 1:03:31
  you're Maduro blended, just keep flying off the shelves.
• 1:03:34
  You know, you people are just reordering it at that point.
• 1:03:37
  It's supplying demand. If they're demanding it, there
• 1:03:40
  is no reason you can't jump up from $12.00 to maybe $15.00
• 1:03:45
  because it's a demand thing. People want it, right?
• 1:03:48
  So don't you know, I listen, I, I'm nobody, but in my opinion,
• 1:03:52
  don't be afraid to do that if you're finding that they're
• 1:03:54
  flying off the shelves, don't sell yourself short.
• 1:03:58
  Don't cut yourself short. And it's not about the bottom
• 1:04:00
  dollar. It's about value.
• 1:04:02
  And if people value it, they're going to buy it, even if it
• 1:04:05
  bumps up a little bit in price. Same with the coffee.
• 1:04:07
  If people value it, don't sell yourself short like it's OK.
• 1:04:12
  It's OK to increase prices to take the burden off of your
• 1:04:16
  production and stuff like that. It's.
• 1:04:17
  Fine. Absolutely.
• 1:04:19
  Absolutely. Yeah, but.
• 1:04:20
  Then OG if they do that with their coffee they got to hire
• 1:04:24
  somebody to do it. They can't do it their self.
• 1:04:28
  So I mean, that's, that's a real thing, right?
• 1:04:30
  Like we're, we're, we're watching that point closely.
• 1:04:34
  It's like, all right, at some point we're going to have to
• 1:04:35
  bring in some help and then everything gets so much more
• 1:04:38
  complicated. So we're, that's part of the,
• 1:04:40
  the slow organic growth, right? We want to make sure that we
• 1:04:43
  don't, we don't have to backtrack like inside, for
• 1:04:46
  example, the past five years have been companies hiring like
• 1:04:50
  crazy and then two years later laying off a big swap of people.
• 1:04:54
  And I just that to me, that's insane.
• 1:04:56
  I, I could never get behind that.
• 1:04:58
  And so the last thing I want to do with our, with our brand is
• 1:05:01
  do the same nonsense, right? I just can't do it.
• 1:05:05
  Yeah. But again, along the lines to my
• 1:05:08
  point is if you're finding you have no choice but higher help
• 1:05:12
  at that point, again, if you got particular blends that are
• 1:05:15
  flying off the shelf, yeah, you got to pay those people.
• 1:05:19
  So at that point, maybe you relook at maybe increasing just
• 1:05:23
  a little bit just to help offset that a little bit, take that
• 1:05:26
  burden off, y'all? Yeah, no.
• 1:05:29
  And it's a great point OG like that's definitely like it's
• 1:05:32
  finding that median, that middle ground, right, is where we're
• 1:05:35
  where we're at basically every day.
• 1:05:36
  We're we're constantly watching our our trends and, and then
• 1:05:39
  coffee prices and how much production we need and all of
• 1:05:43
  that. And so, yeah, it's, it's a, it's
• 1:05:45
  a day-to-day decision. Well, it's like, it's like
• 1:05:47
  Bobby, he's the only one working for himself, so he's saving
• 1:05:51
  money, but he's also doing a lot of travelling and being his own.
• 1:05:53
  Self, Guy and. He's going to have to hire
• 1:05:56
  somebody eventually to go out and do this because his wife is
• 1:05:59
  going to be like, yo, enough's enough.
• 1:06:01
  You got to get one more person to help you.
• 1:06:04
  Whether it be? Florida, New York, PA, wherever,
• 1:06:07
  you know what I mean and. Again, I think that goes back to
• 1:06:10
  like you guys were saying, that small organic growth of the
• 1:06:13
  company. You know, eventually you'll be
• 1:06:15
  able to bring on, you know, an extra set of hands and he'll be
• 1:06:18
  able to bring on, you know, either a Rep or a sales director
• 1:06:22
  to kind of, you know, help him field calls or make calls and
• 1:06:26
  send emails. This way he can focus on the
• 1:06:29
  cigars and getting in front of the shop owners.
• 1:06:31
  Correct. Yeah.
• 1:06:32
  For sure. In, in, in that sense of in, in
• 1:06:35
  cooperation. I just want to offer this out.
• 1:06:38
  Listen, I, I go to a ton of cigar lounges.
• 1:06:42
  I know 2 specifically that are always looking in to bring
• 1:06:46
  boutique brands for cigars and they're always looking to add to
• 1:06:50
  their coffee selection within them.
• 1:06:53
  I would be more than happy to put your product in front of
• 1:06:55
  them and push it for you guys to see if maybe I can get you some
• 1:06:59
  business in upstate New York. No promises, no guarantees, but
• 1:07:03
  I can tell you that the two shops that I go to, I'm very
• 1:07:06
  close with the owners. So just putting it out there
• 1:07:10
  that I'm willing to help out in any way I can.
• 1:07:12
  If if you're looking to expand a little bit just to get another
• 1:07:15
  lounge or two under your belt, I'll hop out in any way I can
• 1:07:20
  and your product I wouldn't push and these guys can tell you I
• 1:07:24
  don't push anything I don't like or isn't phenomenal.
• 1:07:27
  And just I don't. Do that and.
• 1:07:29
  OG knows that we don't. We don't push anything that we
• 1:07:32
  either haven't tried, haven't enjoyed, or we.
• 1:07:36
  Don't like? Or, you know, like we've tried
• 1:07:40
  it, it was OK. And it's not something that
• 1:07:42
  would do well in like the market.
• 1:07:44
  Cause again, it's, I worked for a cigar company.
• 1:07:47
  So I've kind of, I learned a little bit of the insurance and
• 1:07:50
  outs and kind of like what to watch and what not to watch.
• 1:07:54
  But like there's been times like there's been people that have
• 1:07:58
  sent us stuff and they're like, what do you think?
• 1:07:59
  And I'm like, I've been giving my honest opinion, but you may
• 1:08:07
  not like it. True.
• 1:08:10
  You know, And and then we have guys like, you know, people like
• 1:08:15
  you guys who make great products, who actually are, you
• 1:08:19
  know, taking the pride behind their coffee or their cigars.
• 1:08:23
  And they're not just, you know, slapping a label on it without
• 1:08:27
  having not tried it, Correct? Absolutely right, right.
• 1:08:30
  That's that's our. Biggest thing, that's our
• 1:08:33
  biggest thing. Like for our cigars that we're
• 1:08:35
  putting out, you know, people are like, well, you know, are
• 1:08:39
  you blending them? I'm like, well, I told them what
• 1:08:41
  I'm looking for and if they have something already made from our
• 1:08:45
  guy in Florida, if he's got something already made that he
• 1:08:47
  thinks we'll like, I told him to just send it to us.
• 1:08:50
  And you know, if we like the blend that he's got, then
• 1:08:53
  there's no sense in tweaking it right now because you know,
• 1:08:57
  it's, it's the what we're looking for.
• 1:08:59
  And then down the line, you know, you can, when you're
• 1:09:01
  putting out the mass quantities, then you can say, Hey, let's,
• 1:09:05
  you know, let's get on a flight. Let us come down and sit with
• 1:09:07
  you, and let's blend our own. Yeah.
• 1:09:10
  In person in this size. And.
• 1:09:12
  Run with that right? And that's the, you know, that's
• 1:09:15
  the, the pride in your product. Absolutely.
• 1:09:18
  Because you're not. Just slapping labels on things
• 1:09:20
  without trying them first. And in the cigar world, I've
• 1:09:24
  I've seen a lot of that. Oh yeah, and people.
• 1:09:28
  Are like, oh, it's the best product, it's great and I'm like
• 1:09:31
  it. It's not not even close.
• 1:09:35
  Yeah, I mean, I work, I work in a cigar shop and I have people
• 1:09:38
  coming, I have guys car, you know, people come in all the
• 1:09:40
  time and say, hey, I got this cigar, I'm interested in putting
• 1:09:43
  it into the shop. And, you know, you ask them
• 1:09:46
  basic questions. Well, where, where, where,
• 1:09:49
  where, what's the origin of it? What, what is it like what you
• 1:09:52
  know? And, and some people they can't
• 1:09:54
  even tell you they're like, well, I said what, what origins
• 1:09:57
  and tobacco are you using? Like, is it Nicaraguan?
• 1:09:59
  Is it Dominican? And they're and, and I had one
• 1:10:01
  person was just like, I, I'm not sure I'm like, well, how are you
• 1:10:05
  putting, how are you? How are you just buying labels
• 1:10:08
  and slapping them on cigars and expect to sell them right and
• 1:10:12
  and and not know what you're selling?
• 1:10:13
  I know exactly. Well, not.
• 1:10:15
  Only that and and sometimes that can go back on who they're
• 1:10:19
  working with because a lot of these places that you're dealing
• 1:10:22
  with because I've I've had it happen.
• 1:10:24
  They don't tell you they're just like just what you're like.
• 1:10:27
  What is it? Oh, I I can't disclose it.
• 1:10:29
  They. They they they say it's.
• 1:10:30
  Proprietary or Yeah. Now now I don't.
• 1:10:33
  Know how you can be in the cigar business and not know what, what
• 1:10:37
  or you can't tell you know when somebody wants to put their name
• 1:10:40
  on, on a, on a cigar or blend their own cigar or whatever and
• 1:10:44
  say, well, we can't really tell you what it is.
• 1:10:46
  Then how, how are, how are you going out and selling your
• 1:10:49
  cigar? Because it's the first thing
• 1:10:51
  that most cigar shops ask you. Well, so tell me about your
• 1:10:55
  cigar. If you can't tell them about
• 1:10:57
  your cigar, you're not selling cigars.
• 1:10:59
  You might as well. You might be able to pack it up.
• 1:11:02
  Now. I mean, yeah, yeah, I agree with
• 1:11:05
  you. I that's that's what I.
• 1:11:06
  What I do like sometimes what I do like what companies will do
• 1:11:11
  is, and I, and I, that's kind of something that I was talking
• 1:11:14
  with, you know, my dad about when we were doing our stuff is
• 1:11:19
  a lot of companies, they know what it's made with, but they
• 1:11:22
  won't disclose it to the, to the, like the, the consumers
• 1:11:26
  buying it because they don't want them going into the cigar
• 1:11:30
  with, you know, preconceived notions of, oh, that's Dominican
• 1:11:33
  tobacco. I don't like Dominican cigars,
• 1:11:36
  you know, and, and I think that's, that's also good too,
• 1:11:40
  because the consumer's going to try it and then when they find
• 1:11:44
  out, you know, down the line, oh, that was Dominican tobacco.
• 1:11:47
  Yeah, but I don't like Dominicans, But you like that
• 1:11:49
  one. You know, I, I think the, the.
• 1:11:52
  Amazing. The amazing thing about that
• 1:11:54
  too, is when you like that scenario, Joey, that you're
• 1:11:58
  talking about, that's an area right there.
• 1:12:00
  I've actually come across those a couple times.
• 1:12:02
  I don't like Dominican cigars. What are you smoking?
• 1:12:05
  And they'll tell me and I'm like, there's Dominican tobacco
• 1:12:08
  in that cigar. No, there's not.
• 1:12:10
  No, there's not. Yes there is.
• 1:12:12
  Yes, there is. And then they go and they search
• 1:12:15
  it and like, oh, son of a gun. So I'm like, so you change your
• 1:12:17
  mind. You do like Dominican tobacco.
• 1:12:21
  Well, well, well, right. And, and that, that it totes
• 1:12:26
  back to the factory that blended, that the factories that
• 1:12:29
  rolled it and the blenders that blended that, you know it.
• 1:12:33
  And I, I believe that's kind of the same way coffee is as well,
• 1:12:36
  that it goes back to the people roasting it and, you know,
• 1:12:39
  making the, the blends the way they are.
• 1:12:42
  Because you may not like, you know, Costa Rican tobacco or
• 1:12:46
  Costa Rican coffee, but when you put it with, like you said, a, a
• 1:12:50
  Colombian or Tanzanian or something else, you'll never
• 1:12:53
  know that there's Costa Rican coffee in there.
• 1:12:56
  Or if you're putting it with Nicaraguan tobacco, you're never
• 1:12:58
  going to know unless somebody tells you.
• 1:13:01
  And then it'll change your whole perspective because it's done
• 1:13:04
  the right way. 100% Yep. And I feel that's a big, a big
• 1:13:11
  thing in the even in the cigar industry is you get a lot of
• 1:13:16
  these. And, and the reason people don't
• 1:13:18
  like the Dominican tobacco is because if it's not done right
• 1:13:21
  or not aged properly, you get a lot of like that grassy, you
• 1:13:27
  know, earthy, strong, strong notes throughout the cigar and
• 1:13:30
  you're not picking up anything else and it's leaving a bad
• 1:13:34
  taste on your palate, Correct. Yes.
• 1:13:38
  And and that's, that's a huge thing.
• 1:13:40
  That's why a lot of people don't like them.
• 1:13:42
  I was one of the ones that didn't like them.
• 1:13:44
  And then I, I had met a few different blenders through COVID
• 1:13:49
  that kind of opened my eyes to properly done Dominican cigars.
• 1:13:54
  And then it kind of was like, well, wait a minute, this is
• 1:13:56
  what it's supposed to taste like.
• 1:13:58
  You know, why does this one not taste like that?
• 1:14:03
  And then that's when I learned it goes back to the growing
• 1:14:05
  process, the aging process, the factory, the blender, you know,
• 1:14:10
  and you don't realize sometimes how all of this ties in with
• 1:14:14
  other industries like coffee. Like I figured there was
• 1:14:18
  something else it was too. And it's like you don't realize
• 1:14:20
  how much these industries all tie together with aging
• 1:14:23
  processes and, you know, blending them properly and
• 1:14:27
  making them the right way. It's it's insane.
• 1:14:32
  Yeah, well, when you really. Get into it.
• 1:14:34
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
• 1:14:41
  it's interesting, man. It's interesting.
• 1:14:43
  You know, I mean it, like I said, I said before, it's, it's
• 1:14:47
  a, it's a learning curve, man. It's a learning curve.
• 1:14:50
  You, you, you just roll with it and you know, enjoy, you know,
• 1:14:55
  you got to have fun doing it and, and just enjoy it and learn
• 1:14:59
  and, and if you want to make changes, if you want to do it,
• 1:15:01
  you know, there's, there's so much opportunity, man, there's
• 1:15:05
  so much opportunity. If you, if you put the, if you
• 1:15:08
  put the time and you put the passion into something, you're
• 1:15:13
  going to come out successful. You know, if, but it's a hustle.
• 1:15:17
  It's a hustle when it's a grind and you know it, you know, it's
• 1:15:22
  not easy by any means. Is it easy?
• 1:15:25
  And I, you folks doing, you know, selling coffee, it's not
• 1:15:29
  easy. You know, you have to be
• 1:15:31
  distinctive. You have to be unique.
• 1:15:33
  You have to be. And that's every day I'm
• 1:15:35
  learning. Well, what, you know, what can I
• 1:15:37
  do next? That, that it's, that's going to
• 1:15:38
  be, that's going to be different or, you know, and, and it's,
• 1:15:43
  it's hard. It's hard.
• 1:15:44
  I mean, you think you, you, you can't just come into the
• 1:15:48
  industry like, all right, I'm going to open a cigar and I'm
• 1:15:49
  going to make $1,000,000. Yeah, it ain't happening.
• 1:15:52
  Right. It's it's all the.
• 1:15:54
  Money you got to put out. You know, battles, man, there's
• 1:15:58
  so many battles. You got to battle with credit
• 1:16:01
  card companies, You got to battle with, you know, taxes and
• 1:16:06
  tariffs. And you know, my, like you guys
• 1:16:08
  were talking about earlier, man, about the, what's going on in
• 1:16:11
  Nicaragua now, you know, I don't know what's going to happen.
• 1:16:15
  I, I talked to the, I talked to my folks and I say, hey, you
• 1:16:18
  know, you know, we got a, we got a complete government overhaul.
• 1:16:21
  We have, you know, this and they're like, hey, would just
• 1:16:23
  just just take it day by day. We'll, you know, we'll figure it
• 1:16:26
  out. Who knows?
• 1:16:27
  Yeah. And you know, Bobby, you touched
• 1:16:29
  it briefly. You kind of skimmed right over
• 1:16:32
  it. But you got to have that passion
• 1:16:33
  too. You know, you got to be able to
• 1:16:35
  get out there and put your product out there like like you
• 1:16:39
  almost to an insanity level believe it's the best product on
• 1:16:42
  the planet. And and the one example I always
• 1:16:46
  use is Matt Booth with room one O 1 like that dudes energy and
• 1:16:51
  passion. That cigar is a decent cigar,
• 1:16:55
  but it is not by any stretch that you imagine the best cigar
• 1:16:58
  on the planet. But it was a map that sold that
• 1:17:01
  cigar to everybody on the planet.
• 1:17:03
  Like it was his passion that really pushed that.
• 1:17:06
  But that brand, I know he doesn't own them now, but still,
• 1:17:10
  he was the one that was the driving force behind making the
• 1:17:14
  ordinary extraordinary. Yeah.
• 1:17:17
  And then and you've got to do that.
• 1:17:19
  And The funny thing is he started cigars after he made his
• 1:17:23
  room. One O 1 jewelry.
• 1:17:26
  And now he's back doing cigars. Full time again, he's back doing
• 1:17:29
  cigars full time and he. Does limited, like he still does
• 1:17:32
  jewelry, but it's like limited, limited drops where he went full
• 1:17:37
  time and then did that and then brought it back to cigars and
• 1:17:41
  that's all he does now is we have.
• 1:17:43
  Matt Bouton here two years ago. Oh God, please, that he was.
• 1:17:46
  Outside cutting up a a apple or watermelon, I said tell us about
• 1:17:51
  what happened with the jewelry and I'm.
• 1:17:54
  Just glad some of that episode didn't air on Roku or Amazon
• 1:17:59
  because we. The.
• 1:18:01
  Things, he said. Oh boy, yeah.
• 1:18:04
  Oh God. I just outraged.
• 1:18:07
  I did nothing but laugh for like an hour and 45 minutes.
• 1:18:11
  I said to. Him.
• 1:18:11
  So tell us about you, your stuff.
• 1:18:13
  And he goes, so I was born. And I said yeah.
• 1:18:18
  He's like every time you ask him a question, it was you want
• 1:18:21
  story time with Matt Booth? And I'm like, oh, boy, here we
• 1:18:24
  go. Yeah.
• 1:18:25
  So it was a great, you know, and people don't realize the friends
• 1:18:29
  that I've made in the business, the friends Joey's made in the
• 1:18:31
  business and the friends OG made.
• 1:18:34
  And you know, the guy that we got making our cigars owns his
• 1:18:38
  own rolling stuff in his cigar shops right now.
• 1:18:42
  I believe he's making something for one of the basketball
• 1:18:44
  players he owns. His own.
• 1:18:45
  Yeah, he owns his own shop in Florida.
• 1:18:48
  A a mega mega entertainment superstar has had is having a
• 1:18:53
  European Tour and he's doing an exclusive 300 cigars just for
• 1:18:58
  him that's. That's right, it's.
• 1:19:01
  For Jay-Z, that's who it's for. So he's making it for Jay-Z and
• 1:19:07
  guess what? His cigars are phenomenal.
• 1:19:10
  And I'm not saying it because I'm buying them, but.
• 1:19:12
  No, we had the opportunity to try cigars that he made for
• 1:19:16
  somebody else that they sent us and he sent.
• 1:19:20
  So they sent us his Habano and Maduro 7 by what was it 7 by 60?
• 1:19:26
  And then a cigar that he makes for his store, which is AI think
• 1:19:32
  an 880 or a 7 by 80. Wow, what?
• 1:19:37
  But I will say, and I've I've smoked a lot of 80 rings and big
• 1:19:41
  ring gauges like that over the years.
• 1:19:44
  That was one of the best big ring gauges I've probably
• 1:19:48
  smoked. It was blended so like
• 1:19:52
  perfectly. It fit the size, you know, like
• 1:19:56
  they didn't just kind of blend it for a robusto and then just
• 1:20:00
  take that same blend and bring it all the way up.
• 1:20:02
  He blended for that size and it it burned good.
• 1:20:05
  It didn't get hot, it smoked fantastic and the the flavors
• 1:20:10
  that the the flavor notes you're looking for will all throughout
• 1:20:13
  that cigar. So guys, on that note, we're
• 1:20:16
  getting ready to wind down. Let's.
• 1:20:18
  Let's let's let OG kind of take over the show now and ask his
• 1:20:22
  his favorite question that he likes to ask everybody so.
• 1:20:26
  It's apparently it's that time of show guys, so it is.
• 1:20:30
  So. Basically this is where like I,
• 1:20:33
  I not only the wind is picking up here and it's blowing my flag
• 1:20:36
  around. I basically want to get to know
• 1:20:41
  you as a person. So this question kind of hones
• 1:20:44
  in on that. So this is for both of you.
• 1:20:47
  I'm going to start. I'm going to start with Bobby
• 1:20:50
  this time. Bobby, if you can have one hour
• 1:20:53
  of uninterrupted time, no phone calls, no TV, no Internet, no
• 1:20:58
  family, one hour to sit down and smoke a cigar with somebody
• 1:21:03
  past, present or future, who would you choose to spend that
• 1:21:07
  hour with? I want to say AJ Fernandez.
• 1:21:12
  Oh. OK.
• 1:21:16
  I, because I I, I would love, I would love to just, I would just
• 1:21:19
  love to pick, pick his brain. You know, I I, that's a hard
• 1:21:22
  question to answer, man. I.
• 1:21:24
  Mean I love to sit. Down.
• 1:21:27
  I love to sit down with James Hetfield and smoke a cigar.
• 1:21:30
  I'd love to sit down with my goodness, man, I I mean,
• 1:21:34
  there's, there's so many. I like Ricky Rodriguez.
• 1:21:39
  Oh, Ricky's a great guy. I talk to Ricky every day, dude.
• 1:21:43
  Yeah. He's, I mean, I would love to
• 1:21:45
  pick, I would love to sit down and have a cigar with him.
• 1:21:48
  You know that's. More than an hour with Ricky.
• 1:21:50
  With Ricky, that is more than an hour.
• 1:21:52
  I've done that. Sit down with Ricky.
• 1:21:55
  I'll make it. I mean, I've done that.
• 1:21:56
  Sit down with Ricky. It's amazing.
• 1:21:59
  He's definitely the one guy in this in this business that I
• 1:22:04
  would love to sit down and and and and and and talk to and
• 1:22:08
  smoke a cigar because of his, you know, his run with Cao and
• 1:22:12
  now W Tampa cigars, which I love.
• 1:22:15
  I love W Tampa cigar and you know, yeah, I mean, but that
• 1:22:21
  man, that's a good question, man.
• 1:22:22
  That's a really. Good.
• 1:22:23
  Question SO. Question.
• 1:22:28
  Same question on the coffee side.
• 1:22:31
  If you guys could sit down one hour uninterrupted, have a cup
• 1:22:34
  of coffee and maybe a cigar, who'd y'all spend that time
• 1:22:38
  with? That's.
• 1:22:42
  A hard. Question.
• 1:22:43
  I mean, I can get that OK, so no.
• 1:22:45
  That's. I've.
• 1:22:46
  Been asked that question before man, that's.
• 1:22:49
  For me it then this is going to be very nerdy, so I'm a nerd by
• 1:22:53
  trait, but I'm going to go way off the beaten path and say
• 1:22:59
  General Robert E Lee. Oh, wow.
• 1:23:02
  OK. And.
• 1:23:03
  The reasons are very specific, right?
• 1:23:05
  So, for example, I think that the best in most of us, and
• 1:23:10
  sometimes the worst, but typically the best comes out
• 1:23:13
  when we're all under stress. And not only you got the Civil
• 1:23:18
  War, right, but then he also had the ideological struggles of
• 1:23:24
  fighting his own countrymen, people who I mean, some, in some
• 1:23:27
  cases, his own family, right? And so that alone would be so
• 1:23:31
  interesting to to pick his brain on and talk about and see like
• 1:23:34
  how how he how he made his decisions and how he justified
• 1:23:39
  it and how he dealt with it after the fact.
• 1:23:42
  Wow, love it. Yeah.
• 1:23:44
  That's cool. That's really cool.
• 1:23:47
  Bam. Wow.
• 1:23:49
  And what about you? Ethan that's, that's a very hard
• 1:23:56
  question. I think for on the coffee front,
• 1:24:02
  just because he passed away so early, I would say my
• 1:24:05
  grandfather, my dad's, my dad's dad.
• 1:24:09
  He passed away when I was in high school.
• 1:24:11
  And that was didn't really get to know him as a person, but he
• 1:24:16
  fought in World War 2. And I'd love to hear more
• 1:24:18
  stories about his time there. You know, my dad has told us
• 1:24:21
  some stuff, but it's something that I definitely have missed,
• 1:24:25
  you know, hearing and hearing about family history.
• 1:24:28
  I heard a lot about it, my mom's side of the family, family
• 1:24:32
  history, but not not a ton on my dad's.
• 1:24:36
  OK, OK. Yeah.
• 1:24:39
  It's awesome. Well.
• 1:24:41
  Fantastic. Once again, we appreciate both
• 1:24:45
  you guys coming on all three years.
• 1:24:47
  Thank. Thank you for having me.
• 1:24:48
  Thank you for having. US.
• 1:24:51
  Where people can purchase your stuff.
• 1:24:55
  I've I have a website, knuckleheadcigarcompany.com.
• 1:25:00
  I have an online store. You can, you can message me.
• 1:25:04
  I'm on, I'm on TikTok. I'm on Instagram.
• 1:25:07
  I'm on Facebook and I'd like to get I'd like to get with you
• 1:25:11
  guys and talk about coffee for sure.
• 1:25:14
  But you you can, you can, you can.
• 1:25:17
  And then I'm in the old Allegheny shop in on in in
• 1:25:20
  Pittsburgh, Belle Vernon, Uniontown.
• 1:25:24
  I'm in Punta Gorda, FL, but my online store or message me
• 1:25:30
  directly. I'm always available.
• 1:25:31
  I have my phone number on my socials, man, you can call me.
• 1:25:34
  I don't, I don't care. So yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm
• 1:25:38
  available. I'm available 24/7 every day of
• 1:25:41
  the week. Don't tell me that because I'll
• 1:25:43
  call you at 2:00 in the morning and say, Yo, what are you doing,
• 1:25:45
  man? You.
• 1:25:46
  Can you can call me? He's not lying.
• 1:25:49
  He is not lying about that. No, he's not.
• 1:25:51
  That's. Cool.
• 1:25:52
  It's cool. Hell yeah.
• 1:25:53
  I really appreciate you guys having me on, man.
• 1:25:55
  This was a lot of fun. This was my first podcast.
• 1:25:59
  Wow. Wow, Honored.
• 1:26:00
  We're honored then. Wow, we're honored.
• 1:26:02
  To have you here. Man, I was nervous.
• 1:26:06
  Well, listen, listen, all of you guys, if, if you guys don't,
• 1:26:10
  please follow the Vanilla gorilla, follow Boss Dog and
• 1:26:14
  follow me, the OG cigar tender on Instagram.
• 1:26:17
  We want to keep in touch with you guys.
• 1:26:18
  We want to have you back again at some point in time.
• 1:26:22
  This really was one of my favorite episodes that we've
• 1:26:24
  done. Thank you guys so much for
• 1:26:26
  joining us. Man, thank you guys for.
• 1:26:29
  Having us. Thank you.
• 1:26:31
  Thank you. Where can we?
• 1:26:32
  Get your coffee from. Yeah, so we are at Drifting
• 1:26:35
  drams.com. Just like the name says you can.
• 1:26:38
  If you Google Drifting Drams Coffee, we should be pretty
• 1:26:41
  close to the top, if not at the top.
• 1:26:43
  The perks of a unique name, right Instagram?
• 1:26:49
  Yeah. We're we're on all the socials
• 1:26:51
  too. If you come during the week,
• 1:26:53
  then you'll you'll see us on a number of different whiskey
• 1:26:56
  focused YouTube channels. The backdrop serves really well
• 1:27:00
  for that that, that perspective too.
• 1:27:03
  And then like a like we said, we're in a few different cigar
• 1:27:06
  lounges around the country. We're about to be in another
• 1:27:10
  whiskey, a liquor store in Nashville as well.
• 1:27:14
  And so, so yeah, we're, we're working our way, love.
• 1:27:17
  It love it, fantastic. We appreciate you.
• 1:27:20
  It's time to sign off and say Happy Sunday, Happy fun day.
• 1:27:27
  Make sure y'all follow Bobby Knuckles drifting drams.
• 1:27:31
  All their information is actually in the show notes.
• 1:27:33
  It's all in. The in the show notes and the
• 1:27:35
  OG. On the head gorilla.
• 1:27:37
  So guys, on that note, take care we'll.
• 1:27:41
  See you next week. We'll see you next week.
• 1:27:42
  United cigars. United cigars.
• 1:27:45
  All right, guys. Thank you.
• 1:27:47
  Thank you. Thank you guys.
• 1:27:48
  Thanks y'all. You're welcome.
• 1:27:50
  Thank you. Hi.
• 1:27:52
  I'm beaker with military broadcast radio TV.
• 1:27:55
  We're your virtual. MWR bringing veterans radio,
• 1:27:59
  podcasts, gaming, animation, 3D printing and a community that
• 1:28:04
  never leaves you behind. Download our Roku.
• 1:28:07
  Or. Mobile app.
• 1:28:08
  Today.