Cigar Snob Podcast

Apologies for the late upload, people! We had been busy wrapping up an issue of the magazine. This episode was recorded just a few days before St. Patrick's Day 2018. We get into that, March Madness basketball, and a whole bunch more while enjoying Drew Estate's candela-wrapped MUWAT KFC Swamp Rat. Have you tried those? Let us know what you thought by emailing us at [email protected] and we might read your note on an upcoming episode.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Cigar Snob team enjoys some Debonaire Maduros (in Sagita) while talking about the Academy Awards, South Africa's troubling move to confiscate white-owned farmland, and a letter from a guy who doesn't seem to like our magazine very much.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We mark Rocky Patel's birthday with some Vintage 2006 San Andreas, look back on ProCigar 2018, and administer our very own citizenship test to our art director Andy "El Yuma" Astencio. What is a mullet? Who is "The Duke"? What is a Grand Slam?

Join us as we smoke great cigars, talk the hottest new social media company, and stumble through our ridiculous high-stakes game show.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Cigar Snob Magazine's Nick Jiménez hopped on a call to interview Steve Gherebean, one of the guys behind Hand Rolled, a documentary film about premium cigars. In the interview, Steve explains how the project was born, who's behind it, and how it has changed the way the filmmakers see handmade cigars and the people who make them.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Cigar Snob team gathers in the studio to smoke Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust's Todos Las Dias while we chat about the winter games, boat shows, hanging with Nestor Miranda of Miami Cigar, Smoke Inn's Great Smoke event, Valentine's Day and Fergie's national anthem attempt.

We also recommend movies and hotels you should check out, as well as some home improvement products you should avoid. Join us for all the cigar smoke and lady lumps.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We recently joined a group of cigar retailers and cigar media for Viaje al Origen, a Davidoff-sponsored tour of the iconic company’s Dominican farming, fermentation and manufacturing operation in the Dominican Republic. The tours and the tastings that were sandwiched in between were, for the most, led by Klaas Pieter Kelner. He’s the son of Davidoff’s Henke Kelner. And at 27 years old, he’s coming into his own as an ambassador for the brand.

We got hooked up to some microphones for a quick chat about growing up around the cigar business and what it’s been like for Klaas to learn the ropes and become one of the Davidoff brand’s lead cigar evangelists.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Cigar Snob team shoots the breeze, talking about the Super Bowl (spoiler alert: the Philapdelphia Geegles won the day), movies (spoiler alert: there's freaky fish sex in The Shape of Water) and travel to Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic (spoiler alert: there are cigars).

We also get into some Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Reservas and talk about how hard various cigars kick you in the nuts.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Luís Cuevas of Casa Cuevas Cigars came by Cigar Snob HQ to talk with Cigar Snob publisher Erik Calviño about cigars, how he got into the business, and what's coming down the pike for his brand.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

At 2018’s Puro Sabor festival in Estelí, Nicaragua, Carlito Fuente of Arturo Fuente cigars dropped a bomb of an announcement. The Fuente cigar family — known for its Dominican-made cigars — let the cat out of the bag about its plans to open a cigar factory in Estelí. The Fuentes don’t do anything halfway, which means that this one company is looking to change the landscape of Nicaraguan cigars.

What’s more, Carlito announced that the person running the Fuentes’ Nicaraguan operations from seed to cigar would be Félix Mesa. There’s a chance you’ve heard the name. Felix is the owner of El Galán Cigars, which has a small factory in Estelí, as well as a retail store near the CIgar Snob offices.

Félix isn’t a household name in the cigar world, so when people learned that the guy at the helm of what’s sure to be a massive operation would be a relative unknown, it generated even more questions.

On a recent trip to the Dominican Republic, I had a chance to sit with Carlito Fuente and get deeper into the story. Why Nicaragua? Why now? Why Félix Mesa? And what should smokers expect to see coming out of this expansion and into their humidors? This interview is the first time Carlito’s gone into this level of detail with any cigar media.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Godiva Chocolate Liqueur and an old Montecristo Premium Selection '07 from the deep corners of our humidor fuel the Cigar Snob team's discussion of bitcoin, the Super Bowl, and the newest issue of Cigar Snob Magazine.

Music in this episode:

"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/