We Wanted Meat

This week on Eat Drink Smoke, Tony and Fingers review the J.C. Newman Tampa Smokers Cigar and Hugh Hamer Rum Barrel Bourbon by West Fork Whiskey Co.

Topics this week include:

Reese's Mini Pumpkins Unwrapped just landed in stores, and the company's fans are excited. The guys announced the winner of their 'Fingers, You Really Should Unpack' Giveaway. The percentage of Americans who say they drink alcohol hits a record low, Gallup says. 

Is Beyond Meat facing bankruptcy? Spirit Airlines warns it may not survive another year. What should airline passengers think of this news? China’s youth unemployment is so bad that Gen Z job-seekers are paying $7 a day to pretend to work in an office. 

All that, and much more, on an all-new Eat Drink Smoke!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Tampa Smokers. So that's the name of a former minor
league baseball team in Tampa, and with J. C. Newman
being based in Ibor City, they decided to pay an homage,
if you will, an homage Fingers Maloy.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I owned a sixty four Homage. It was fantastic. It
was one of my favorite cars.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Bless your salts, Eat drink smoke. I'm Tony Katz, And
that right there is America's favorite amateur drinker, Fingers.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Maloynau R E n A U l T.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
In case you're wondering how to spell that, we are
eat drinking smoke. I'm Tony Kats. That's Fingers Maloy, the
Tampa Smokers. This is from the people at J. C. Newman.
This is a fascinating cigar. So you've got the Ecuadorian
Connecticut Rapper, you have USA Connecticut Broadleaf in the binder,
and for whatever reason, the filler is undisclosed. I don't
get it. I don't understand it. Drew Newman, give us

(01:04):
a call explain why that is. So this is a
beautiful packaging of a cigar. It comes in at first
of all, at a six by fifty two, which means
it's six inches long. Hee always makes fingers in the
way laugh And the ring gauge is a fifty two.
That's the diameter of the cigar, or how thick it
is around me again with the laughter. So it was
a sixty four ring gage. That would be a full

(01:26):
one inch around now. In one of the videos we
made about this cigar, I said it was a six
by fifty four if I understand it right. That data
with some of the original data that came out about
the cigar before it went into production. So I think
that was the original intention of the vitola, of the
shape the size of it, and then it changed. But

(01:46):
the packaging of the cigar is spectacular because there's eleven
to a box. The box is beautiful, by the way,
somewhere I have somewhere around what's in the box. And
so it's got the ten cigars and then the eleventh
cigar is shaped like a baseball bat. It's got the barrel,
it comes down to the handle. It's beautifully done. I
smoked it. You smoked it. Oh, I smoked the living

(02:09):
hell out of it. Okay, I smoked it. And then
I made fun of its sister.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
So it and you took no pictures, no video.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
I must have a picture somewhere, somewhere, I have a photo.
So it is shape artist rendering. So it's shaped like
a baseball bat. How's the heft? Is it like a
whiffleball bat? No, because that would be wild. No, no
very much, Louisvio slugger. And so is this cigar. This
cigar has some nice heft to it. It has an
incredible draw. Uh. And although I would know you know,

(02:39):
I'm gonna say I like the draw. It is a
touch tight. The draw is a touch tight, at least
for me. But it could be how I cut it,
because I cut it super shallow. But I'll tell you
that wrapper, well, it's not glass, it's not super smooth.
Way more oily than I thought it would be.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Okay, I I you thought it would be.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Uh. I thought it'd be a dryer, dryer, just my expectation.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Okay, I'll just ride along with you on that one.
I wasn't really when you said we're gonna do the
Tampa Smoker. I wasn't thinking to myself, based on what
you were gonna explain to me about the cigar, that
it would be drier. But that's fine. What I do
like is the band. I'm gonna suffer for it, right,
the cream, the red, the gold.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
No, No, it's an absolutely beautiful presentation. Two bands on
this one with the letter T inside the baseball which
was the logo, and that says smokers, the second band underneath.
Are you one of these people who hates two bands cigars?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
I only hate two band cigars when it feels like
both bands take up sixty percent of the cigar. I
don't want to have to worry about the band fifteen
minutes into my smoke, right, that's when I start getting
a little bit annoyed. But two bands doesn't really bother me?
Does it bother you?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
And no, I don't actually care about them at all.
I take it off. People get like people get annoyed
by the weirdest, strangest, most peculiar stuff, and none of it.
None of it moves me. The only thing that will
annoy me. The only thing that will bother me is
if I can't get the band off, if they've used

(04:14):
some kind of industrial strength gorilla glue, cement adhesive that
you know, whatever they use to keep the tiles on
the shuttle. If they use that and I can't get
it off. Then I'm angry because if I have to
now hurt this ciguard and get the band off, I'm
gonna I'm gonna yell with somebody.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
By the way, you used a space shuttle joke, and
are we getting to the point now where there are
a significant there's a significant portion of the population that
has to google what is the shuttle?

Speaker 1 (04:42):
First of all, I made a space shuttle reference, not
a space shuttle joke.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
It was a joke about the cigar.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
You know, one should make space shuttle jokes references. That's fine.
It would have been better if I just talked about
the heat shield in general. Wow, So my know things.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Okay, I had a heat shield joke right there.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Gone, nobody has a heat shield joke.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I saw heat shield open for anthrax in eighty seven.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
There it is my mistake. The Tampa smoker right here
six by fifty two, talk to me about this cigar.
What are you getting off this this?

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, first of all, you know, we're just into the
first third. I'm really of the first third. And to me,
you know, when you when you light it, maybe there
is uh some wood or some leather. That's about all
I'm encountering right now. I'm I have to touch it
up right now, because I did set it down for

(05:43):
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
What about you? What are you getting so there? I
think the leather is a is a right call, and
it really does exist from the front of the tongue
to the back of the tongue. When we first lit
this cigar, and we had we we had lit the cigar,
and then we had a technical ror and then we
fixed the technically, and so we lit the cigar. I
discussed that there was some breadiness. There was like a

(06:04):
sour dough toast happening. And I'm not trying to be
all hoity toity, hoypuloi high falutin. That's what it was.
Bretty is definitely a thing, and it had that kind
of a feel a spice has occurred. A spice is
laying flat on the tongue on top of the leather.
That much is it. It is certainly not red pepper.

(06:26):
It is not overly powerful, but I do feel that
it isn't kind of it's dancing a little bit more so.
It's not that kind of black pepper baseness that often
you get in a cigar. I'm not saying there's anything
wrong with it. But in terms of when we talk
about pepper, right, certain things come up frequently, pepper as
a spice creamy like, these things come up regularly, and

(06:50):
then you try and figure out where some nuance is
the nuances it's dancing more, but it isn't overwhelming, but
I'm aware that it's there.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
The one thing I've noticed a little bit on a
retro hail is I'm also getting a hint of floral.
Really a hint.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Oh retro hal, Well, aren't you just lotty dust? Specially
you did that on purpose, just to hurt me. I
can't retro heal. Retro heal is when you bring it
the smoke, you bring it through the nostrils, and so
Zindra No's has so many more receptors, you're really able
to get some other flavors. So it's possible that you're
getting that.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
A hint, a hint, a hint of flora, a stickle stickle,
A stickle stickle, a flora, a floral.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
You want to get your notebooks out, what'd you eat today?
What did you drink today? All of that will affect
your palate for sure. The weather, which is cool, down
a little bit in Indianapolis, Indiana where we are, but
don't worry, the humidity will be back. And then you
write down what you got out of each third, first third,
second third, final third of the cigar. Write down, no
matter how weird esoteric base it is. When you try

(07:51):
that cigar a month from now or six months from now,
you do that again. You get an idea of where
your flavors were, what your through line was, and if
you add like different things to eat, it might be like, oh,
that effects in my palette a little bit, and then
you can adjust those things. It's such an important thing
to do to write things down. This is Tampa smokers
from a J. C. Newman fingers Moloy, is this in
your humidor for twenty one dollars a stick? No idea yet? Correct? Correct?

(08:16):
I don't know. And so it's the only one I've had,
is that specialty one. I don't know if it's in
my humanoi yet.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
If it were that specialty stick and you can only
base it on the one that you have, would you
spend twenty one dollars again on that?

Speaker 1 (08:27):
No? That's why I want to try this. I want
to see if there is a concrete, discernible difference or not.
That's where I'm at. Fingers malloy. There's a new treat
in tone. It's me. It's not a it's not a treat.

(08:52):
It's a drink. Smoke. I'm Tony Katz and that is
America's favorite amateur drinker, Fingers Moloy. Our books, Let's Go
Bourbon and Let's Go Barbecue, available at Amazon dot com.
You want to buy a good oh, I don't know,
fifty copies, especially with Labor Day around the corner.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
How many times, Tony, have you celebrated Labor Day with
your friends and you thought to myself, my god, they're
having a Labor Day party and I forgot the gift.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
You know, last time I went to a Labor Day
party and forgot the gift. The host of the party
was like, don't worry. Next thing, you know, Bam, hit
by a bus.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
You don't want to be hit by a bus, now,
do you?

Speaker 1 (09:32):
By the way, you felt that joke coming, Yes, you
felt like the bus a mile away. You felt that
joke coming smoking the Tampa Smoker. But our books Let's
Go Bourbon and Let's Go Barbecue, Available at Amazon dot com.
Tampa smoker from jac Newman. Will get to more of that.
There's a story from All Recipes. Here's the headline of
the story. Reese's just dropped a new seasonal treat and

(09:56):
fans say, I'll take ten bags.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Did they actually hear fans say I'll take ten bags?
Or do they go to Reddit and see one person
say I'll take ten bags? Is that how that works?

Speaker 1 (10:08):
I believe. I believe that's what they did. This is
the Reese's new Mini Pumpkins unwrapped.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Oh stop.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
It just like the mini eggs unwrapped. The pumpkin version
transforms the beloved peanut butter cream and chocolate candies into
a bite sized treat. Now it doesn't taste like pumpkin,
doesn't taste like chocolate, and pumpkin doesn't taste like peanut
butter and pumpkin. It is a freaking Reeses that looks
like a pumpkin. Why do I care? Fingers more?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Well, first of all, you care because you do enjoy
a Reese's peanut butter cup.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Do you not? Well, I don't know. Am I an American?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
And as we all know, yes, by the way, the
answer that I just assumed that everyone and eat, drink,
smoke Nation immediately yelled at the radios. Yes, of course, we.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Have a lot of people from all around the globe.
That is not everybody is an American. But as an American,
I love candy. He loves candy, and as a human
being also candy. I remember, candy is anything most anything
that involves chocolate, save the raisinette, because that's not candy.
And as we all know, skittles are not candy. Skittles

(11:20):
are disgusting, and TUTSI rolls are not candy. TUTSI rolls
are devil scat. I'm Tony Katz and I approve this message.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Apparently you've never had the skittles that is shaped like
a mini pumpkin dud.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Skittles are gross. I don't care what anybody says. And
the Skittles people who work there, I'm sure lovely people.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
I don't understand why you hate people who make skittles.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
What I hate skittles. I hate the people who make
the skittles. I hate the people who carry around the skittles.
They're all just awful. Thank you. Can we can we
move on?

Speaker 2 (11:50):
We can move on. Let's get back to the peanut
butter cup can the Reese's Peanut butter cup is delightful.
But then when you have these specialty peanut butter cups
that come out, the Easter Egg peanut butter cup. The
fact that the Easter Egg peanut butter cup and the
pumpkin peanut butter cup have more peanut butter than chocolate.
I think that is what the kids call a game changer.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
So if this is a ratio conversation.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yes, absolutely, there's much more peanut butter in the Reese's
Easter Egg and the Reese's pumpkin. There is. Oh, Listen,
we had the boys at the Fingers Malloy Institute of
Institutes for institutes the whole study. We got a government
grant thanks to ask LESCo, and we spent dozens of
dollars researching, and we found out that there're the peanut

(12:35):
butter to chocolate ratio in the egg in the pumpkin
through the roof compared to the regular Reese's Peanut butter cup.
Having settled that that's the reason why I enjoy the
peanut butter cup less than I do the egg in
the pumpkin, Now you got a situation where they make
the mini pumpkins, where I'm assuming the ratio peanut butter

(13:01):
to chocolate is the same, just smaller, and you open
the bag. You don't have to deal with rappers constantly
rap who has the time to unwrap six or seven
Reese's pumpkins? Who has the time he's reaching the bag?
Shove them all in your mouth.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Let's say something right now, Oh, okay, directly to you.
You don't know how to plug in that microphone, but
you are able to break down the science of which
peanut butter cup has more peanut butter in ratio?

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Well, this microphone does not have chocolate or peanut butter.
Good lord, you know I'm right though. Are you gonna
argue with me about peanut butter pumps? Now?

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Your argument is unassailable. It is so basically I need
to buy this, open up the bag, and eat said.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Bag absolutely all right now, now we're.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Gonna have to do this. We're gonna have to taste
test this with all of the with the whole ratio
thing and see if it's too much peanut butter, because
there is such a thing. There is. Don't look at
me like that. Don't look at me like.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
When have you had a situation where you have bitten
into a candy that had too much peanut butter in it.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Well, in general, there could be too much peanut butter.
You need ratio matters, You need even this, you need
focus even this. Right. You know the time I once
a bit into a candy and there was too much skittle.
When I bit into a.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Skittle, Well that's one hundred percent skittle.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah, to see the problem.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
See here, I'm telling you we've had this discussion.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
You've never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that
had too much peanut butter to jelly. We're talking about candy,
too much jelly to peanut butter.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
We're talking cane.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
I'm talking ratios.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Listen, when do you bring science into eat, drink, smoke.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Well, every time we talk about how you one makes
bourbon and how one engages a cigar and the concepts
of combustion.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
So don't give me all of that mumbo jumbo. I'm
talking about chocolate and peanut butter here.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
True, you are, you absolutely are. All I'm saying is
at them and we'll test them all. We'll test them
for ratios.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
So you want me to get and of course you
know there are other Reese's peanut butter cups. We've had
the megas, the megas, the super mega giant ones. Now
they make apparently, allegedly, supposedly they make the giant ones
with peanut butter and jelly. Think about it. Think about
it before you say no, right off hands say no,

(15:25):
think about it.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Grape jelly, grape jelly. Definitely no pean butter and jellies
with strawberry. I'll fight, I'll fight, I'll do it. Pean
butter and jelly is way better with strawberry.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
The one I can never figure out is blueberry Stop.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Nobody does that. I see it all the time. You
see somebody eating blueberry jel.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
All the time. Peanut butter like blueberry jam. Serial killer.
What's even worse? Have you seen the folks that have
peanut butter with orange marmalade?

Speaker 1 (16:02):
That actually doesn't sound bad.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I would rather eat peanut butter and mayonnaise. You know
that was a thing back in the day.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yes, that was the thing back in the in the day.
Blue go back to the blueberry. That's like something you'd
put on a pancake. Yes, not eat with peanut butter.
I mean, if I saw somebody making a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich and they pulled out blueberry marmalade or
blueberry jam. I would immediately say, excuse me, I have
to be going now I would leave.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Okay, now I think what has to happen. We have
to get a jar of peanut butter and your favorite bread,
and we're gonna have to get six or seven of me.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
I don't even eat bread. We're gonna I'll do it
for this.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
We'll have to get six or seven different kinds, different
flavors of jelly, marmalades, jams, and do peanut butter and grape, well,
peanut butter and grape peanut butter, strawberry peanut butter and
orange marmalade, throwing some mayonnaise. Let's do it. We'll do
a whole eat, drink, smoke, working extravagans are.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Jelly with mayonnaise? Why not? All right?

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Sedible?

Speaker 1 (17:07):
True? True? But how about we just keep it to
jelly's and jams.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Oh fine, but.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
I'm not doing blueberry man. That is the sign of
somebody who totally has bones buried in the backyard. Eat, drink, smoke.
It is your cigar, bourbon foody Extravaganza. I'm Tony Katz.
That's Fingers Boy. You find everything at EA Drink smokeshow
dot com. Be sure to get the podcast wherever it
is you get your podcasts, and be sure to get

(17:37):
your next steak at Defiance Beef. Defiancebeef dot Com is
where you can order a quarter cow, half cow, a
full cow twenty one day aging this farm in northwest Indiana.
I mean, we're talking about an absolutely exquisite place where
you are going to get exceptional, exceptional beef for your family.

(17:58):
You're gonna need a chest, you might need, you might
need too, depending on what it is that you order.
We have had the steaks, we have had the ribbis,
the strips, the tenderloins, we've had the ground beef. It
really just absolutely tremendous. The job they have done, what
it is that they do and the tenderness of this

(18:21):
stuff is incredible. And I have indeed ordered my first
quarter cow. And when you order it, you reserve it
and then they'll contact you and say, Okay, your cow
is ready, how do you want it? And you can
actually decide what strips, how many of this, how many
of that? How much ground beef, the whole thing. It

(18:41):
is incredible. And if you use promo code eat drink smoke, one.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Hundred and fifty dollars off your order. Now, yeah, that's happening.
That's outstanding.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
To clarify from last week, because I stepped on the
ad a little bit, you said you could order a
cow not as a pet.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Not as a pet. It is not a pet, will
come vacuum packed individually, and then boom, it's right in
the fraser comes already a frozen right there, and you
can actually, I mean you can cut it to thickness
and everything else. You're gonna actually talk to the butcher
and make that decision. Defiance Beef d e f I

(19:16):
a nce Defiancebeef dot com. So easy to use, so
easy to do. And when you place your order the
promo code Eat Drink smoke, you will get one hundred
and fifty dollars off your order smoking from JC Newman,
the Tampa Smokers. That is that Connecticut shade wrapper Connecticut

(19:37):
broadly in the binder undisclosed filler. Again. I don't know
why that is. That's kind of interesting why they would
go with the undisclosed filler. I'll say a couple of things.
The draw has been it started off better, things have
got a little tight on there. It's been a little
hard to keep things lit. That could be humification, could
be a bunch of things. Flavor wise, I think it's
been absolutely lovely. It's just more flavorful Connecticut. I mean,

(20:03):
this definitely is a medium. This is a medium cigar.
It's not a full bodied cigar, but it's a nice
bit of flavor all the way around and feels great
in the hand. The keeping it lit it's been a
little bit difficult there as we've gotten into the cigar
through the first third.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
But I like the smoke a lot. Yeah, I do
as well. The only thing that is a sticking point
for me that you kind of teased a little earlier
in the in the hour, is the price point where
it makes me start dollars. You start thinking twenty one dollars.
I gotta tell you I'm leaning no right now, just

(20:43):
because and this is just value conversation, right because the stick,
like you said, the flavors are nice, the haft, nice
hand feel, The draws a little tight. I actually cut
a little bit more off. The cap didn't really help
all that much, so but I'm still wavering. So this

(21:03):
right here, the middle third and the final third may
talk me into it.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
The conversation here about value is really really important when
you're talking about anything that's twenty dollars plus a stick.
What works for me here is the bit of spice
that's happening, that leather that's happening. It is not just
a Okay, I've got a creamy a creamy coffee. Note right, oh,
I have a connecticut with my coffee. It's a morning cigar.

(21:32):
I've got a creamy coffee. Note. That's enough. There's something
happening here. There is a real fullness, even though it's
a medium. There's a real fullness to the flavor. And
so therefore you can think of this cigar in other places.
If you don't get to have your first cigar until
the afternoon, until the early evening. The idea that it
has to be a duro or a scurrow or a habano,

(21:56):
that's not real, that's not true. That that is mythology.
That is horse crap. Sorry, I got a little passionate there.
It could be whatever you want it to be. This
might be the right flavor profile for you. And if
you're somebody who isn't smoking, let's say every day, but
it's smoking twice a week. Well, then yeah, absolutely, this

(22:16):
might hit that that point really really well. So I'm
I am jury's out on the price right now also,
but I can see it. There's a lot of good
coming out of this cigar. But it's Tampa smokers. Look
for it from J C. Newman Time Fingers mooy for
News of the week.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, the news really needs to start off with you know,
you you posed something out there for etrink Smoke Nation
last week because you said, Fingers, I'm sick and tired
of you talking about unpacking.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, because he moved like nine years ago and he's
still unpacking.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
And you posed. You threw it out there to eat
RNK smoke Nation. You said you had a fine cigar
for the first person to email me Fingers at eatrink
smokeshow dot com fingers unpack already.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yes, we were smoking the Artural Flente, the Shark seventy seven,
the on yeho O, which spectacular cigar. I said, I'll
send a cigar for the first person who emails that
to you. And there were emails, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
There were Hey, several thousand emails Tony, several hundred emails Tony,
several out of thousands, several emails Tony, but one stood
out because it was the first one, and that's what
we were looking for.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Right, So Bill D.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Do we give the full name? Do we give the
full name?

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Just Bill D?

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Congratulate from No, he did not. Is he from Nova Scotia?
But I will say Invernes. The direct line to his
phone number is three to one. Seven is the area code,
So Central Indiana. Welcome guy, local guys. So Bill, congratulations.
Tony will be sending you a fine, fine cigar.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Right, you'll just have to send fingers your address or
PO box or whatever it is, and boom, we will
send it to you. Well done, well played. By the way.
You want a Tampa smoker. You want a Tampa smoker,
be the first person. Wait, no, Mike, we can't we
give away a Tampa smoker.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Okay, that's fine, we can't get fine.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
We won't give away a Tampa smoker.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Tony. Do you feel like you're being too generous?

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Never follow us on Instagram at Eat, Drink, Smoke Podcast
and be the first I will post. I'm gonna find
out right now while Fingers talks to you, I'm gonna
find out if I've got a picture of that, uh,
the the the cigar that's built like a like a
like a baseball bat. And yes I do. I'm gonna

(24:58):
post that. Right you thought it was the.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Foot looks like it's I handled to a bat.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Wow, what an age we live in.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yes, I will post this photo if I haven't already
on the Instagram.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Don't do it now.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
I'm not gonna do it now. Not gonna do it now,
not could do.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
It now, Not gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Look for it. It will happen next week. Look for it. No,
I have not posted it to Instagram yet. Look for it.
I will post that and be the first person to comment. Man,
I'd like to use that to hit fingers upside the head. Man,
I'd like to use that to hit fingers upside the head.

(25:35):
You know what? That's too many words just with the
comment nice bat? Nice? What I changed it? Nice bat?

Speaker 2 (25:45):
And how about a follow too?

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah? Oh you have to follow if you If you're
not following us on Instagram, it won't work. Go to Instagram, Eatdrink,
Smoke podcast and be the first person comment nice bat
on the Tampa smoker, and I will send you one
of these Tampa smokers, not the one in the picture
exce've I smoked that one, but one of these other ones.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
So you're gonna get the fine folks that we have
at the Eat Drink Smoke mail Room start shipping cigars
all over the country. That's what you're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Well, if if the nice folk can the Eat Drink
Smoke mail Room refer to my wife, then then yes, yes,
I believe. I believe that's exactly what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Do the fine folks in the Eat Drink Smoke mail
Room have uniforms?

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Well, well, what we do have Eat Drink Smoke swag
are wearing some right now.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
So yeah, if you if you see us over on
YouTube or rumble and you could find us, just search
for Eat Drink Smoke on YouTube or rumble, find video
platforms for your podcast. If you find them a video form,
just check that out and you'll see me in my
orange Eat Drink Smoke shirt.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Have you found that we're starting to hoore ourselves out
just a little bit, just a little bit. Yeah, I
don't know, I don't know. It's a good look for us.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh, just getting started with the horring out.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Wow, we've made a turn. People. News of the week
is up neck so involved. We got in talking about
who gets free cigars? We we we forgot to do
news of the week. It's Heat Drink Smoke. I'm Tony Katz.
That is fingers away, don't forget. Go to our Instagram

(27:20):
page that is Eat Drink Smoke a podcast and uh
and look for the image of the Tampa Smoker cigar
that looks like a baseball bat and put it in
the comment nice bat. Nice I want even be the
first one, not even the first one. Just put in
the comment nice bat. And who will put that up

(27:42):
sometime on Monday and then and then uh, and then
we'll decide, okay, we've cut it off, and then we'll
pick one of those people by random and they will
get a cigar. So now you're saying it's random. Yeah,
that's what I'm saying, it's random. You have to put
nice bat in. Yeah. I want to open up to
more people. I don't want to just be the first one.
I want a lot of people to have a chance
to get a free.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
You thought that threw over the break. I did, and
that is the correct move.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
I'm glad we had this talk.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
It's time right now for news of the week, Tony.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
We we've touched on this, but we may as well
just dive right in. The percentage of US adults who
say they consume alcohol has fallen to fifty four percent,
the lowest by one percentage point in gallops ninety year trend.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, and what I've determined that those people are not
paying attention enough to the news. If you knew what
was going on in our country right now, my goodness,
you wouldn't be able to stand No.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
That's very fair, that's very very fair. But what's what's
interesting is, you know, we've we've talked about how younger
generations have really walked away from from alcohol. But I'm
wondering if older Americans are also taking a step back

(29:07):
because it felt like it wasn't too long ago, especially
during COVID, it felt like everybody was drinking. It was
free flow in alcohol everywhere. People were going crazy. But
now people are rethinking their alcoholic beverage intake.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
We've discussed trends amongst Junger generations. We've discussed the ozembic effect,
things like this, there could be an economics to it.
People have moved on to other things. There are good
cycles and bad cycles in any industry, and right now
Bourbon's going through a rough cycle. Yeah they are, and
as we have discussed, smaller distilleries, they're gonna have a

(29:44):
hard time.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
I still wonder if and I would love to see
if Gallup has done a poll on this, especially when
it comes to younger Americans. As we see and when
I say this, it's I'm not you know, condoning condoning it,
I'm not endorsing it. The amount of Americans, younger Americans
who are stepping over to cannabis based products versus alcohol.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Oh, that might be it.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
That could be either talking about like gummies in general,
or gummies or anything. Yeah, or I guess they have
these uh that listen to me totally and completely sound
out of touch with this product. They've got the beverages
now that happen, Yes they do.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
That could maybe that is, But what I have seen
is that they're just not interested in the mind enhancing
uh whatsoever. That that's just it's just not who they are.
And it might it might circle back where people just
you know, start appreciating, appreciating the art, you know, that's
that's part of our thing. It's it's about the art.

(30:45):
It's about what it is these blenders do and how
they do it, why they do it, what are they
trying to express, and what do we take from that expression?
Love the art of the thing, like loving the art
of the cigar, to blend the cigar, to put this together,
to be able to produce it to any amount. I mean,
it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable what these guys do, how they're able.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
To do it, and appreciating the art of you know, bourbon,
Like you said, I can't tell you know how many
times I've had people walk up to me at an
event and just assume that they're surprised that you and
I are not three sheets to the wind right. They're like, oh,
you must drink all the time, constantly, And it's like,
people know you've.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Known me a long time. Yes, if people knew how
little I drink, how I don't finish a glass all
the time, I'm just I've never been interested. It has
never ever hit me. I want to taste it, I
want to experience it, and then I want to move
on to the next one. I just I just don't
have any need to finish it at all.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
I agree with you. I'm the same way. I want
to taste it, finish it, and move on to the
next one. Yeah, we have a different idea of finish it.
Oh yeah, you actually finish it. I do. But I've
gotten to the point where, you know, we we, of
course every week, review some word of bourbon rye ear
every once and a while every week, and we keep

(32:04):
talking how we're going to expand into different areas. You know,
we have reviewed tequila in the past. Yeah, we may
review other out. We've done cans, drinks, all sorts of things.
I remember specifically specifically you liking the canned BlackBerry Crown Royal.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
I did not.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
But having settled that, I'm finding myself drinking a lot
less than I did, say five years ago, which is
amazing because I do pay attention to the news.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
True, you you would think, yeah, but you it could
just be life stuff and other stuff. I mean, everything's possible.
Your personal cycle, if you will, is different than maybe
what's going on on trend right. There's also a more
of a health kick going on, especially amongst younger generations
certainly gen Z. It's just sitting back and having a

(33:06):
bourbon at the end of the day just is not
is not where they are at the moment that could
all change.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Yeah, I've found myself on the way over to eat,
drink smoke studios today, I was listening to some really
calming piano music, just gen piano music. I just found
it on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Is that another way of saying classical?

Speaker 2 (33:27):
I guess by classical, isn't that usually with the strings
and the uh strings and the and the timpany timpanies
and stuff like that. But so I was just listening
to some floutist. Yes, just listening to some nice, beautiful
piano music, just trying to calm myself down a little bit.
And I thought to myself, you know, maybe I need

(33:50):
to create a little room for myself where I can
sit back in a nice comfortable chair and listen to
some whether it's classical music or piano music, and have
a little bit more bourbon in my life, and just
that would be a good way to unwind and relax.
Do you find yourself, do you have a space where

(34:11):
you do that sort of.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Thing you're sitting in it. I built a studio.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
But do you listen to do you listen to music?

Speaker 1 (34:19):
And no? Okay, so everybody's different. By the way, I
love that we did one story for News of the week.
We're already onto something else.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Ladies and gentlemen, do you really want more news in
your life right now?

Speaker 1 (34:34):
I since I started doing radio quote unquote professionally, it's
been eleven years professionally, if you will, this started happening
in about year three. I want silence all the time
I drive. I have no radio on. You don't listen
to the radio rarely, like so I have Sirious, So

(34:57):
I have Tom Petty Channel, I have seventies channels, some
other things, a little bit of yacht rock going on,
but in the main nothing. Nothing.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Now, when you are driving and you do not have
music going in your car, is it that you are
just alone in your thoughts thinking about the day, or
is it just this is a way to decompress and
not think about anything except what's on the road.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
I think it's I think it's more of the latter.
I really do. It's it's you know, if I'm trying
to work something out in my head, that's that's one thing.
But yeah, there's every every moment of my day. My
professional day is filled with talking. It's filled with with
with this, with voices and sometimes no voices is fantastic.

(35:49):
Like people listen to eat, rink, smoke while they're doing
other things. Right, So it's this companion piece and it's
it's sometimes we're a little bit of a white noise.
We're not insulted, we don't mind. We're very but yeah,
for me, sometimes just nothing is everything.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
I need something, Yeah, I need something because I don't
need uh, the voices in my head. Oh you know,
I need the distraction, Okay, because then you start thinking
about I should have done this, I should have done that,
Why did I do that thirty years ago?

Speaker 1 (36:19):
That kind of thing, well, I do that used to
get me so much, like I would have to pull
over the side of the road and calm myself.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I'm glad I'm not the only person that's like, Oh,
what's bad is when you're in the car with someone
and that something like that happens. I have a reaction
and they're like, what's what's wrong? Are you having a stroke? Yes,
I'm having a stroke. I'm not thinking about something thirty
years ago.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Oh the Psyche. We'll get to it. It's Easturing smoke.
We said that we would do more different types of alcohol,
tequila's rum because rum goes great with ours. So I
didn't do that. But I do have a bourbon with

(37:04):
a rum finish, and I think that should count.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
It counts.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
It's a drink smoke. I'm Tony Katz. That is America's
favorite amateur drinker, Fingers molloy. And this is the Hugh
Hamer from West four Whiskey.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
It counts.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
I'm sorry you want to do that again.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
It counts.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
So Hugh Hamer is part of the whole line of
Old Hamer, which you may have seen a whole a
bunch of It's possible it's not available in your area.
West Fork Whiskey comes from right here in Indiana, place
called a Westfield, very very nice, good people of the
brothers there, and I am thrilled to be doing some

(37:44):
work with them now, even though and I am always
full disclosure, this is one of the very rare times
I am doing work with them. Nothing interferes with whether
I think there's a value there at price, Absolutely nothing.
And if you don't want to take my work for
it on this one. That's fine, but full disclosure. I
will never lie to you under any circumstance. Yes, I

(38:07):
do some work with them. I leave it. I'm gonna
leave it there. Did I make that clear?

Speaker 2 (38:12):
What kind of work like song and dance work they're
cutting an album?

Speaker 1 (38:16):
I do some things for them. You might start seeing
them as an advertiser on this program. So I wanted
people to know. I wanted people to know what was happening,
because it's not right when people don't disclose that stuff
in the radio is there's plugola and there's payola, and
as far as I know, those are the only two
things you can really truly get fired for on the spot,

(38:39):
no questions asked.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
A lot of people on the street call this show eat, drink, smoke. Transparency.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
That's what they call it. In the world of podcasting alone,
you don't have to do anything. There are no rules
because so you never really know what's the matter.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Have you seen ah on the social media's these ads?
It doesn't matter what the product is. Let's let's say
it's for foot powder, where they act like it's two
people in a podcast platforms like oh tell the other day,
I have terrible foot odor. You don't say have you

(39:14):
tried Fingers Malloy's famous foot powder. It's like, oh, that's
not a podcast, that's a stupid commercial.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yes, it's super So I don't I don't believe in
any conversation or any question about not being full disclosure.
I am full disclosure. Uh. The the whole old Hamer line.
And there's a ton of them. There's a castrength, there's
a ten yere.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
There's a lot of things happening here. This is one
of them. This is called the Hugh Hamer. It is
ninety nine percent corn, one percent multed barley, coming in
at one hundred and three proof. Anything over one hundred proof.
Getting applause from Fingers Maloy right there. Uh, this is
somewhere in the four to six year range in terms

(39:59):
of of aging. And I will tell you in the
glass that is a nice color. That's a little more
bourbon color. There a little in the caramel, not so
maybe orange, not in the amber, not in the reds.
Fingers already in the nose.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Boom, I am in the nose, and I have to
get deep in the nose because I will say right
off the back.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Do you have a cold? Do you have a cold. No,
why you have to get deep in the nose there? Yes? Really? Yeah? Wow?

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Well okay, first of all, for one hundred and three proof,
there is no ethanol alcohol on my nose. How about you?
Are you getting anything?

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Touch a touch? I think I'm more sensitive to it
than you are.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
That's because I bathed an alcohol. Okay, so maybe a
hint of oak and some caramel.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, that's sweet. It is rum finished.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
One would think right between that and ninety nine percent corn,
you would expect it to be sweet. It's nice.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
It's spending four to six years in the barrel as bourbon.
It's not known the amount of time it's spending in
the rum barrel to get that extra sweetness off there.
But that is sweet.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
They don't disclose that, No, eighteen months. You can just
tell just by the you know, oh, nineteen months.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
It is sweet. It's not overly sweet, but it's there.
I would argue there is a little bit of oak
playing underneath, uh for sure, but fingers will way uh
sniffiness for suckers.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
It was my favorite country album by that famous country
artist Conway Twitty. What one full family guy? You did
a full family guy? But I thought once again seventies
and eighties country music phenom Conway Twitty. We have our
fingers on the pulse of pop culture.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
We are good like that finger of I didn't even
ask him if he was ready for it, all right,
fingers on why he's doing what someone is at Kentucky chew.
Take the juice moving around the palette, try and get
idea for the flavors. I'm a believer in the two
step theory. The first sip to set the taste bud,
it's the second sip to really understand the flavors that
we've got in our Glenn Cairing glass. Right, it's got

(42:19):
the foot bows out comes back in helps you concentrate
the flavors of the nose, really get to look at
in the light. Let's say you find.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Okay, the first of all, there's a nice bit of
spice also, I would I would say that there's definitely
a brown sugar to it. And then there's an orchard
on the finish as well. It's very nice. It does
not play at all in my mind over one hundred proof.
There's a nice bit of sting on the tongue and okay, now,

(42:46):
a little bit of gentle warmth in the chest. It's
very nice.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
I'm going in. I'm going in. This is the Hugh
Hamer rum finished h m e R. But it's pronounced Tamer,
not hammer. Hammer. Here I go.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
He's going in, ladies and gentleman, and he is doing
what we like to call the saganaw swish, the Memphis munch,
the Chattanooga chomp, the Kentucky chew, always going back in
for seconds. That ninety corn really, uh, you get a

(43:22):
sense that it is ninety nine percent corn because it
is very sweet.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
There is way more heat than I was expecting.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Really, the tongue, the.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Lips, the the soft, soft in the chest. Soft in
the chest, for sure, but definitely on on the tongue,
definitely there on on the on the lips again with
the sweetness, syapy, the the the sweet again is not overwhelming. Uh,

(43:59):
you can and you can almost argue there's like a
like an apple pie thing happening on there. I would
expect as much when you're talking about ninety nine percent corn,
that there'd be some outrageous sweetness here. I can't tell
you what the rum is adding. I can't tell you

(44:22):
does the rum bring me the sweetness? I would love
to taste this before the rum finishing to be able
to get that difference. I think this is screaming for
a cube. I want to try it on a cube.
It is hot and sweet. Boom, there is a real

(44:44):
heat that comes. The finish, by the way, is lovely.
The finish on this is absolutely solid. It's sugary. There's
a little bit of wood that exists there. It's a
nice nice It's a pleasant overall drink, for sure. But
I want to see if I can cut that sweetness

(45:05):
by by seventeen percent fair enough, just take the edge off.
I have much more of.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
A sweet tooth than you do, so this the sweetness
doesn't actually bother me. It actually makes me like it
a little bit more. But it'll be interesting to see
what you know. I put a little bit of cool
water in mine. We'll see how that monkey's with it.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
We will get to that. The Hugh Hamer from a
West Fork whiskey keep it here. I was told that
beyond meat was the future of meat. Tony meat that
wasn't really meat was.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
The what if there's one thing I know two things
I know no one thing I know. The children and
beyond meat are our future.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Now I should be clear, I am not about to
attack the brand Beyond Meat. They have every right to
me in business. Rather, I'm talking about the people who
told us that artificial meat foam meat was the future.
Oh my gosh, you gotta invest in this, Oh my gosh,
you gotta buy stock to this. This is everything. Nothing

(46:10):
else matters, nothing, nothing beats a steak. No steak is
steak and not steak is something else, and you're more
than welcome to enjoy it. But you can't get somebody
who loves steak to be like, wait, it's just like steak.
They don't need just like steak. They want steak. That
is true, tea, drink, smoke. I'm Tony Katz, that is

(46:31):
fingers moloy.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
I apologize for stepping all over. It was a good
intro to the good intro. But whenever you start bringing
up the future, I think about the children.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
So the story is that the company Beyond Meat had
a very bad third quarter, a very very bad third quarter,
and there's a weaker demand for its plant based meat products,
and there's this possibility that they can go Chapter eleven,
which means bankruptcy. Debts of one point two million cash

(47:06):
on hand of one hundred and seventeen million. It's not
a great place. It's not a great place to be now,
I want to save for the record, I know nothing
about the management and beyond meat. As far as I know,
I do not own any beyond meat stock or anything
like it in any kind of fund or anything else
like that. As far as I know, I have no

(47:26):
financial connection whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Sometimes actual shares of stock have the same ingredients in
it as fake beef.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
I'm simply saying, who amongst us really thought this was
going to supplant beef. This is like the people who
believe in like globalization or or like a one global
government kind of folk who believe that, you know, you'll
eat bugs and it'll be great, and that's a perfect
source of protein and everything will be fine. It's like

(47:57):
that kind of total insanity where where the objective is
you are the problem for your existence because the cow
is putting the methane out there through the through the
cow flatulence, and the cow needs to absorb taking so
many nutrients, and it's destroying the water supply, and we

(48:18):
have to stop eating these cows like this and raising
cattle like this, and therefore everything will be better and
you'll eat plants and it'll be so much healthier for it,
and it tastes just the same. No, it doesn't. People
don't want it. The people have spoken. When do we
start listening?

Speaker 2 (48:36):
That's a good question. Well apparently at least the market
is listening and they're saying no, thank you. And now
I don't have the full beyond meat timeline in front
of me, but I do feel like, what was it
a few years ago where it felt like kind of
a hail Mary where they teamed up with Burger King, right,
Which what I'm told is that over there at Burger

(48:57):
King to the King of Burgers, they had the beyond whopper, right,
So for folks that wanted to have a meatless patty
in their whopper, this was gonna be some sort of man.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
And I don't know if it was beyond me or
there was impossible Burger now impossible, it was one of
the companies something like that, And I don't say no.
What I'm saying is is that in the end, and
your point is taken, we're in it. You cannot tell
people they have to accept something they won't accept. It's
like electric vehicles. You can tell me, from now to

(49:31):
the end of time, I have to accept that electric
vehicles are the future. Americans said, no, thanks, they're not
the future. No, you could sell them, some people will
buy them, but we don't want them.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
I'm really glad you brought that up, because you know,
correcting me, because it was it was impossible foods that
brought us the meatless whopper, right, But I also felt
like when it came to the whopper, that would be
if you were going to pick one fast food burger
that you would substitute a meat patty with a plant

(50:06):
based patty, that could be the burger that they may
be able to get away of it because they put
the condiments. It's just basically, they just go into the
trough of slop and put all the kind of They
put three courts of mayonnaise on the burger along with
a pound of onions, lettuce, tomato, and you bite into
it and you don't even need to chew the burger,
just tilt your head back and it slides right down

(50:28):
the gullet.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
I saw a trough of slop open up for Motorhead
in nineteen eighty six, is what I saw. It's the
people will speak and very often. What happens is and
I'm not trying to be political. I'm discussing something far
greater here that there will be some people who want

(50:49):
to tell you that no, no, no, this is better
for you, and they want their their like minded brethren
within whatever government's office to push this on you. No,
it's for your own good. People do not want what
they do not want. Is there a market for plant
based Sure, absolutely there's a market. Is there a market
to the size that they had? Is there a market

(51:13):
to the size that we were told that they have
to have. What happened that the sales fell and one
of two things had to have happened. Either the cost
became too much compared to other things, or in the end,
people tried it and tried it and tried it and said,
I don't this is not the same. And what I

(51:34):
want is the admission that it's not the same. It's not, uh,
just like a burger. No, it's just like a plant
based soy whatever the thing is, and a burger is
something else.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Have you ever tried a meatless panty before?

Speaker 1 (51:50):
I know I've had black being stuff before. It's fine,
It's not a burger. It is what it is, there's
nothing wrong with doing.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
I wonder if the type of let's examine the restaurant
side of this for a second. I wonder if people
who are into this sort of thing are skeptical about
getting a meatless burger patty because they're concerned about how
it's cooked. And this is just anecdotal. I had a
barbecue some twenty five years ago throwing stuff on the grill,

(52:24):
and I had a vegetarian show up with their own
vegetarian meat patties.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Meat patties in air quotes.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
They were plant based, and this person was very concerned
that I was going to put their patties on a
section of the grill that had some sort of meat
product ad on it.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
At one point.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
So if you are that type of person, are you
going to trust going to a restaurant that serves almost
entirely meat menu and say to themselves, well, I trust
them that my meatless patty will not.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Say that you do?

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Right, not even being rude, You're saying you think, think
of how a restaurant works. I don't know how many
of them in the main are gonna have a separate
area on their grill or a separate grill for their
meatless product. Yeah, and that's that's just not that's an
irrational thought.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
And then I wonder, if you are a vegetarian, and
you have been a vegetarian for if you're older for decades,
if just having a little bit of exposure to some
sort of meat juice will screw you up in some way,
it'll make you happy. Wow, what are you saying that

(53:37):
vegetarians can't be happy.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
I'm not saying they can't be. They can be if
they eat meat. That was softball. If you want to
be a vegetarian, if you want to be a vegan,
it's it's no sweat off of my whatever's right. You
go live your life as you see fit. I am
not here to judge. The problem is very often the
people who are vegetarians are vegans or or they're gluten free.

(53:59):
They're judge me and I would appreciate it if you
just stop and leave me to my steaks. And that's that.
That is that Eat Drink Smoke. It is your cigar
bourbon footy extravaganza on Tony Katz. That is fingers well.
I find everything we do over at Eat Drink Smoke

(54:20):
show dot com. We're smoking, we're drinking. Let's start with
the cigar right here, the Tampa Smokers from JC Newman
six by fifty two. That Connecticut shade wrapper, a Connecticut
broadleaf in the binder, the filler undisclosed. We're into the
second third of this cigar. More oil on the wrapper

(54:42):
than I thought. It had, a tight draw. Took a
little bit to get things really going and really flowing,
but now well into the second third of the cigar.
It's a really nice piece. Man. The spice is there,
for sure. I'm gonna say it's it's like a dancing
black pepper. The leather is the for sure. A fly
just entered the studio, so that's gonna be a whole

(55:03):
thing we have to deal with there. It's this is
not creamy. I would not say that about this cigar.
I would think that there. I would say that there's
a it's not necessarily a nut nutty undertone. Might actually
be a little more wood based, but not a seater.
It's a it's a medium cigar. It stays a medium cigar.

(55:25):
But as in one of the things I've loved about
how connecticuts have been going over the past couple of years,
there's flavor here. There's something you can do here more
than just oh it's the morning, gotta have a connecticut
something really mild. This is flavor. This is a well
done piece.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
I was going to just mention that I was starting
to get a good amount of wood from the cigar.
That leather has intensified that that pepper you're talking about
that has also built up a little bit as well.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
And you know, we we talked about it at the
beginning of the show. The draw it felt like it
was it wasn't quite there yet as far as feeling
like it was work, but it was a little it
was a little bit too noticeable on the edge.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
And it has since opened up nicely. It's the draws
fine now, very pleasurable, enjoyable smoking experience.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Twenty one dollars a stick, yeay or nay.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
I wish this were fifteen to seventeen dollars a stick.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
At twenty one it's a push. At twenty one dollars,
it's a push. I absolutely get that. I believe that
to be the case. I think it is a solid cigar.
I think Jason Newman has done something very very good here.
The issue is once you hit twenty, are there other
places you want to play? Other ways you want to
go with that dollar? If you feel that you can

(56:50):
already find a good Connecticut for eleven, that's the problem.
But I'm telling you this is a nice overall piece,
a nice overall cigar. I like, what's happening.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
You know what's funny is if you got me the
baseball bat one and said this is twenty one dollars
just for the uniqueness of it and the story behind it,
I could say to myself, you know, I could see
one of these in my humidor or taking it to
a cigar lounge and showing it off as I'm smoking it.
This though, again, I wish it were more. You know,

(57:27):
fourteen sixteen dollars, you start getting over twenty, like you said,
you really have to start assessing whether it's worth it
or not.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
And we are drinking the Hugh Hamer. So this is
coming in in one hundred and three proof from the
people at West Fork Whiskey, ninety nine percent one percent
melted barley. It is finished in rum casks. Now, I added,
there's definitely sweetness here, a little bit of oak on
the finish. Oh, I got a cub in there.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Oh, it looked like it melted already.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Yeah, I kept in the Glenn Karen glass because why not?
And so got this on the cube. Fingers had a
little bit of water.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
It is.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Excuse me, everybody, I'm gone in.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
He's going in, ladies and gentlemen for round three. The
two rounds without the cube. How's it changed?

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Okay? I said there was more heat on here than
I thought it would exist. There's still heat, more heat
than I thought. But what the ice did?

Speaker 2 (58:27):
So?

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Water brings down proof, right, you're already one hundred and
three proof here. Water brings down proof. It's the only
thing that you can use to bring down proof. And
it'll open it up right. Some flavors more pronounced, some
more muted. The sweetness has been cut. The heat is
still there. And with the cube, this is I think
a little bit better of a drink. I think it

(58:48):
cuts just a little too much, a little too much,
and I wish it still had some of that, some
of that some of that sweetness flavor, you know, I
was talking like there's like an apple pie thing going on.
It cuts some of that. The overall sweetness is there,
that Syrpia is still there, but that that little bit
of nuance is gone. I wish was still Remember.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Do you think the nuance would be there if that uh,
that heat had dissipated a little bit when you added
the possibly.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Okay, heat still there. Hold on, let me try one
more time.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Look it for you. You gotta you gotta make sure
when it comes to these things goes in again.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
And what I dig about it is that it is there.
There is a real viscosity going on. It's a real
thickness to this this bourbon. It's it is interesting for sure.
And as I said, full disclosure, I do stuff with
the people at West Fork Whiskey. I do have a
relationship with them, and so I need to let people
know that as we're discussing the bourbon, it's the only
right fair thing to do. You just put a little

(59:47):
bit of water in yours fingers, Billy, what say you.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Actually for me brought out a little bit more caramel then? Uh?
I previously remember from having it neat that spice is there.
It's that that heat is there, and there's a to
me that wood is there. Like I really enjoy this

(01:00:12):
and I like a sweeter bourbon.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
This is.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Really down. It's it's in my wheelhouse. I like a
lot about this. I'm interested to know, though, what the
price point is. Is this in your liquor cabinet for
sixty five dollars a bottle? Well, I wish you would
have said forty five, right. I listen. If you see
this at your local lounge, I encourage you to go

(01:00:38):
get a poor and enjoy it. For me, I have
to do a lot of thinking when you start getting
into sixty seventy dollars a bottle. It's it's very enjoyable,
I will say that. So the the this is about
whether or not this is your palate. This is too
sweet for my palate. I want more oak.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
I want some of those other caramels, right, which isn't
necessarily a high end sweet if you like a sweeter bourbon.
I can see people doing this all day. Some people
are gonna absolutely love what the rum finish is here
in the finished in the rum casks for an undisclosed
amount of time. Finger says, nineteen months. I don't know
if yeah, nineteen months. Oh hold on, you're gonna check again.

(01:01:24):
Just sweet, real quick, real quick, sixty two weeks. So
that's that's a year and ten weeks since a year
and two months. Yeah, so that's fourteen months. Yes, see
it from nineteen months to fourteen Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
The water changed the complexity and thermal breakdown, and uh,
that's that's where I got fourteen months?

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Is this bourbon or penns oil thermal breakdown? I know
that there are gonna be people who are like, Nope,
this is my bourbon. This is the kind of sweet
that I'm going for. It is they have so many
other products that I do and I enjoy, I appreciate it.
Sixty five dollars is that's not that's not that's not

(01:02:08):
the sweet I want in it. But oh, people are
gonna drink this.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
For sure, people drink You're trying to talk me into
this because I really do like it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
I know you do. I know this. It's absolutely where
you wouldn't bring it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
But it's just man, at that's sixty five bucks.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
I I dude, I hear you on all of it,
But you're talking about something that's aged four to six years. Yeah,
then that's before it gets into the rum barrel and man,
boo boo, there is a price for that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
That's it, all right, I'm buying it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Thank you, thank you very much. Just so, just like that,
mister salesman, that's what they call me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Can I do to put you in this bourbon today?

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
This is the Hugh Hamer west Fork Whiskey dot com.
Good people thrilled to be working with them, a lot
of interesting products from the old Tamer line and some
very unique things they're doing with Westwork Whiskey. But I
would tell you fingers will, it's time for a week.
Oh you got it, sneers of the week.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
Spirit Airlines had a bad quarter again and there's speculation
that they may not make it another year.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
What they said was don't book. Literally, the statement was
we're not sure how we're going to keep up operations.
That's the powerphrase. And the minute you hear that, you're like, well,
why would I ever book a flight?

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
I just looked at a round trip flight to New
York City from Indianapolis seventy one dollars round trip.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
Yeah, that's before you get a seat, before baggage, everything
else in beer nuts that no one starts beernuts rat. Sorry,
I didn't I didn't know. You didn't know that I
might not notified about these things. Get the memos. That's
true on the email list. Well, we do not get

(01:03:54):
political on Eat Drink Smoke. There are some things that
are simply undeniable about both Fingers and myself T Drink Smoke.
I'm Tony Katz, that is Fingers when I find it
all at Eat Drinks Smoke Show dot com. You guys
know that in our our day jobs and a lot
of things we do, we are absolutely people who play
in politics. Fingers does a weekend show in Michigan. Fingers

(01:04:17):
wrote for The Washington Times. I do a morning radio
show in Indianapolis. I have a naturally syndicated show I
do work on on cable news. We've consulted with elected
officials and and and others, uh think tanks. We've done this.
This this work. We don't we don't claim it as
our soul work. But we've absolutely done this work. And

(01:04:39):
on the radio side, we've done a ton If you
name the person, yeah, we've done that interview. I mean,
that's just clear, clear as day. The one thing that
we will discuss openly, honestly, clearly on this show and
any other show, without question, is that in the end
you learned that communism sucks.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
This just in communis sucks.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
It is awful. And everything about communism is based on
a lie, which is to say that you there is
no truth to be told because communism is about control
and power, keeping that power, keeping people away from the power,
removing the people you think are a threat to the power,

(01:05:24):
and it is about creating amongst the people who it
is forced upon a level of unease and unease of
self and unease of others, where you're always have an
eye open, you always wonder who has an eye on you,
and you are trying to trade this lack of freedom
for some semblance of opportunity, and that's usually done by

(01:05:47):
abusing others or accusing others, or oh, look at what
they're doing, so you can get some kind of favorable thing,
But then again the next day that's done to you,
so it doesn't last. Communism is pure, raw, unadultated evil.
And I don't think i'm speaking out of school fingers.
I think I can say I'm speaking for you. We
don't apologize for a damn thing about it, and in

(01:06:09):
terms of speaking about it, we don't apologize for saying
it out loud, even on this show. I'm not off base,
No you're not, And was I not strong enough. Oh,
I know you were strong enough.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
And what's amazing about it is the people that are
willing to vote this in don't realize that they're not
going to be able to vote it out.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
And that, of course, is a major issue. This brings
us not to a story of American politics, but to
a story out of China. This was a Fortune magazine
writing this. China's youth unemployment is so bad that gen
Z job seekers are paying seven dollars a day to
pretend to work in an office. Now, let's at least

(01:06:50):
make sure we understand what we're talking about here. If
you believe that you understand the Chinese economy, it must
be understood that China lies about everything. I am not
discussing your neighbor. I'm discussing the Communist Chinese Party. Everything
they say about a job rates or a lie. Everything

(01:07:10):
they say about their economy is a lie. Everything they
say about unemployment is a lie. They're manufacturing over the
last couple of years has been dismal. Never mind their
own lockdowns because of COVID. Global slowdowns have led to
serious issues. This is a country that has built ghost cities,
apartment complexes where the buildings are forty two stories high

(01:07:32):
and nobody lives there. You have areas of China that
have a per capita income of six thousand US dollars
a year, and those cities have three international airports.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
What nobody needs that convenience, Tony.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
They built them because they needed to have their people
have jobs. That was the promise of communism. You'll hear
a lot of people say, well, it brought a lot
of people out of poverty. You can make that argument,
but you can't make that argument on anything sound. That
argument doesn't exist when you take a look at long
term ramifications, that it doesn't last. And it's all mythology.

(01:08:15):
And one of the subjects that's been coming up time
and again regarding China is that the youth, the workforce
gen z or whatever you want to call it, there
are no jobs. There is nothing that moves them. They
quite literally are aimless and listless and are engaging in
very very almost childlike concepts in order to find some

(01:08:38):
level of happiness and enjoyment, which, of course communism destroys
the soul in their cameno enjoyment. So this story is
that the fourteen point five percent of China's young professionals
that can't find a gig. Fourteen percent unemployment, we get
to four percent unemployment like we have right now in

(01:08:59):
the US, people like, ooh, that's a little high. Fourteen
percent is an insane nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
That's probably more like thirty percent.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
So they're spending their days, paying, paying to be in
a fake office to pretend like they're doing something with
their lives. I swear to you nothing explains Communism more
than that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Isn't that wild? Because when I first saw this piece,
I thought to myself, this is genius. I wish I
would have thought of something like this in the United
States until I thought for another twenty seconds and said
to myself, you have people in this country doing everything
they cannot to go to an office, so would not
be a spectacular business plan in the United States. But

(01:09:44):
you touched on something about what this has done to
that generation of Chinese people and Chinese citizens. And there's
another trend that they call them rat people. Have you
seen this.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
I've not heard that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
So it's a trend in China where jobless gen z
people are spending their days in bed, rotting on their
phones to pass the time.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
And it was a it so same concept as a
discussing earlier. They have nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
To do, no, so they're just scrolling through. And I
believe at one point it was a popular hashtag rat
people and you know, posting about what they're doing. Before
I'm sure the Communist Party tried to do what they
can to stop out that hashtag. But you go from
that to maybe people are sick and tired of laying

(01:10:40):
in bed all day that they're actually paying the seven
dollars a day, which you know, okay, in the United States,
seven dollars a day, that's a Starbucks, right, But when
you see that people, the nation's average non private sector
annual salary is just shy of seventeen sixteen thousand dollars

(01:11:01):
seven bucks a day. That's a significant amount of money.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
This is a conversation about the purpose driven life. It
does not matter if you are a person of faith,
whether you are, whether you aren't. If you do not
have a purpose, there is no value to the life
and what we are.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
Seeing, what we are witnessing and is I swear to you,
it is horrifying and I feel for these people in
a way that I cannot fully express the horror this
must be.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
But it's the only thing that gives me hope for them,
that they may actually rise up and fight this, this
horror that is being thrust upon them. Because it is horror.
Don't tell me about Oh, they're making money, No, they're not.
They don't have lives, they don't have a purpose. It
is a rotting of the soul. It is what is this?
What is the reason for this existence? Oh? My god,

(01:11:57):
there's nothing more horrifying to me. There is. There's no
horror movie, there is no Saw movie that is as
horrifying as this idea of why do I even exist?

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Just think a radical an idea that is that people
are paying money to go to a faux office to
feel something, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
To feel like they're doing something, they're contributing something. It is.
I often relate this to the idea of our own
prison system. It's not that I oppose jails or prisons.
It's not that there shouldn't be prison sentences. It's not
that some people should spend their shouldn't spend the rest
of their lives behind bars. That they have committed our
horrible crimes, they've been adjudicated guilty, yes, But if we

(01:12:37):
don't have a prison system that focuses on giving people
skills so they can actually be a part of society
when they get out of prison. A purpose. We're doing
it wrong. We're just doing it wrong. It's how many
more ways we have to say this or see this.
It's a proven mistake.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Having a purpose is something that a human being needs.
It's why you see so many people who retire. Unfortunately,
their whole identity was wrapped around their career and then
six months later their dad.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
That that's a better example. That is so true. And
everyone listening, everyone needs drinks smoked, was like, oh, I
know that guy, and in some cases it was your dad,
in some cases was an uncle, and some people know
in some cases it was them. That's that's it. The
Hugh Hamer rum barrel finished sixty five dollars a bottle.
It's a lovely, lovely drink from the people West Fork Whiskey.

(01:13:25):
And this Tampa smoker from JC Newman twenty one dollars
a stick. You gotta try it for yourself. This is
he drink smoke