When the Juice Is Flowing, You Film Again
Sometimes Tuesday is so good you just have to go back out there. That is exactly what happened with Episode 34 of the Smoke and Steel podcast. We had such a blast filming with guest Joe Macko earlier in the week that the group decided to reconvene on Thursday for an impromptu session. No guest this time, just us, some good sticks, a warm enough night to be out in the garage, and a whole lot of things to talk about.
This one had everything. Cigar news from the Drew Estate camp, the Protocol Cigars acquisition, where our YouTube numbers are going, a deep dive into cigar community and lounge culture, and one of the biggest moments for us as a show: the official launch of the first-ever Smoke and Steel Discord Box Pass. Oh, and we finally got a mean comment. Eric was genuinely excited about that.
If you have been hanging around the show for a while, this episode will feel like settling into your favorite chair. If you are brand new, welcome. Grab a stick and stay a while.
Cigars in the Garage on Episode 34
Here is what we were smoking during this one:
- Plasencia Alma de Ceilo
- Gris Gris from LA Cigar Collective
- Montecristo Cuban
- Don Emanuel
- Crook of the Crown by Stolen Throne
- Oliva Serie V Tubo
Watch Episode 34 Right Here
Table of Contents
What We Got Into: A Breakdown of the Episode
Rumble, Shorts, and Social Platform Headaches
We opened up talking about platform strategy, which sounds a lot fancier than it actually is when you are four guys sitting around a plastic table. The conversation started with us mentioning that we had started uploading to Rumble. For those who have been curious, Rumble is more freedom-of-speech friendly than most platforms, but it is a little clunky on the backend. The shorts situation over there is also trickier because their time limits are shorter than what we get on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, where we have about three minutes to work with.
Three minutes is already tight when someone has a lot to say about a particular cigar or a topic worth digging into. So for now, Rumble is more of a backup and a dump-and-go situation. We are not going to pretend we can nurture a whole new platform from scratch. If someone comments over there, we will pop in and respond. But if you want the full experience and the community, Discord and YouTube are where it is happening.
The YouTube numbers have been genuinely exciting lately. We are getting more views in a single day than we used to get in a full month back when we started. New guys are signing up for the Discord all the time. We are getting organic viewers, guys from all over who found us through a short or just stumbled onto us, and that is the dream. That is what you grind toward.
There was a story that came up about a guy called Guns and Water on YouTube who just found us and powered through every single episode. We are being binged now. Eat your heart out, Netflix. There was also mention of someone who found Jim’s 70th birthday video and then went back and started from the beginning. Everything always seems to come back to the Godfather.
Walt had a good point in here too. He talked about his uncle’s bar back in Fishtown and how he learned early that if you have to remind someone to return a favor, you don’t need them in your life. That stuck with us. When the views go up, we want to know where they are coming from because we want to thank people. If you are out there sending people our way, please let us know. We shout people out and we mean it.
Jonathan Drew and the J.sann & Son Announcement
This one got some conversation going. Jonathan Drew had been teasing a big announcement on the Drew Estate social pages, which of course sent the fanboys into a complete spiral. He was seen smoking an Opus while teasing whatever was coming, and people were losing their minds wondering if a Liga Privada and Opus collaboration was in the works.
It turned out to be something different. The announcement was for a new venture called J.sann & Son, a sort of shoot-off of the Drew Estate brand that Jonathan is dedicating to his recently born son. From what information was out there at the time of filming, it sounds like a large-scale restaurant, factory, and show floor setup in the Weston, Florida area. Whether there will be exclusive in-store cigars released under that name remains to be seen, but that is the general feeling. It would make sense to have Liga exclusives or special one-offs you can only get if you walk through the door.
Would we drive to Florida just for this? Probably not. But if we were already down that way, sure. The real pilgrimage in Florida for cigar people is still Tampa and Ybor City. Cathedral Cigars came up in this part of the conversation, and if you have not heard about Cathedral, the short version is that a woman who previously ran a well-regarded shop in California saw the writing on the wall, sold, and bought a beautiful old church in Florida. She converted it into one of the most stunning cigar lounges in the country. The owner has a tight relationship with Fuente, who has an office upstairs, and the place regularly has live music and outdoor events on weekends. Nick from the Facebook page had mentioned that instead of chair rail along the perimeter, they have actual cigars stacked up around the room. That is commitment to the theme.
Protocol Cigars Gets Acquired
This was a piece of news that a few of us had seen floating around. Protocol Cigars, which makes some solid, well-regarded sticks, has been acquired by Smoke Inn. If you are not familiar with Smoke Inn, they are a major player down in Florida, and the owner Abe is someone Walt actually knew going back to the early days of Stogie Review. He is a massive Dunbarton retailer and reportedly bought up the remaining international stock of certain special Dunbarton releases. He also runs a huge cigar event down there that is said to rival Cigars International’s old Cigarfest in scale.
It will be interesting to see what the acquisition means for Protocol moving forward. They have been a consistent performer and have a loyal following. When a brand like that moves under a bigger umbrella, it can go either way. We are curious to see how it plays out.
The Smoke and Steel Discord Box Pass Is Officially Launched
This was the big one for us this episode, and we want to make sure anyone who missed it fully understands what is happening here because it is something we are genuinely proud of.
We launched the inaugural Smoke and Steel Discord Box Pass. Here is how it works. We pooled together a travel humidor filled with donated cigars from the group. There is a mix of high-end, mid-range, and more approachable sticks in there so there is something for everyone. The box goes down a list of names from our Discord community, traveling across the country one person at a time.
When you receive the box, you can take any cigar you want out of it. The only rule is that whatever you take, you replace it with something of equal or greater value. So as it moves from person to person, the box keeps changing, and nobody knows exactly what they are going to find inside when it lands on their doorstep.
The first shipment went out the day we filmed this episode. We are already excited about what this is going to turn into over time. There is always the chance someone loads this thing up with Opus and Cubans and it becomes a box nobody can afford to touch, but that is the fun of it.
If you want to get in on the list, hop into the Discord and reach out. We do ask that you get vetted first, just to keep things fair and safe for everyone involved. A personal trade beforehand is how we handle that. Once you are in, you are in. There is no deadline to join. We will just add you to the bottom of the list and the box will eventually find its way to you. We have already got guys signed up from all over the country.
What We Are Smoking in 2026: The Top 25 List Update
We have a running top 25 list for 2026 and Episode 34 brought some movement. Here is where things stood at the time of filming:
- ChiMolly Pioneer
- Foundation Tabernacle
- My Father Blue Label
- Gris Gris by LA Cigar Collective
- La Flor Dominicana Suave Maduro
- Patina Sumatra
- Padre Elígito by LA Cigar Collective
- Don Emanuel
The Padre Elígito earned some serious praise during this episode. A few of us had been smoking through a small order of them and it was one of those cigars where you light the first one and immediately smoke the second one the next day. They have been calling the Padre the forgotten son because so much attention went to Gris Gris, but based on what we smoked, the Padre holds its own. It bumped Don Emanuel down one spot the moment it was brought up, which has to be the fastest a cigar has ever been demoted on this list. Sorry, Don. We still love you.
The ChiMolly Pioneer is still sitting at number one two months into the year and that says a lot given everything we have smoked in that time.
EP Carillo, Brick and Mortar, and Why You Should Go Visit Your Local Shop
This came up naturally and it is something worth saying out loud. EP Carillo is one of those brands that does not always stay front of mind when you are ordering online. You scroll past the posts, you see it listed somewhere, and your brain just moves on. But the second you walk into a shop and see a stick sitting there at the right price, you pick it up, smoke it, and spend the next hour wondering why you do not buy them more often.
That is the thing about brick and mortar. You get your hands on it. You see it. It clicks something in your memory that a webpage never can. Eric’s local place has one of the biggest Romcraft selections in the area. People walk in and their heads explode because they are used to seeing just the Neanderthal and maybe one other.
There was also a note that Romcraft is expanding into international markets and will be changing the Whiskey Rebellion band to just “WR” and the year, since printing the word “whiskey” on a label runs into legal issues in certain countries. Different countries have different rules about what you can advertise on a tobacco product. Canada famously covers bands instead of stripping them. Same idea.
A Remote Recording in Texas, Eddie on the Street Delivers Again
We checked in with Eddie, who was out at Prestige Cigar and Coffee Bar in Bedford, Texas, just outside of Dallas. The place looked impressive from the video, with cigars covering the walls, a proper walk-in humidor at the back, Drew Estate artwork on display, and a full coffee bar side by side with the lounge. The owner, Zomi, has been running the place for about nine years, started as members only and eventually opened it up, and is open seven days a week.
Reading Local, Cigar Decor, and Living in a Good Area for Sticks
We are heading out to Smokies soon for a remote episode. The game changer was finding out they have their own private parking lot right next door (downtown location). That changes everything when you are lugging equipment. We are going to lock a date in and treat it as a dry run before we eventually get to Louisiana. Because when Big Rob is standing there watching, you do not want to be fumbling around trying to figure things out.
On the decor front, Eric the Elder’s son is a custom woodworker stationed in Hawaii who does incredible work. He is three projects ahead of us in the queue right now but he has committed to building us a custom piece for the garage out of teak. If you know teak, you know that stuff is heavy, dense, hard as a rock, and built to last outdoors for decades. We are genuinely excited to see what he comes up with.
We also talked about cigar box decor in general, the ashtrays Tim used to make from weighted cigar boxes, the cigar room at Cathedral with the stacked ring of actual cigars around the perimeter, and the fact that a wall of random cigar boxes usually looks cheap but when someone actually puts care into it, the results can be incredible.
Standout Moments from Episode 34
A few things that landed particularly well this episode and deserve their own moment:
On organic growth: “We’re getting more views in a day than earlier on we were getting in a month.” That one hit different. It is the result of consistency and community, and it is genuinely humbling.
On the Jamaican bobsled team qualifying for this year’s Olympics: “Freaking Jamaica is gonna be higher up on the list than America in bobsled this year.” — delivered while watching the U.S. team fall out of their sled. Cool Runnings jokes followed immediately.
On the mean comment: We finally got a genuine mean sports comment about the Flyers hat. The reaction was not offense. It was celebration. Engagement is engagement. We will take it.
On the Leaf by Oscar: The story about a guy in a Facebook group who lit a Leaf by Oscar with the rough leaf wrapper still on it, posted about the weird taste, and then got an entire comment section telling him to just power through because it would smooth out midway. Nobody told him the truth. That was just cold-blooded.
Help Us Keep the Garage Running
If you have made it this far, you are our kind of people. Here is how you can help the show keep going without it costing you anything extra.
Share this episode. Post it on Facebook, send it to your Discord, mention it at your local lounge. Every share puts us in front of someone new. That is how Guns and Water found us. That is how fans become part of the community.
Shop through our affiliate links. When you buy cigars through Cigar Page or JR Cigars using our links, we get a small cut at no extra cost to you. You were going to order anyway. Now your order helps keep the lights on in the garage. Links are below.
Grab some Smoke and Steel merch. We have hoodies and t-shirts available over at our Sticker Mule store. Quality gear, nothing overpriced, and you get to rep the show at your next lounge visit or backyard session. Find the store here: Smoke and Steel Merch on Sticker Mule
And if you want to be part of the box pass, get on the Discord, introduce yourself, and reach out to Eric. The box is already moving. The list is already growing. We would love to have you on it.
