My garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. Too many cigars on the table. Not nearly enough time to smoke them all. This show started because a few of us were already doing this every Tuesday night. We just weren’t recording it. We’d just come off our one year anniversary heading into episode 058, and it turned into one of those nights where a cigar nobody bought ended up being the best thing anyone smoked all week. That cigar was the Atabey Black Ritos. By the end of the night we were seriously debating where it belonged on our Top 25 Cigars of 2026 list.

Kicking Off a New Year in the Garage

We came into episode 058 with Mark, Eric, Eric the Elder, Rob, Jim, and me. Our buddy Aaron joined us for the night too, back after a little while away. Mark opened with a Taino. Rob had an LFD Airbender. Eric the Elder lit up the Lampert Black Card Platino ‘A’ from LACC Collective Pack, which is a cigar big enough to need its own zip code.

A good chunk of the early conversation was LACC talk, which happens most weeks now. Kyle’s collective pack has become a real fixture in our rotation. Members now get 10% off everything on the site automatically, no code needed, It’s a member perk none of us saw coming.

The Cigar That Almost Cracked Our Top 25

A while back, a member of our Discord who goes by Golf Stogie sent the whole crew a box of smokes. It included an Atabey Black Ritos for each of us, Jim put it up for consideration on our Top 25 Cigars of 2026 list, and once a few of us got around to actually smoking it, the debate got serious fast.

Eric the Elder was the one who really sold it for me. His wife came out while he was smoking it and asked what he thought, since the MSRP runs close to sixty dollars. He told her straight up it was one of the best cigars he’d had all year, maybe good enough for the number one spot. That’s not something any of us say lightly.

We ended up parking it at number two on the list for now, right above the ChiMolly Pioneer, until more of the guys get a chance to smoke their own. Rob hadn’t lit his yet. Mark hadn’t either. We’ll circle back once everyone’s had a fair shot at it.

It’s worth saying clearly: Golf Stogie sent us this cigar as a gift from one guy in our community to another. Not a sponsorship, not a company sending product for coverage. Just a thoughtful gift that turned into one of the best smokes of the year. We can’t thank him enough for his extreme generosity!

A Father’s Thank You, and a Text From Abe Flores

Eric the Elder told a nice story tonight. He’d trained a new officer, born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Madrid, and after training wrapped the guy wanted to thank him. He asked Eric what the best cigars in the DR were. Eric joked back that anything with an X in the name would do. A few weeks later the guy’s father flew back from the DR and brought Eric a package. Inside were a Chateau King B, some OpusX, a Two Lost Cities, an Opus X Robusto, and a Don Carlos. The guy who gave it to him doesn’t even smoke cigars himself. He just wanted to say thank you. He knocked it out of the park.

Separately, Eric asked me about a text I’d gotten from Abe Flores at PDR Cigars. The small batch reserve cigars he’d sent over had a preliminary band on them, and Abe let me know finalized versions are on the way. I smoked two from that first batch already and enjoyed them more than I expected. I hadn’t had much PDR in years, and it was a good reminder of why they used to be part of my regular rotation.

Eric’s More Hyped for the Flambeaux Than the Voodoo Queen

LACC’s collective pack gave us a preview of the band for the upcoming Le Flambeaux, made at the Kelner factory. Eric told Kyle and Rob directly that he’s more excited for that release than he is for the Voodoo Queen, the LA Cigar Collective house blend made by Stolen Throne. That’s saying something, since we’d all been hyping up the Voodoo Queen for weeks.

Our Merch Store Had a Moment

We launched the Smoke and Steel merch store around our one-year anniversary, and Eric filled us in on how it’s going with Troy, who runs it for us. Troy told him he was blown away by the response in the first few days. His exact words, according to Eric, were that we’ve got an awesome community.

The breakdown surprised all of us. Hoodies and t-shirts made sense. The car decals selling as well as they did did not. Nobody in the garage would admit to putting one on their own vehicle, but somebody out there is buying them. Three black on black shirts sold the same day we were recording, which happens to be Troy’s favorite design.

Mark Went Down a Cigar Lounge Rabbit Hole

Mark got curious this week about how many cigar lounges actually exist around us, so he did some digging. His first search turned up 83 cigar lounges and bars across Pennsylvania, which sounded low to all of us. A second search claimed only 2,200 across all fifty states, which sounded even lower, especially once we started naming ten within an hour of the garage off the top of our heads.

A broader AI search pulled up better numbers. Roughly 14,883 dedicated cigar shops operating in the US as of 2026, with cigar lounges specifically closer to 4,232. Florida alone has around 1,727 cigar shops, most of them clustered in Tampa’s Ybor City. That tracks. You can’t swing a dead cat in Ybor City without hitting a humidor.

JFK, Ireland, and Why You Stock Up Before a Ban

We closed out the night on a topic that always gets people talking. Ireland is moving toward a law that would ban tobacco sales to anyone born after a certain date, along with new restrictions that make it nearly impossible to open a new smoking establishment. Existing spots get grandfathered in, but the door’s closing for anyone new.

That led straight into the old story about JFK. Before signing the Cuban embargo, he reportedly sent someone out to buy up as many Cuban cigars as they could find in DC, and only after they came back with a stash did he sign the ban into effect the next day. True or not, it’s a good reminder. If you ever see a country moving toward restrictions like this, that might be your signal to stock up.

Stay in the Conversation

This episode had a little of everything. A gifted cigar that cracked our Top 25, a shop membership that keeps growing the right way, and a merch store that surprised even us. If you want to catch the full conversation, subscribe to the Stogie Review YouTube channel, where Smoke and Steel drops every week.

If you want in on the conversation between episodes, come hang out in the Stogie Review Discord. We’ve got a virtual lounge in there where guys jump on voice or video most nights, and it’s turned into one of my favorite parts of doing this show.

And if you want to rep the show, or if you’re still deciding between the black on black shirt and the decal everyone’s apparently putting somewhere, check out the Smoke and Steel Merch Store. It helps keep the garage running.