Smoke and Steel

Mo Maali told us last time that if he was ever in the area, he’d come sit in the garage. We didn’t believe him. This time the owner of Patina Cigars showed up with his broker, Cameron from Impact Force, on a rare Thursday night. Cameron explains what a cigar broker actually does, and the answer is mostly windshield time. That leads into a story from the night before, with a forgotten wallet, a mis...

Day two of our Louisiana trip, recorded in the LA Cigar Collective members lounge, where strangers walk in and shake your hand and the room feels like a different place every few hours. Somewhere in the middle, Kyle tells the story of a Costa Rica bungalow with no AC, no hot water, and a bug he never identified. Then something slams into his metal door in the dark. We didn’t plan much, so this one...

Heath Snow found us by accident, joined the Discord, and wrote an article about Smoke and Steel. We tell the story of the message Walt misread, then argue about why so many of us walk past the big brands to get to the boutique shelf. We also open the night remembering our friend Scott. Smoke and Steel records every Tuesday night in a garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. Same crew, same cigars, s...

We flew to Louisiana to sit in the LA Cigar Collective lounge in Metairie, a room we’d only ever seen on screen. This one starts with a po’boy order that went sideways, then moves into a blind smoke from a viewer, Padróns from friends, and a long talk about what makes a lounge worth hanging out in. Kyle and Big Rob hosted us, and a lot of the conversation is about how they run the place: chairs th...

Mark's out this week, first time in longer than any of us can remember, but the garage doesn't run any different without him. Altadis USA sent us their new Golden Four sampler for this one, four event-only cigars in a single tube, and it turned into one of those nights where the free stuff wasn't even the best part. We split the Golden Four four ways and each came away with a different...

Nothing was on the list for Episode 66, so Bruce walked out to his car and came back in a reversible paisley smoking jacket he bought online years ago for about $200. Jim followed with the story of a first-time customer who pulled a giant fireproof ash bib out of a duffel bag and wore it for five hours. Eric wanted to know if any of us would wear the $895 Mayflower jacket he posted. Before the jac...

This week the ReXilient came up, and it turned into the best conversation we've had on the show in a while. Half the table thought Fuente's 9/11 tribute release was a genuinely good gesture. The other half wasn't sure $11 a box was enough. Then it got personal. We started with a blind sampler from Padre that nobody could identify until the end, worked through what everybody bought this...

We spent a good part of Episode 64 arguing about a cigar that costs about three dollars and sixty cents a stick, and whether that's disqualifying or exactly the point. Grievance Corner kicks things off with the Crowned Heads Moonflower not living up to the hype, and by the end of the night we're deciding if the Zino Nicaragua has earned a spot on the Smoke and Steel Top 25 Cigars of 2026....

We found out this week that apparently there are two versions of one of us: the guy who won't shut up on the mic, and the guy who says almost nothing standing in a cigar shop. Eric brought the story back from Chartwell, and it turned into one of the more honest conversations we've had on this show. We also went back for round two on Le Flambeaux No. 3, the latest from LACC, and got some sp...

We walked into Chartwell Cigar Club this week and the owner knew Jim's name before he even introduced himself. That one moment turned into a bigger conversation about what actually makes a cigar shop worth going back to, and what makes one worth walking out of for good. Canimao sent us their Refinados for this one, a big 6x60 we hadn't smoked in years, and it kicks off a night that covers...

A guy named Heath had been in our Discord for about a week. None of us knew him. Then he asked if he could share something he'd written a while back, an essay about nearly dying from a series of infections, starting dialysis, and how the cigar community showed up for him in the hospital when things were darkest. We read part of it out loud, and it turned into one of the more honest conversatio...

Walt found a lyric in an old country song, went down a rabbit hole, and came out the other side connecting two Crowned Heads cigars to a trademark dispute. Then the crew told him the real story, and it was better than the conspiracy. This week it's Roman night in the garage courtesy of a few Tradecraft blends, and the Atabey Black Ritos is back on the table for a real conversation about whethe...

A Discord member sent the whole crew a box of smokes, and one of them, the Atabey Black Ritos, ended up in a real debate for a spot on our Top 25 Cigars of 2026 list. Smoke and Steel records every Tuesday night in a garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. Same crew, same cigars, same conversations they were already having before the cameras turned on. This week's episode covers a lot of ground....

Rob Blumenthal joined us in the garage this week to talk about Tradecraft Cigars, the brand he launched on his own outside the family business. He walked us through the Gladius, the Azorian, and the Vitruvian, and by the end of the night the Gladius had the whole table talking. We got into how Rob built three completely different blends instead of one house line with different wrappers, why he low...

We built our own cigar rating system this week and used it for the first time. Five swords, one through five, no half points. By the end of the night, one cigar walked away with a perfect score. Plasencia sent us two boxes to open on camera, each one loaded with a magnetic lid, matching lighter, and cutter. One stayed with the crew, the other went to Eric, who's been running our social media a...

0:00 Welcome to the Garage 4:04 Mark Finds Out About the Herf 8:03 What We Bought This Week 15:06 Remembering Drew Estate's Glenn Wolfson 16:39 Fan Questions: Show Changes and Newcomers 24:42 Cigar Bands and Ash, Stash, or Trash 34:15 The Opus X Baby Shark Price Debate 38:38 Rebranded Blends and Honest Reviews 56:00 Tasting Notes and Reference Points 59:35 Connecticut vs Maduro Showdown 1:04:5...

Eddie walked into a vape shop looking for nothing in particular and walked out having bought every Plasencia they had in stock. Old Plasencia short fillers sitting next to current Alma Fuerte hexagons, priced like nobody behind the counter knew what they had. The price has already gone up since we recorded this. Smoke and Steel records every Tuesday night in a garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania...

Bruce heard a saint story this week that stopped the whole table. A Polish soldier asked for a cigar instead of anesthesia before his leg was amputated in 1863, and he ended up canonized. We also get a full report on the new Chartwell Cigar Club, a mystery grudge nine years in the making, and way too much talk about Connecticut wrappers. Smoke and Steel records every Tuesday night in a garage in G...

Sean from The Burnable was in Jersey for work this week, and instead of resting on his day off, he made the two-hour drive out to sit in the garage with us for the first time. It also happened to be the hottest day of the year. What we didn't know is he'd spent months quietly turning our own catchphrases into a bingo board. We cut into a mystery cigar Sean brought with a custom Smoke and S...

We hit our one year anniversary and celebrated it by catching up with the LACC guys, going around the table on our favorite moments from the past twelve months, and watching Kyle finally tell Eric about a cigar two years in the making. Smoke and Steel records every Tuesday night in a garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. Same crew, same cigars, same conversations we were already having before the...

The Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut keeps coming up in the garage. This week we went to reorder and found out nearly every size is gone on Cigar Page. That's not a sponsored talking point - that's just what happens when a cigar earns it. Episode 51 of Smoke and Steel, recording every Tuesday night out of a garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. Rob is officially a grandfather. We got into the...

We asked the Stogie Review Facebook Crew what discontinued cigar they'd bring back if they could. Thirty-seven comments came in. Then Rob said something that stopped the whole conversation cold - even if you could guarantee the same tobacco, same roller, same run, you've changed too much to love it the same way. That's Episode 050. This week it's a lighter crew in the garage - Walt...

The Padron 1964 Anniversary Series Maduro is officially number one on the Smoke and Steel Top 25 list. We also added the Tatuaje Black Petit Lancero, had a real conversation about where My Father Blue actually belongs, and Padre Bruce brought Mayflower Cigars - a brand most of us had never smoked, hand-rolled at the Oliva factory in Nicaragua. Full house in the garage this week. Between the cigar...

At the Smoke-Onos cigar festival in the Poconos, Walt walked up to Michael Herklots standing alone in his booth, and the first thing out of Herklots' mouth was that Walt was at a cigar festival without a cigar and that needed to be fixed. Thirty seconds later, a Timeless Supreme was cut and lit. Episode 048 is the full Smoke-Onos debrief. Walt, Eddie, and Eric break down how the festival actua...

Eric came in Tuesday night with an Opus X Forbidden X he'd been holding onto for the right occasion. That occasion was eight years of sobriety. The crew gave him a hard time about it. That's how you know it meant something. Episode 047 from the garage in Gilbertsville, PA. We talked about the Don Carlos Blood of the Bull and the retailer pricing conversation that never really gets resolved...