Not Just Blowing Smoke with Pastor Padron

While the most popular cigars and pipe tobaccos are on the mild side, we know that some people like to live on the wild side and light up strong, bold, in-your-face cigars and tobaccos. In this episode, we look at cigars and tobacco that have that sucker punch you are looking for! To help us with that, for the first half of the show we are  joined by La Flor Dominicana's Jonathan Carney as we smok...

In "Everybody Wants Some," we welcome back to the show World Series Champion and retired Red Sox player Orlando Cabrera! He is the perfect guy to talk about all those cigars and tobaccos that are on the top of everyone's wish list. You know what we are talking about! As we talk about these rare and hard to find tobaccos and cigars, we will look at some ourselves, smoking Fuente Fuente Opus X Forbi...

In this episode, we welcome Aida Ritnery, one of social media’s growing sensations on the cigar scene, IG's @cigar_bosslady, as we smoke the Roma Craft Baka Jengi, and The Balkan Sobranie by J. F. Germain and Son. Does anyone know how pronounce those names? Is the Jengi a winner from RoMa? Should the current incarnation of The Balkan Sobranie still hold the iconic status of its predecessors? How m...

“The Make Up Episode” welcomes back Ashton’s Lauren Ferraro. Life got in the way of her planned appearance a few weeks ago, but she’s back and will be in the studio with us as we ligh up with some Ashton ESG action! In the second half of the show for our pipe tobacco review we will check out Cornell & Diehl’s holiday release: Golden Days of Yore. Are ESG’s as good as they say? Is Golden Days of Yo...

In this episode, we welcome back Erik Wentworth, Exec. V.P. of Cigars at Hammer + Sickle, and smoke their Berlin Wall Box Pressed Churchill! This leads to a great discussion on box pressing cigars: what is it, why do it, and how it effects the smoker’s experience of the blend. In the second half of the show for our pipe tobacco review, we look at Robert McConnell’s St. James Park, which is adverti...

In this episode we welcome La Aurora’s New England sales rep, Arturo Diaz, and smoke the La Aurora Barrel Aged by Karl Malone Sumo Toro. Arturo has been in and around the cigar business for a long time, but this is his first appearance on a podcast! He fills us in on the history of La Aurora, how the Karl Malone line came to be, Arturo’s biggest Cigar pet peeve, and how he and La Aurora have kept...

This week we look at some collaborations in the cigar and pipe world. First, we light up Ashton’s San Cristobal Revelation Legend, which was blended by Don “Pepin” Garcia, and is produced in the My Father Factory in Nicaragua. In the second half, we open up a tin of Savinelli’s recent release of Jupiter, which is made for them by Cornell & Diehl. Special guest Mark Mormar from Laudisi Distribution...

In this episode, the crew of NJBS celebrate their first anniversary! While smoking the Bolivar Cofradia No. 754 and Rattray’s Old Gowrie—each of course with pairings from the 7-20-4 Lounge—Pastor Padron, Paul, Nick, Dave, Kendra, and Bree reminisce over the last year, sharing their favorite moments, some year-end audience stats, and milestones. Bree, breaks out in song, and Kendra is asked to repr...

This week we are joined by special guest Yvonne Ramee of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, as we light up one of DT&T's strongest cigars, the Todos Las Dias Double Wide Belicoso! Yvonne is a great friend, and we are thrilled to have her join us as we smoke this cigar that Steve Saka says has your daily requirement of "Vitamin N."   In the second half of the show, Yvonne sticks around for our pipe tobacco...

On this week’s show, we look at two long-standing favorites. In the first half of the show we talk about the extremely popular MJ 12, one of Illusione’s “Original Documents,” and a cigar that seems to be just as hot now as it was when it came out over 10 years ago. Of course, you can’t talk about the MJ 12 without talking about the history behind the name, aliens, conspiracy theories, and shows li...

This week we start off by welcoming special guest Glen Case of Kristoff Cigars and light up the Kristoff Vengeance Perfecto. Glen shares his personal circuitous route from being a corporate banker to heading up one of the most successful boutique cigar companies out there. And wait till you hear how the Vengeance got it's name! It's an interview you don't want to miss!   In the second half of the...

We start off this episode by lighting up Nestor Miranda's Don Lino Africa Toro, the Pundo Milia. Kendra paired this medium bodied box pressed cigar with a new rye based banana cocktail she conjured up. Can you pair bananas and cigars? Apparently the Potion Master thinks so. But does it work?   In the second half, we switch from a light and creamy cigar to one of the stronger and gruff pipe tobacco...

This week cigar legend Kurt Kendall is back and he brought a friend… 10 time Emmy winner and sports TV personality, “The Mad Fisherman” himself, Charlie Moore! Kurt brought his 7-20-4 Factory 57 Toro for us to smoke and some 7-20-4 Original blends from 2013 from his vault. We smoked both with Kurt’s barrel select from High West that is only available at the 7-20-4 Lounge at Twins Smoke Shop in Lon...

Our favorite liquor rep, Talia, is back, this time with Avion Extra Anjeo 44 Tequila. We paired this high end tequila with the Rocky Patel Exclusivo TAA while we heard from her about tequila and what all those terms like Anjeo and Reposado mean,and what makes one tequila better than an other. In the second half of the show we changed things up by doing a blind tasting of two similar blends of pipe...

In the first half of this week’s episode we are joined by the one and only Christian Eiroa of CLE Cigars as we smoke his Eiroa First 20 Years Colorado 54 x 6 which Kendra expertly  paired with Knob Creek 12 Year. In the second half we are joined by Mark Mormar from Laudisi Distribution Group as we review the new Savinelli Juno. Pastor Padrón asks Christian what it’s like being a germaphobe in a gl...

Cameroon is one of those tobaccos that seems to be appearing in more and more new cigars. Today we light up one of the most anticipated Cameroon releases, the Aladino Cameroon Super Toro, which features a Cameroon wrapper grown by Julio Eiroa on his own farm in the Jamastran Valley of Honduras. We paired it with Down East Aloha Friday, an apple and pineapple hard cider. Was this a complimentary or...

It was the best of times it was the worst of times. That basically describes what is this week’s episode of Not Just Blowing Smoke. A perfect storm of technical challenges caused by National outages of cell phone coverage and intermittent Wi-Fi because of said issues, ended up making the first half of what we thought we were recording completely unusable. Which is a damn shame because it was a gre...

Baseball great and member of the Red Sox 2004 World Series team, Orlando Cabrera joins us this week as we review the Camacho Liberty 2012 Throwback and Cornell & Diehl’s most recent Small Batch release, Sansepolcro. Join us for this special episode where we get to talk about life in and after the MLB, his love of cigars and much much more! We also have Bree from the 7-20-4 Lounge who brings her ow...

This week we review the Sindicato Maduro Toro, a square-pressed and crafted by Arsenio Ramos with tobaccos from Eduaro Fernandez’s farms in Nicaragua which Kendra paired with Elijah Craig Barrel Proof 2018. For our pipe tobacco review, we lit up the newly released Janus from Savinelli which Kendra paired with Oskar Blues Death by King Cake White Porter. There is also the usual fun and banter as we...

On this week’s episode we have special guests Erik Wentworth and John Considine of Hammer + Sickle. Erik is the VP of the cigar side of Hammer, and John is the head of sales for Hammer + Sickle Vodka. John makes us Elder flower martinis while we smoke the original Hammer + Sickle cigar, the Tradicion, blended by Davidoff’s Henke Kelner to pair with Hammer’s premium 6 times distilled vodka. After t...

Finally awakened from his COVID driven slumber, Sam the Barman (aka Sam Van Winkle), that mixologist with moxie, returns to the podcast for our first episode in which we were all able to be back under one roof in over a month. We start off lighting up the 10th release of Tatuaje's cigar for the TAA. It is not what many people expected. But the goal of the TAA is to come up with something different...

This week we are joined by special guest Steve Saka who gives the story behind his new Unstolen Valor, the latest edition to his Muestra De Saka line up. We paired the Unstolen Valor with Old Forester Rye. While we smoked the cigar and gave thoughts about the pairing, Pastor Padron peppered Steve with a series of questions that were aimed to reveal the man behind the legend. No "So when did you ha...

Kurt Kendall joins us on this week’s episode as we smoke his 7-20-4 WK Torpedo and 7-20-4 Lancero. Kendall, the owner of 7-20-4 Cigars and Twins Smoke Shop and Lounge, opens up about life as a retailer and brand owner, and a lover of history and antiques. As someone who would rather stay out of the spotlight, we jumped at the opportunity to have him on the show. We encourage you to join us Friday...

It’s always a great time when we are able to get together with Ashton’s Lauren Ferraro…even if it’s virtually! We light up the Ashton Cabinet No. 7 and pair it with Glenmorangie 14 Year Quinta Ruban while we catch up with Ashton’s New England rep. Then we try out Peter Stokkebye’s Luxury Navy Flake, a bulk blend manufactured by STG. Kendra suggested pairing it with a white wine called Three Sheets...

This episode begins with an interview with Joe DesMarais, the New England rep for Southern Draw Cigars as we smoke the Rose of Sharon Lancero, aka “The Thorn.” You may not picture us being willing to smoke any cigar with a pink band, let alone a Lancero, but we will smoke anything once, and that is not just blowing smoke! Does this Southern Draw cigar come out smelling like a rose or leave you thi...