The team sits down with our new Aladino Cigar Rep, Adrian, where we learn about the brand, the family, and the cigars. Adrian is a former history professor which drives some of the conversation. The Hidden Herf is something special. Local Spotlight – Grumpy’s Cigar & Lounge Controversy Corner – The Bay of Pigs.
It’s another small-group mid-week episode. We gather at Ricky’s firepit with perfect weather for the second week running. The Hidden Herf is another panel stumper but still receives good marks. Pat’s Pick of the Week. Local Spotlight – Ricky’s Firepit Controversy Corner – From sports to politics.
Rhino’s is a new shop in the southern NH area. The Hacks gather on a perfect Wednesday evening for an outdoor episode. We sit down on the newly minted patio at Rhino’s, with one of the owners, to get the scoop on this new lounge. Junk Mail Bag: Best 30 Cigars Podcasts Best 40 Tobacco Podcasts Local Spotlight – Rhino’s Cigar Lounge by Owl Shop Tobacconists Controversy Corner – Fed Up!...
Direct from the Route One Business Networking Group (BNG) event for our fifth year, we talk with Brittany Lyla , the group media specialist, and a few other BNG members while enjoying cigars under the tent on the back patio at the Rosaria Restaurant . The Hidden Herf is well received by the panel. Local Spotlight – Route One BNG Summer Cigar Event Controversy Corner – It’s Coming!...
Direct from the Mustang Ranch at sunset we have a couple of Hacks the have been on hiatus. The Hidden Herf is panel stumper and receives an interesting result. We also recap Summa-Palooza. Local Spotlight – Sunset at The Mustang Ranch Controversy Corner – Waiting for the Perp-Walk
Warning: This episode is totally uncut and unedited. This is how it sounds after a couple days of drinking, smoking, sun, fishing and fun on the barge. It’s the 8th annual summer trip on the barge and we are at the lake house for the sixth year. The weather is almost perfect, many cigars are smoked, and plenty of fish are caught. The catch phrases this year are “Pat McGroin is the Man!” and “Happy Birth Day!” The Hidden Herf stumps the panel, but the irony couldn’t be better. Summa-Episode numbe...
Castro’s in Bedford has changed hands and changed its name. The Hacks go direct to the source for the latest information and renovation details. The Hidden Herf is a definite plant to see if Pat can pick it out since he was at an event for this line recently. Local Spotlight – Castro’s Cigar Lounge; Bedford, NH Conspiracy Corner – Love to Hate
It’s a week of reports from European vacations and local cigar events. Everyone on the panel who was not out of commission has an event story to share. The Hidden Herf is well received. Local Spotlight – Plaistow Cigar Co; Plaistow, NH Conspiracy Corner – What’s a Stone Hedge?
As we work our way through the Widow Jane that was bequeath to us by the Stogie Hunter last week, Mama McGroin joins us at McGroin Manor a for segment. The Hidden Herf is sort of guessed and is a decent smoke. Local Spotlight – Ash Cigar Lounge; Kingston, NH – Ash Becomes a Diamond Crown Lounge Controversy Corner – Collapse of the Petro-Dollar
The Reverend Harvey has smoked his last cigar on this earth. We gather to celebrate The Rev’s contribution to hundreds of episodes in a way that Harvey would have enjoyed. It’s a bittersweet episode with lots of Harvey content and his unique brand of entertainment. As he would always say; “Get yourself a comfortable chair and a cocktail we’re going to make you laugh. This is going to be a good one!” The Hidden Herf does not disappoint as it roll in to the #3 spot. Local Spotlight – Castro’s Back...
We have a special out of town visitor this week for what is shaping up to be a Mini-Palooza. Direct from the Tobacco Shack we bring you this week’s episode and get to know a new old-friend of the show. The Hidden Herf is eventually sort-of figured out. “President Pat” and Nurse “The Face” Rick recap the visit to see Miserable Nick at Mr. J’s 5th Anniversary Event . Local Spotlight – Mr. J’s Havana Cigar Lounge; Coventry, RI Conspiracy Corner – Mind Control Movies...
We dial things back a bit this week with a three member OG panel for a quiet evening, that is until Nashville Dave calls in. N-D is at the Nashville Fervor Festival VIP party where he puts Candice on the phone. Who knew where that would go. The Hidden Herf is also dialed back a bit. Local Spotlight – Smokers Abbey / Fervor Festival; Nashville, TN Conspiracy Corner – It’s Johnny D-Day
Castro’s in Bedford is changing hands and The Hacks are on top of the situation with the latest public information. The Hidden Herf is a deliberate repeat and a bit of a test to see how the cigar has changed or how the panel perceives it more than a year latter. Local Spotlight – Castro’s Backroom; Bedford, NH Conspiracy Corner – Cuban Cigars and Freedom of Speech
It’s a relatively small crew of six this week around the firepit for our first outdoor episode of the season. The mailbag sends us in a couple different directions. The Hidden Herf looks like an old familiar friend and garners a decent rating. Ricky tells us about Ashtray Condoms? Local Spotlight – Granite State Cigar Shop Conspiracy Corner – Bees and Honeys w/Pat-GPT...
It was inevitable that the Hacks bring in some Artificial Intelligence outside of Conspiracy Corner. Don’t worry, there are still way too many Hacks to make this a fully AI show. We have a newly minted participant and a couple of folks we haven’t heard from in quite a while. The Hidden Herf is a blast from the past, but still does fine. Local Spotlight – The Tobacco Shack; Rowley, MA Conspiracy Corner – Start your own Conspiracy Theory...
Back home in Plaistow where this all began, we check out the new lounge seating, Dennis mans the bar, and we hear from the Maltese Falcon. The Hidden Herf fools some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time. Local Spotlight – Plaistow Cigar Co; Plaistow, NH Conspiracy Corner – The Flim-Flam Scam
The Hacks sit down with the Amanda and Lauren from Micallef Cigars to get the latest details on the Color Series . Things go off the rails early because we have been sitting in the lounge for a couple hours with the podcast juice flowing while the technical issues were resolved. This is an educational and entertaining episode with a high rating for the Hidden Herf. Local Spotlight – Twins Smoke Shop; Londonderry, NH Conspiracy Corner – Who Lived in Argentina?...
The crew is back from New Orleans and PCA 2025 , where we get a couple of perspectives from their PCA experiences. This month marks the end of an era for Castro’s in Concord . The mail bag is full and Nurse Rick takes a beating from Miserable Nick. The Hidden Herf receives ratings at both ends of the spectrum. Local Spotlight – Castro’s Backroom; Concord, NH Conspiracy Corner – 3D Chess with the EU...
The annual Masters event is in full swing in Plaistow Cigar and we are here for another year with 3Leaf Cigars . The lounge is shaping up now that the new bar is in. The Hidden Herf has aged well. Local Spotlight – Plaistow Cigar Co; Plaistow, NH Conspiracy Corner – Tartaria
We are at the Tobacco Shack’s “Party for the Hell of it 4.0” and it’s a fuller house than last year. We are joined by Mike the Cop, our local Rocky Patel rep who conspires with one of our own on the Hidden Herf. It turns out to be a good one! Local Spotlight – The Tobacco Shack; Rowley, MA Conspiracy Corner – The 15 Minute City
It’s a six-pack of Hacks this week in the Mustang Barn. It’s time for low keyed recording but it turns out to be a very funny episode with a few surprise gifts. Sure, alcohol was a factor. The Hidden Herf falls “short” but still gets a good rating. Local Spotlight – The Cigar Authority ; Salem, NH and Oz Family Cigars Conspiracy Corner – Election Validation
It has been 5 years to the week since we’ve done an episode at Federal Cigar and The Slow Burn Lounge in Dover. With the new management, a Hack behind the bar, and Jim from the Great Cigars Podcast in town the stars aligned in Dover. The lounge is full and the jokes are almost non stop, so get your score card out because there are a lot of panelists for this weeks raucous episode. Local Spotlight – Federal Cigar; Dover, NH Conspiracy Corner – Money Machine...
Jonathan Carney joins the Hacks this week to talk about his new venture; Bentley Tobacco | USA and Bentley Cigars . We start out be going to the beginning and telling stories around our collective cigar adventures. This is a long one so we smoke two different cigars, both are well received by the panel. Somehow we manage to get the peanut gallery on the the show and there’s a lightning round of questions at the end. Local Spotlight – Twins Smoke Shop; Londonderry, NH Conspiracy Corner – The Twin...
Nurse Rick, Pat McGroin, and Mustang Mike return from Florida with tall tales. This week we record in the 7-20-4 Lounge at Twins Smoke Shop in Londonderry, NH where Nick Goss is holding an HVC Cigars event. The Hidden Herf is an unusual novelty cigar. Three new Hacks are sworn in. Local Spotlight – Cigar Castle; Tampa, FL Conspiracy Corner – The Velocity of Money FYI – this episode dropped on Mario Day....
The crew drops in to Grumpy’s Cigar & Lounge for the Oliva Cigar event this week and we seem to win the majority of the swag. We have to wait until after the event to do the recording because it was just too busy in the lounge. There is a contingent of half a dozen Hacks at Rocky Patel’s Burn Lounge in Naples Florida at the same time, so we sort of do this episode from both locations. Local Spotlight – Grumpy’s Cigars & Lounge; Hudson, NH Conspiracy Corner – Must Watch TV and Great Lakes...
We return to the The Mustang Barn for another panel stumping Hidden Herf. This week it’s cars and driving related stories along with our cigars and bourbon. Ricky and Pat are in Florida this week and leave us a few voice mail messages. Detroit Steve reports on his travels and the cigar lounges he stopped at; including The Rat Pack Martini and Cigar Lounge , The London Chop House Cigar Lounge , and Elite Cigar and Smoke . Local Spotlight – Elite Cigar and Smoke; Rochester, NY Conspiracy Corner – ...
Here is a Valentines Day we won’t soon forget! Nick Goss joins The Hacks for an episode on 2/14 after the Black Label Trading Company Cigar Event at Plaistow Cigar . We try a new format for the Florida Report with Nurse Rick. The Hidden Herf receives high marks. Local Spotlight – Plaistow Cigar Company – Bar and Lounge; Plaistow, NH Conspiracy Corner – JFK and other New Document Drops...
Hackapalooza 7.0 is all over but the shouting. We run down what happened after we recorded last week’s episode. The Hidden Herf is an old friend that no one recognizes, I guess it’s been too long. We spark up a second Herf and do some comparisons. Local Spotlight – The Mustang Barn Conspiracy Corner – Conspiracy Potpourri – Open Topics
It’s the second day of Hackapalooza 7.0 with a cast of so many that we split the panel into two halves. We talk about the first 24 hours of the three day annual event and the six lounges we have visited so far. We add a couple new Hacks. Conspiracy Corner is back, no more DEI at The Hacks. The Hidden Herf is picked out early but surprises many of the other panelists. Local Spotlight – Castro’s Backroom; Bedford, NH Conspiracy Corner – Birthright Citizenship...
We bring a few first-timers to the infamous “Undisclosed Location” for this week’s episode. We have a couple of brief call-ins ahead of Hackapalooza. Pat McGroin gives us a run down of his adventure to the White Ash event with Mike the Cop from Rocky Patel Cigars . The Hidden Herf is easy to determine by process of elimination if you know your stuff. Local Spotlight – White Ash Cigar Lounge; Pawtucket, RI Controversy Corner – Executive Action...
