Episode 61
Sledgehammer Break-In – 25,000 Stolen Cigars = Casa Cuevas La Mandarria | Ep. 61
A true crime cigar story! Thieving jacka$$es sledgehammer their way into the back of a humidor and make off with $150,000 worth of limited-edition cigars BEFORE the owner had a chance to insure his new warehouse. His next move after installing high-tech security? Craft a new boutique cigar called La Mandarria, which translates to THE SLEDGEHAMMER.
Hear the backstory from Casa Cuevas Cigars’ Luis Cuevas Jr. and Alec Cuevas. In 2022, the Dominican cigar company rereleased the cigar blends that disappeared in the 2019 theft as the Flaco Habano and Flaco Maduro. The father and son duo smoke 7 x 43 Flacos with the Box Press host Rob Gagner.
Shot on location at Miami’s Empire Social Lounge. Take a moment to enjoy South Florida’s cigar lifestyle—relax and listen to good stories over good cigars with good company.
When you head to Miami for cigars, stop in at Empire Social Lounge and tell them Boveda sent you: https://empiresociallounge.com/.
Highlights from this cigar podcast include:
00:00 Cold open
01:50 Father figure picks George Michael.
04:00 What kind of steak is churrascos?
06:21 If Guy Fieri has a bad hair day, I'm having a bad hair life, right?
13:28 Ramen, it’s more than just a college staple. Learn the best place to get real ramen in Miami.
14:13 Are boneless chicken wings even a thing?
18:23 Were they caught? The great cigar heist of 2019.
20:07 Discontinued stolen cigar line is relaunched as Casa Cuevas Flaco.
21:54 Lesson learned: number mastercases of inventory to deter theft.
22:28 Sledgehammer cigar is a positive outcome from a night of crime.
25:23 Shaggy foot cigar vs closed foot cigar. Discuss.
27:08 How the pandemic’s mini cigar boom is different from the 1990s cigar boom.
29:20 Casa Cuevas reveals brand launch backstory exclusive to Boveda!
31:38 How big of a hit does inventory theft make on a company’s financials?
46:19 Every one of their blends is hand-written by Luis Cuevas Sr.
52:05 Transitioning into the family cigar business after college.
1:02:03 HORROR STORY! Low RH makes cigars blow up!
Premium cigar makers protect the flavor and consistency of tobacco by packaging cigars with Boveda. Cigar smokers use Boveda in humidors to continue to preserve and age their cigars. Before you add cigars to a new wood humidor, always season it first with the Boveda Humidor Starter Kit, a great Father’s Day gift for cigar smokers.
Shop Boveda for cigars here: https://store.bovedainc.com/collectio...
Check Out More of Boveda Cigar Exclusives:
A Father, A Son and Cigars! (Feat. Litto and Tony Gomez, LFD)
For Long-term Success in the Family Biz, Look to Daughters (Feat. Raquel Quesada)
Talking Family & Matilde's Origin Story (Feat. Enrique Seijas, Matilde Cigars)
Transcript
(upbeat music)
Speaker:- There's a story inside every smoke shop.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
Speaker:with every cigar and with every person.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
Speaker:Come be a part of the cigar lifestyle of Boveda.
Speaker:This is Box Press.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
Speaker:- Welcome to another episode of Box Press.
Speaker:I am your host, Rob Gagner.
Speaker:I am sitting down
Speaker:with two legends in the industry, Luis and Alec, his son,
Speaker:and as you know, on the show, I love it
Speaker:when fathers and sons get on here
Speaker:because we get to play some fun games
Speaker:and break into some opportunities
Speaker:of how well do you know me.
Speaker:So gentlemen thanks for joining me.
Speaker:- Thanks for having us.
Speaker:- [Rob] Yeah, this is great.
Speaker:- This is great.
Speaker:- But before we started the show,
Speaker:people out here know the schtick
Speaker:I ask you four questions about your son,
Speaker:and then I ask your son
Speaker:four questions about you. - Yeah.
Speaker:- And let's play a little game
Speaker:of how well do you know me
Speaker:and this is great for father, sons.
Speaker:- I'm excited.
Speaker:- Because there's four questions.
Speaker:If you get less than 75% you have to dissolve your business
Speaker:split ties, he'll take Patrimonio,
Speaker:you'll take the rest of the brand
Speaker:and it'll just be two separate brands after that, okay?
Speaker:- Is that the deal?
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah you have to form new entities
Speaker:no confidence.
Speaker:- You didn't tell me--
Speaker:- If you don't, if you get 75
Speaker:or better you don't have to do that.
Speaker:So. - All right.
Speaker:Pay attention. Understand. Think hard,
Speaker:final answer this is for a million dollars, okay?
Speaker:- All right, we got it.
Speaker:- All right, Luis you are guessing
Speaker:Alec's responses.
Speaker:- [Luis] Okay.
Speaker:- What
Speaker:did Alec say
Speaker:your favorite band was?
Speaker:What's your favorite band?
Speaker:- Band.
Speaker:I would think he would probably pick a singer,
Speaker:not necessary a band. - Or artist?
Speaker:Yeah, it can be an artist.
Speaker:- Then was probably be George Michael.
Speaker:- You know your dad well,
Speaker:that is correct.
Speaker:- There you go.
Speaker:- Alec got number one correct.
Speaker:He is so far one for one.
Speaker:(Luis laughing)
Speaker:- [Luis] Okay.
Speaker:- So he he might be taking Patrimonio,
Speaker:if you don't do it right.
Speaker:- I gotta be careful here.
Speaker:- So second question
Speaker:what did Alec say your favorite TV show was?
Speaker:- If he's gonna go based off what we're watching now
Speaker:I don't think I have one in particular
Speaker:it would be "Yellowstone."
Speaker:- Two for two.
Speaker:- Two for two.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:He's like, he questioned it.
Speaker:He's like, he really likes a different show
Speaker:what was that show?
Speaker:- The show at the time so I know my dad
Speaker:you're a big fan of "Seinfeld" than everything.
Speaker:- "Seinfeld," yeah, you're like he really likes "Seinfeld"
Speaker:but right now he's jamming on "Yellowstone."
Speaker:- Yeah, I remember there was a point in time
Speaker:where he was at the house
Speaker:and he was watching it.
Speaker:I just ended up coming in doing something,
Speaker:I forgot what it was at the time but I walked in
Speaker:and I see him laying down on the couch
Speaker:watching "Yellowstone" he goes "I've been on a binge-watch
Speaker:this is the best damn show I've seen in a while."
Speaker:- Why, just good.
Speaker:- It's just really that good.
Speaker:- It grabs you and you're like sucked in.
Speaker:- Yeah, the character and everything.
Speaker:- But a lot of the shows that Netflix
Speaker:and other companies are producing are just binge-worthy.
Speaker:- Yeah, and this one also.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah.
Speaker:- Like "Bridgerton" did you guys watch that one?
Speaker:- No, I haven't seen it, no.
Speaker:- Oh, my God, you gotta watch it.
Speaker:- [Luis] Okay.
Speaker:- It's like uh colonial times/slightly modern
Speaker:and on top of it it's not my style at all,
Speaker:but I got sucked into it because it's like a soap opera,
Speaker:like I wanna know what's next.
Speaker:I wanna know what's going on.
Speaker:- Well, I'm going to certainly check that out,
Speaker:my wife and I always looking for something to binge-watch.
Speaker:- "Bridgerton."
Speaker:- I'll do it.
Speaker:I've run across it, I've never clicked on it.
Speaker:- When you stop watching a show
Speaker:and you go what do I need to watch next? Just text me
Speaker:and I'll be like I'll give you six options,
Speaker:like six shows to watch.
Speaker:- You got it, I'm gonna hold you to that.
Speaker:- All right, okay next question would be
Speaker:what is, your what is your dad's favorite food.
Speaker:- Steak.
Speaker:- So your favorite food is steak,
Speaker:but is there a specific steak in general that you like.
Speaker:- Oh, wow.
Speaker:- Like a cut or a style.
Speaker:- Yeah, I like churrascos a lot.
Speaker:- What is that?
Speaker:- It's an Argentinian cut.
Speaker:And second place would be, I like filets,
Speaker:I do eat a lot of filets
Speaker:but that would be it.
Speaker:- The first one was what?
Speaker:- A churrasco entrana, it's a skirt steak.
Speaker:- Is it thin? Thick?
Speaker:- It's medium,
Speaker:it's really it didn't make its way into Miami anyway
Speaker:until the Argentinian influx that we had
Speaker:and now there's an Argentinian restaurant in every corner.
Speaker:- Is that your favorite thing to make after a long trip?
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- You nailed it.
Speaker:(Alec laughing)
Speaker:You nailed it, he goes,
Speaker:"My dad really likes those thin steaks
Speaker:and when we come back from a long trip
Speaker:he always makes one."
Speaker:- There you go, that's his go-to.
Speaker:His thing is cooking.
Speaker:I mean, if anything else.
Speaker:- You like to cook?
Speaker:- I love to cook.
Speaker:- If it wasn't for the cigar industry
Speaker:I think if anything else he'd probably open up shop.
Speaker:I mean, he likes to experiment all the time
Speaker:so pardon my language here folks,
Speaker:but there was a portion of time
Speaker:when I was at a younger age I'm still pretty young
Speaker:a lot of my buddies have come around
Speaker:I mean, as I go home,
Speaker:I'm whipping something up in the kitchen
Speaker:and he wouldn't tell us what it was
Speaker:and I'd always have to prep them up ahead of time,
Speaker:"Listen, my father loves for individuals to come in here
Speaker:try his food and most of the time it's weird shit.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:If you enjoy it, phenomenal.
Speaker:I'm just keeping you guys posted now
Speaker:don't expect some chicken nuggets for dinner,
Speaker:it's probably gonna be something
Speaker:a little bit out of the ordinary
Speaker:and most of the time it is.
Speaker:But I gotta say he he makes delectable food,
Speaker:I mean, it's just amazing.
Speaker:- So did you have any friends that were like,
Speaker:this was not good
Speaker:or they were pushing the food around
Speaker:and not really- because it was out of their wheelhouse.
Speaker:- Not at all, actually I have a really good buddy of mine,
Speaker:he's a Puerto Rican,
Speaker:not that makes any difference but I've known him forever
Speaker:and he really loves to cook
Speaker:so he's got a completely different cultural palate
Speaker:when it comes to that side of the Hispanic culture.
Speaker:- Yep.
Speaker:- He will come over
Speaker:there was times where he'd just show up unattended
Speaker:simply to have dinner at the house
Speaker:and then he'll go back and leave.
Speaker:He can vouch for this.
Speaker:- Sergio, he's such a good kid.
Speaker:- He's amazing, I love him to death.
Speaker:- Such a good kid.
Speaker:- So you're famous?
Speaker:- Exactly. On the cooking side.
Speaker:- Infamous.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:- Guy Fieri.
Speaker:You're next.
Speaker:- No. You're next.
Speaker:- No, although I've done a couple of his recipes.
Speaker:- You might need a wig.
Speaker:- I definitely need the wig.
Speaker:- you need the wig.
Speaker:- If Guy Fieri has a bad hair day,
Speaker:I'm having a bad hair life, right?
Speaker:So, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:- What did he say your biggest accomplishment was in life.
Speaker:- In life?
Speaker:- In life this is like the pinnacle
Speaker:I've done all this stuff
Speaker:but this has been the best thing
Speaker:the thing I'm most proud of.
Speaker:- Raising these two and he's not going to say that
Speaker:but raising. - Raising.
Speaker:Raising him and his sister.
Speaker:- Raising him and his sister, family.
Speaker:- I think has been,
Speaker:yeah, my greatest accomplishment, yeah.
Speaker:- That parent love is unlike any other love in the world
Speaker:there's no words to explain it.
Speaker:No, there's, the English language
Speaker:or any language cannot explain the feeling that comes.
Speaker:- 100%.
Speaker:- And it's like you love your family,
Speaker:like your siblings, right?
Speaker:You love your mom, probably the most sometimes,
Speaker:mom, dad, siblings,
Speaker:then your wife or your spouse.
Speaker:- Sure.
Speaker:- There's a love there but then once you have a kid
Speaker:totally different kind of love.
Speaker:- Totally.
Speaker:- No matchable, no.
Speaker:- I wish there was a word for it because it's not love.
Speaker:- No, it goes beyond that.
Speaker:- There should be different words
Speaker:for different types of love.
Speaker:- That's would be interesting
Speaker:probably, you know, even even in Spanish
Speaker:which it's a romance language
Speaker:if you listen to a song in Spanish, a ballad,
Speaker:or whatever the words are just beautiful.
Speaker:I would assume the same thing would occur in Italian
Speaker:or French for that matter, but I don't speak either of those
Speaker:but even as varied as the Spanish language is,
Speaker:and as romantic as it is,
Speaker:you're right there is no word that comes to mind
Speaker:that goes to the point of what you're making right now.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- Yeah, so yeah, I think my biggest accomplishment is
Speaker:definitely he and his sister
Speaker:and the man he's grown up to be
Speaker:and the woman my daughter has grown up to be
Speaker:and they're just phenomenal kids
Speaker:and I still look at him as kids.
Speaker:- You got it wrong.
Speaker:- I know.
Speaker:- He said, running two half Ironman races.
Speaker:- Actually it was three but that's okay.
Speaker:- Three, you don't even know how many he runs.
Speaker:Not good.
Speaker:- It was a while ago to be fair.
Speaker:- We won't deduct any more points for not knowing the amount
Speaker:because we can't do that but you're sitting at 75%
Speaker:so that's good.
Speaker:- There you go.
Speaker:- You at least as a consolation prize
Speaker:get to take home a box of Patrimonios.
Speaker:- Right on.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- Right on, I'm glad you know somebody, that's awesome.
Speaker:- Yeah, I do know somebody.
Speaker:Now we need to know how well you know your son.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- So this is gonna be interesting,
Speaker:all right, Alec, what did your dad say,
Speaker:your favorite music band is.
Speaker:- I'd say he'd go off,
Speaker:he'd probably go off to what I was listening to
Speaker:for a good couple years I'd say,
Speaker:Twenty One Pilots would be his first choice.
Speaker:- Boom!
Speaker:(Luis laughing)
Speaker:I told you Twenty One Pilots.
Speaker:- I love it when they get number one
Speaker:when they don't get number one it kind of sets a tone for us
Speaker:that's a little bit depressing
Speaker:but if you can get number one it's like that's good
Speaker:that's why I don't start out
Speaker:with the biggest accomplishment in life, okay?
Speaker:I'm smart a little bit when it comes to this.
Speaker:- There you go.
Speaker:- You should know somebody's music,
Speaker:TV show that can get a little interesting,
Speaker:food you should know,
Speaker:so I kind of give these redemption periods, so we'll see.
Speaker:- So the thing with me now
Speaker:is I do like Twenty One Pilots a lot
Speaker:and I knew my father was going to go down that route.
Speaker:They really got me into alternative music
Speaker:when I was essentially getting into high school
Speaker:I found them out through
Speaker:essentially an Instagram advertisement.
Speaker:I kept on following their page.
Speaker:I really liked what they did
Speaker:and then I really jumped into the very vast world of music
Speaker:and you can ask my dad.
Speaker:I listen to everything across the spectrum.
Speaker:- Yeah, your dad listens to George Michael
Speaker:so he's out there, he's getting all of it.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:- So yeah, I mean, as of right now I'd say
Speaker:I don't, you know, I can't even coin a particular favorite
Speaker:that I listen to like consistently
Speaker:I really do go across the gamut when it comes to it
Speaker:but I say Twenty One Pilots is 100% up there.
Speaker:- What's your favorite George Michael song?
Speaker:- Oh, wow,
Speaker:"Waiting For That Day" which is an obscure song but.
Speaker:- Yeah, okay, don't take the top ten list, all right?
Speaker:It's like what is George Michael known for,
Speaker:what songs, like what?
Speaker:- Oh, God, that whole "Faith" album was a phenomenal album.
Speaker:And then he did the older album
Speaker:and I just you know when when he was with the Wham, whatever
Speaker:and I was a very young man at that point
Speaker:I wasn't exactly enthralled with the whole thing
Speaker:but then when he came out alone
Speaker:and there was an article in "Rolling Stone" on the guy.
Speaker:It just, I'm like going, wow.
Speaker:Dude, first of all a phenomenal vocalist,
Speaker:wrote his own music
Speaker:and if you listen to the songs carefully
Speaker:the lyrics all change
Speaker:yeah, there's that chorus that kind of that hook.
Speaker:- [Rob] Yeah.
Speaker:- But the words will change
Speaker:and it will change just a little bit
Speaker:he'll kind of mix the words up a little bit
Speaker:and I just, you know, I went to see him,
Speaker:my wife and I went to see him in concert a couple times
Speaker:and, you know, he's no longer with us, right?
Speaker:Bu we had a great, great time.
Speaker:Yeah, that's my dude, I mean, yeah.
Speaker:- That's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker:- But it's kind of like that article from "Rolling Stone"
Speaker:that got you into him
Speaker:because once you make a personal connection to somebody
Speaker:or some brand, it amplifies--
Speaker:- It was the article.
Speaker:- Which is what we're trying to do here with Box Press
Speaker:that's why we don't really talk about cigars hint, hint.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:Okay, so next, we got one great that's great
Speaker:what is
Speaker:favorite TV show.
Speaker:Wait a minute who's answering, you're answering.
Speaker:- I'd have to answer for what he would say.
Speaker:- What I said for you
Speaker:and I struggled with this but here we are.
Speaker:(Alec exhaling softly)
Speaker:- Hell, I'm gonna struggle with it.
Speaker:I don't know what you'd say.
Speaker:- Do you not watch a lot of TV?
Speaker:- I'm not a big TV watcher,
Speaker:I've never really been that big on,
Speaker:on media and it's not I grew up
Speaker:and I still am very much so a nerd to a T
Speaker:so my thing is on my free time if I can smoke a cigar
Speaker:and afterwards I go and play some video games
Speaker:or I'll go see my buddies
Speaker:we're very big into board games now
Speaker:so I'm a nerd, 100%.
Speaker:- We tried video games but he couldn't even pull one out.
Speaker:He couldn't even name one so he's.
Speaker:- Well, because he's changing all the time
Speaker:- He knows you like the game.
Speaker:But he's so far removed from it he couldn't even name a game
Speaker:like "Super Mario Brothers"
Speaker:I thought you might have said that
Speaker:but he couldn't even say that so.
Speaker:- That's the thing, so if it were to come down to TV shows,
Speaker:I'm thinking it's more cartoon-based
Speaker:I'm thinking you'd say something along the lines
Speaker:of "Rick and Morty," something like that.
Speaker:- Yeah, I said "Family Guy."
Speaker:- You said "Family Guy"?
Speaker:Okay, "Family Guy" is a pretty classic.
Speaker:- You got close cartoon-based,
Speaker:you were close, you know, it's tough.
Speaker:- But we got it wrong.
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:- I got it wrong.
Speaker:- He has one wrong you have one wrong.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- But this is the hot seat
Speaker:you're in the hot seat.
Speaker:- [Luis] Okay.
Speaker:- Should you get another one wrong
Speaker:you're below the 75%.
Speaker:- I know I'm done.
Speaker:- And it's not looking good.
Speaker:- I think he'll get the next one.
Speaker:- If that's where it goes
Speaker:so let's hope you can redeem yourself
Speaker:on what is his favorite food.
Speaker:What did he say your favorite food was.
Speaker:- Ramen.
Speaker:- Ramen?
Speaker:You're going ramen?
Speaker:- I went with ramen.
Speaker:- You went ramen, final answer.
Speaker:- You didn't go with ramen?
Speaker:- Of course I didn't go ramen
Speaker:because every time we have lunch together
Speaker:you're eating those chicken tender things
Speaker:it's chicken this, chicken that.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker:- Yeah, now but you got it wrong so I'm done.
Speaker:- But there is chicken flavored ramen,
Speaker:is that your favorite ramen.
Speaker:- No.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:- Oh, God, I gave him like you could have lied
Speaker:or something, it's like a white lie.
Speaker:You could have told him,
Speaker:we could like saved the brand
Speaker:and the whole company could have been saved right now.
Speaker:You just flushed it down the toilet it's over.
Speaker:- I dropped the ball.
Speaker:- You gotta dissolve the company,
Speaker:call the lawyer right now, it's over.
Speaker:- The thing with that is like
Speaker:normally he'd be in the right ballpark,
Speaker:chicken for whatever I love chicken
Speaker:I do, I just no matter what
Speaker:and especially boneless wings as you know.
Speaker:He's not too happy but he likes bone-in wings
Speaker:so I always get the boneless and for longest time-
Speaker:- Those aren't wings.
Speaker:- No they're not, people who get boneless wings
Speaker:have something wrong with them.
Speaker:- Yes.
Speaker:- Listen I think I'm doing all right--
Speaker:- Unless it's not a wing, it's chunk of white meat.
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:- I'm being double teamed that's not fair.
Speaker:- Well, there's two types of people
Speaker:those that do boneless, and those that don't.
Speaker:And there's a clear line down the middle.
Speaker:You don't cross over. Somebody offers me boneless wings,
Speaker:you know what I say? "I'm good."
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- I don't say sure let me snack on some of that crap.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:- This is how I take it. But I've been more into ramen.
Speaker:Ramen is my go-to as of right now.
Speaker:- Well, had they asked me your favorite restaurant,
Speaker:I would have gotten that right, which specializes in ramen--
Speaker:- Which one?
Speaker:- Ichimi, here in Miami.
Speaker:- It's in Coral Gables. That place.
Speaker:- They have phenomenal ramen.
Speaker:- Where did we go last night, Matt?
Speaker:We went somewhere for ramen last night.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- I'm gonna pull it up.
Speaker:- Ichimi is next to Gables Cigars shop.
Speaker:Hachidori Ramen Bar.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- In Northeast. 2nd Avenue, Miami, Florida.
Speaker:- You're familiar with that one?
Speaker:- Mmh. Yeah.
Speaker:- You are?
Speaker:- They have some pretty good meals there.
Speaker:- It was okay it was good, I mean.
Speaker:The sticky buns were amazing.
Speaker:- They make amazing sticky buns.
Speaker:- Oh my God, I could have had three or four of those.
Speaker:- That's like their diamond in the rough
Speaker:so you normally you'd go to this location to pick up ramen
Speaker:and then a variety but those sticky buns are something else.
Speaker:- Sticky buns, great.
Speaker:What did we have?
Speaker:We had pork belly,
Speaker:and it's like the bread thing, but it's very doughy
Speaker:it's almost like non-cooked bread what are those called?
Speaker:- The bao buns, the bao buns.
Speaker:- Yeah. - The bao buns
Speaker:- Yeah, so the pork belly wasn't thick enough,
Speaker:and I told her I was like, you know, if I could give you
Speaker:any, you know criticism,
Speaker:because I love good criticism. The pork,
Speaker:the meat to bread ratio matters
Speaker:and it just wasn't thick enough.
Speaker:She goes, "No, we like that, we like that."
Speaker:She went back and they she told the the chef
Speaker:and he goes yeah he's working on it,
Speaker:like he's trying to actually source thicker cut.
Speaker:- [Alec] Nice.
Speaker:- That's great.
Speaker:But they got thicker cut in my pork belly ramen
Speaker:so I was like I'm confused,
Speaker:I'm like why don't you just put this.
Speaker:- [Luis] In there.
Speaker:- In there, I mean, that's all I'm asking.
Speaker:- In the bao bun.
Speaker:- Yeah, maybe it's a different recipe, I don't know?
Speaker:Okay, so decent ramen, we like.
Speaker:I was thinking you were thinking like the ramen packs
Speaker:that are like 21 cents.
Speaker:You are a former like, just graduated from college,
Speaker:so that would make sense.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- You have no money,
Speaker:you know, as you gotta eat what you can eat
Speaker:and you can only afford so much.
Speaker:- They're pretty good I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker:I still like them.
Speaker:- I don't think they're that good,
Speaker:you know, whatever my wife when she gets sick
Speaker:that's her go-to. - [Luis] That's her thing.
Speaker:I have to run out and go get ramen.
Speaker:I have to. It costs me more to run out and go get it
Speaker:than it does to actually like just pay for it.
Speaker:- Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker:- I mean, it's 21 cents a pack.
Speaker:(Luis laughing)
Speaker:When I'm there I buy like the whole shelf
Speaker:because I'm like I don't wanna come back.
Speaker:Well, what happens is she eats everything I bought
Speaker:before she gets sick again.
Speaker:I'm like woman, I'm trying to like stock up a little bit,
Speaker:so it doesn't cost me eight dollars and 27 cents
Speaker:every time you want ramen.
Speaker:But that's our thing.
Speaker:What did your dad say your biggest accomplishment was?
Speaker:- I see I'm also thinking two roads,
Speaker:one, because he knows I'm absolutely thrilled,
Speaker:thrilled to be a part of this industry,
Speaker:especially growing up around it
Speaker:and just actually kind of get my hands in
Speaker:as of late it's,
Speaker:that's something that I'm extremely happy with
Speaker:but I had to say,
Speaker:if I were to really choose a number one,
Speaker:I'd say graduating,
Speaker:finishing my undergrad.
Speaker:- There you go.
Speaker:- You skated by with a 50%, that's really good.
Speaker:- I was completely killed with the ramen.
Speaker:- That was very good.
Speaker:He's very happy about graduation, love it.
Speaker:- Extremely.
Speaker:- We failed on ramen and chicken but it was a close
Speaker:it was close I won't make you dissolve the company,
Speaker:it's okay we wanna keep the brand going
Speaker:we'll save it for you guys just so you can try these cigars
Speaker:we are, what are we smoking right now?
Speaker:- That is our 7 x 43 Flacos.
Speaker:That cigar, so and we've done the story on a few occasions.
Speaker:That cigar was the one that was a part of the robbery
Speaker:that happened with us back in 2019.
Speaker:- Yeah, you guys got robbed.
Speaker:So you guys, I have some stats here.
Speaker:You got robbed of a total of 25,000 cigars,
Speaker:which is a total value of over a $150,000.
Speaker:- It was a hefty price to pay
Speaker:something that we were very obviously bittersweet on.
Speaker:- And this cigar was part of that robbery.
Speaker:- Oh yeah,
Speaker:so that was actually the main reason that the robbery
Speaker:was an enormous, besides obviously a robbery
Speaker:and that's a big deal, we were uninsured at the time
Speaker:and so forth. But those cigars at that time limited-edition
Speaker:500-count of Habano and Maduro.
Speaker:And we say this all the time if you bought a certain box
Speaker:because that number
Speaker:they're all numbered
Speaker:they all came out of sequence too at that
Speaker:so for a little bit of a backstory on that
Speaker:but if you wanted a certain box
Speaker:because that number meant something to you,
Speaker:we did not know if it was stolen
Speaker:or if you already have received it
Speaker:because we sent it to a shop
Speaker:and there was no way to check that.
Speaker:- So you had a certain amount of these
Speaker:that were numbered boxes go out
Speaker:and you had another certain amount of boxes
Speaker:that were numbered that got stolen.
Speaker:- Correct, and we didn't know--
Speaker:- So you're missing numbers?
Speaker:- We didn't know which was which
Speaker:so I don't know box five had been sold or robbed
Speaker:or box five had been stolen I had no idea
Speaker:- Did you correct that now?
Speaker:- No, no.
Speaker:- because that sounds pretty nice
Speaker:because, you know, if I know I only sold boxes
Speaker:one-through-500
Speaker:and somebody shows up with box 600
Speaker:who'd you get this from?
Speaker:- Who'd you get that from?
Speaker:- Exactly. The way we solved it now is
Speaker:the inventory that came now because we relaunched this at
Speaker:TPE this year
Speaker:and let me give you a little back story on that
Speaker:when those were stolen we didn't replace them
Speaker:that line was discontinued.
Speaker:- You didn't replace them?
Speaker:- We never replaced them at all.
Speaker:- You didn't call up the factory
Speaker:and say, "Boy I need those back."
Speaker:- No, no because the boxes again had come out of sequence
Speaker:and I just couldn't do that
Speaker:10-count boxes, very elegant boxes
Speaker:and they were numbered,
Speaker:so that out of the entire lineup was discontinued.
Speaker:What happened along the way was
Speaker:people would
Speaker:over the course of time kept showing up
Speaker:whether it be a podcast
Speaker:or we'd go to an event somewhere
Speaker:and somebody would show up with one of these things
Speaker:like a unicorn,
Speaker:like look what I've got,
Speaker:I've got an original one I'm saving these last two
Speaker:because 10-count box is very few
Speaker:and for somebody hang on to them that long
Speaker:and there was this clamor to bring them back, bring them,
Speaker:so last year we had them rolled and boxed.
Speaker:We made 750 this time
Speaker:and the boxes themselves
Speaker:to differentiate them from the others,
Speaker:first, they're 750 that was 500, but they also have
Speaker:the year 2021 engraved on top of the box itself.
Speaker:It was four years between 2018
Speaker:and 2022 when we just launched these,
Speaker:so when the 750 are gone.
Speaker:Both the Maduro and the Habano.
Speaker:It'll be 2025 when they'll be rolled
Speaker:and 2026 when they'll be launched.
Speaker:So it'll be four years.
Speaker:Once they're gone they're gone.
Speaker:And essentially it was really more for those folks that
Speaker:were a fan of that size to begin with
Speaker:were clamoring for it and it's a fun project so
Speaker:that's what we've done.
Speaker:But, you know, they're coming now
Speaker:from where they came from the factory in boxes,
Speaker:master cases.
Speaker:Where the numbers are written on,
Speaker:so I know exactly what's in each
Speaker:this is a whole different ball game.
Speaker:The first time they just came
Speaker:and now we've got numbered boxes,
Speaker:so I know exactly what I've sold.
Speaker:Like we took out box number one and number two
Speaker:for Alec and myself, we've got those.
Speaker:I've got friends of mine who have purchased them
Speaker:specifically a certain number,
Speaker:shops have purchased specific numbers
Speaker:now we know what's gone and what's there, yeah.
Speaker:- Even better than.
Speaker:- The break-in actually turned into a positive
Speaker:because this guy right here since we didn't have the Flacos
Speaker:and we couldn't make up that money
Speaker:he comes up with the "Sledgehammer," La Mandarria,
Speaker:which is sledgehammer in Spanish;
Speaker:because the individuals who broke into our warehouse
Speaker:took a sledgehammer broke in through the wall
Speaker:in the alleyway and then cut into the humidor.
Speaker:They stepped in
Speaker:and then they never opened up the humidor door
Speaker:there by not triggering any of the alarms.
Speaker:I didn't have sensors inside, now I do,
Speaker:but whatever don't judge me.
Speaker:I wasn't thinking like a thief back then.
Speaker:I thought the only way you could get to the humidor
Speaker:was the front door, the bay door, the back door, you know?
Speaker:- Yeah, why didn't they go through a door?
Speaker:It seems like a lot easier to smash through a door.
Speaker:- Had they gone through the door
Speaker:the alarm would have triggered.
Speaker:- Ah, that's why.
Speaker:- And that's why I think they use the sledgehammer...
Speaker:- That's the thing even though the humidor door
Speaker:like my father just finished saying was alarmed
Speaker:so they were smart enough to understand that
Speaker:going through the front
Speaker:would mean the alarms would siren off
Speaker:so they went through the back.
Speaker:- And they needed a lot of time
Speaker:because they're passing boxes
Speaker:out of this little sledgehammered spot
Speaker:- Yep, five hours.
Speaker:- Five hours they were there.
Speaker:- Five hours.
Speaker:- Oh yeah, you can't go through the front door.
Speaker:You got like five minutes.
Speaker:- They got spooked at one point, they left
Speaker:they covered up the hole with some piece of plywood.
Speaker:I mean, everything's caught on camera.
Speaker:- Did you watch the full five hours?
Speaker:- No, we started, you know, we fast forwarded
Speaker:certain videos.
Speaker:The the cameras are all placed throughout the alleyway,
Speaker:and our neighbors all had different angles.
Speaker:So there was a lookout car in the front.
Speaker:We saw the car pull up, turn the lights on
Speaker:suddenly go, you know, get spooked, come back.
Speaker:Because somebody in the front,
Speaker:the location is no longer available right now.
Speaker:The company's no longer available.
Speaker:They came in the middle of the night, for whatever reason.
Speaker:It was Sunday night and they showed up,
Speaker:so the guy flashes the lights,
Speaker:the guys run away, they come back.
Speaker:Yeah, it was, it was very painful
Speaker:to watch, very orchestrated.
Speaker:- Very dedicated.
Speaker:- And as we spoke earlier,
Speaker:I mean, they I think it's the same dudes
Speaker:they've hit several, several companies here in Miami.
Speaker:Cigar companies. - [Rob] Correct.
Speaker:We're not the only ones,
Speaker:no one's ever been caught, which is a mystery to me, but-
Speaker:- Yeah, what do you do with the tobacco?
Speaker:I mean, it's all banded and boxed,
Speaker:you gotta break it down and sell it?
Speaker:- Sledgehammer was born in July
Speaker:for the for the PCA that year
Speaker:and we took a sledgehammer with us
Speaker:and it was gonna be a limited run.
Speaker:It was going to be one and done.
Speaker:- The "Sledgehammer" cigar.
Speaker:- Yeah. - Yeah, "La Mandarria."
Speaker:- Which is a great idea.
Speaker:- Thank you.
Speaker:- It was great and it became
Speaker:probably our second best seller I think
Speaker:out of the entire lineup
Speaker:so now it's part of the rotation.
Speaker:- It wasn't a limited edition then?
Speaker:- It was gonna be, but now it's no longer a limited edition.
Speaker:- Because it was so successful.
Speaker:- Correct, and that cigar would not have been
Speaker:even given thought too had it not been for that break in.
Speaker:- And you guys left it as a shaggy foot?
Speaker:- Yeah and-
Speaker:- Why?
Speaker:- Well, I wanted something a little different
Speaker:because it looks a lot like our Habano Toro,
Speaker:although it's completely different blend.
Speaker:So I wanted that, and then that became a conversation piece
Speaker:with consumers. When you light up that shag foot
Speaker:you're smoking filler and binder.
Speaker:- Yeah, no wrapper at that point.
Speaker:- No wrapper.
Speaker:And then when the wrapper kicks in,
Speaker:it changes the cigar completely.
Speaker:So what happened would be when I would meet a consumer,
Speaker:and we'd talk about this I go,
Speaker:"Listen, you're gonna be smoking through filler and binder
Speaker:for a few minutes and then the wrapper is gonna kick in
Speaker:and you're gonna notice how much difference
Speaker:that wrapper makes in a cigar."
Speaker:And it's really, really accentuates the difference,
Speaker:yeah, and it became kind of like the consumers come back
Speaker:and go, "Hey, man you're right."
Speaker:I go, "Yeah, there you go."
Speaker:So now, you know, that wrapper does play an important part
Speaker:in the construction of that cigar
Speaker:and the flavor profile absolutely.
Speaker:- Tasting experience just like a closed foot is all wrapper.
Speaker:- Yep. - Yep.
Speaker:- And you can taste it.
Speaker:- Exactly.
Speaker:- It's the exact same thing except.
Speaker:- I don't toast closed foot cigars
Speaker:because I wanna taste it so I quickly light it
Speaker:and take a few puffs to what does that wrapper tasting like.
Speaker:- Yup. - Yup.
Speaker:- So it's the opposite,
Speaker:shaggy foot is the opposite.
Speaker:- It's the opposite.
Speaker:- I love it.
Speaker:But I thought maybe shaggy foot because of just the complete
Speaker:and total dishevelment of the building
Speaker:and like the hole like,
Speaker:you now, it's not a perfectly cut hole.
Speaker:- That's a better answer but, no, it was just--
Speaker:- Okay, that's my answer,
Speaker:so we made it a shag foot
Speaker:because they broke through our wall
Speaker:and it's just utter chaos
Speaker:and that's what the shag foot represents.
Speaker:You guys want me to join the marketing team?
Speaker:- Absolutely.
Speaker:- Okay, I'm in.
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:- And during the pandemic,
Speaker:I was really terrified for a couple of months
Speaker:because the factory shut down
Speaker:and I thought, you know, nobody's working
Speaker:because we don't know how long it was gonna be
Speaker:but people stopped working, right?
Speaker:Everything was shut down-
Speaker:even Florida shut down. But if you got disposable income
Speaker:and you're not getting an income from your particular job,
Speaker:you're gonna spend it on food, electricity,
Speaker:things that are much more important than this.
Speaker:And lo and behold, people started drinking and smoking.
Speaker:And it was incredible, it was just amazing.
Speaker:There was an uptick in cigars sales.
Speaker:I know there was an uptick in liquor sales.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah.
Speaker:- And it became
Speaker:a boom for us and it's still going on.
Speaker:This is reminiscent of what happened in the '90s.
Speaker:There was this huge boom in the '90s of cigars
Speaker:and cigar smokers.
Speaker:The difference between now and then-
Speaker:this is a mini boom compared to that
Speaker:but boom compared to that
Speaker:but now there's a boom going on
Speaker:but all the manufacturers I think are doing the very best
Speaker:they can to come out with the very best product they can.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- In the '90s, it was just crap.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- You could literally wrap a dog turd with some kind of
Speaker:crappy tobacco leaf and people were buying it.
Speaker:I remember seeing cigars where when these
Speaker:are finished and they're going through packaging,
Speaker:oftentimes a wrapper will break.
Speaker:Well, that's discarded and re-wrapped. You can't sell that.
Speaker:Back in the '90s, you would put a patch on it.
Speaker:You'd get a little piece of wrapper that matches it
Speaker:and you glued it on.
Speaker:- There are still some people that do that.
Speaker:- That should not be done.
Speaker:- I know.
Speaker:- That should not be done.
Speaker:- But in the '90s--
Speaker:- I just put a patch on it.
Speaker:- Yeah, just put patch on it.
Speaker:- Put the plywood over the hole.
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah, exactly it's unbelievable.
Speaker:- Maybe that's the next cigar, "Plywood Patch"
Speaker:- The Patch
Speaker:- The Patch. - The Patch.
Speaker:- Patches here, patches there,
Speaker:patches everywhere all over the cigar.
Speaker:- Patches all over it but make it very artistic patches.
Speaker:- Absolutely, that's a good idea.
Speaker:- And it doesn't even need to be a patch,
Speaker:but it's just like- The Patch.
Speaker:- You can call it Patch.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- You'll get credit for that if it does come out.
Speaker:- Great, thank you. It's your guy's story, not mine.
Speaker:I love it. Your brand actually first debuted in 2017.
Speaker:- 2017, April 1, to be exact.
Speaker:- Any reasons for April 1st? Or just that-
Speaker:- My grandmother's birthday.
Speaker:- Your what? - My grandmother's birthday.
Speaker:- That's when you wanted the release.
Speaker:- But it was, yeah.
Speaker:- You've never talked about why you launched.
Speaker:- No, it was April 1st, - On April 1st.
Speaker:- On April 1st.
Speaker:- It was my martial grandmother's birthday.
Speaker:- April Fool's joke or any, "Hey, hey we're launching."
Speaker:- No. No, my grandmother's birthday, yeah.
Speaker:- That's awesome. - Yup.
Speaker:- Why your grandmother's birthday?
Speaker:Why is that the most important?
Speaker:- It just, we were ready to launch
Speaker:and it could have been maybe memory serves a week earlier
Speaker:or a week later,
Speaker:why not pick that particular date
Speaker:when it had a meaning to me.
Speaker:In other words we weren't ready to launch in February.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- And certainly late March we're ready,
Speaker:why not just wait a little bit more
Speaker:and then remember the exact date,
Speaker:not just some arbitrary like March 27, or something.
Speaker:- What does it mean to launch though
Speaker:does that mean you're gonna start selling that day?
Speaker:Or you've already sold, these are out in the shops
Speaker:and now you're gonna say the grand opening.
Speaker:- Well, you know, guess we don't have a grand opening,
Speaker:right, because we're...
Speaker:- Right, you're in shops.
Speaker:- Exactly, so the launch we actually
Speaker:went to my local shop in Miami,
Speaker:it's called Masters.
Speaker:There's a big connection there between,
Speaker:I know you talked to Jack Toraño yesterday,
Speaker:who's a dear friend.
Speaker:Master is owned by a gentleman in Felipe.
Speaker:- [Rob] Okay.
Speaker:- And it's on 8th and 139th
Speaker:and that is the closest shop to me,
Speaker:it's within two miles.
Speaker:- It's right around the corner.
Speaker:- And so he had worked for a long time with Toraño
Speaker:and that Toraño family have a deep deep love for
Speaker:and it seemed to be the the place to do it so we did it.
Speaker:And launch means you actually
Speaker:at this point you've sold them in different locations
Speaker:to some degree but you do the official,
Speaker:"Hey, everybody, come on out."
Speaker:- PR launch, get the media out there.
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah, yep.
Speaker:- I'm glad you haven't shared that with anyone else
Speaker:it's a Box Press exclusive.
Speaker:- That's actually a very true statement,
Speaker:that hasn't been shared.
Speaker:- See keep watching the show, you only get stuff here,
Speaker:as if that matters to me, I don't know, maybe it does.
Speaker:And that burglary happened just two years later in 2019.
Speaker:- February 11.
Speaker:- How big of a hit does that make on financials?
Speaker:I mean, it's all about cash flow
Speaker:and buying product
Speaker:and more importantly this is product that you can't,
Speaker:you can't just be like,
Speaker:"Hey, distributor I need more."
Speaker:No, you gotta go,
Speaker:do we even have enough tobacco to roll this stuff again?
Speaker:- My dad came in, I mean, because we have the factory
Speaker:right, I think without the factory,
Speaker:back track as Alec mentioned in passing
Speaker:that we were uninsured. We had moved into the location
Speaker:just a few weeks earlier after we had revamped it
Speaker:we had just bought it
Speaker:and I didn't have the fire extinguishers
Speaker:yet out so we hadn't even called an insurance company
Speaker:to come and insure and.
Speaker:- And that's the only reason why it was uninsured?
Speaker:- Yeah, it was uninsured.
Speaker:- Because it was too new
Speaker:and you moving into the lease.
Speaker:- We've been there I think three weeks
Speaker:before we got broken into.
Speaker:- Yeah, it was close to a month.
Speaker:- Yeah, so in three weeks.
Speaker:- Because when you told me you weren't insured
Speaker:I was like why you're not insuring this valuable product?
Speaker:- That was the reason so we were just not prepared
Speaker:and it was a big hit I remember calling my father
Speaker:and letting him know what happened and he says,
Speaker:"Hey, relax, by Friday I'll have cigars over there for you."
Speaker:and sure enough you ship them
Speaker:and then a couple weeks later we caught up and everything--
Speaker:- But your dad doesn't get emotionally
Speaker:- [Luis] My dad's Mr. Spock.
Speaker:- Cuban, right?
Speaker:- [Luis] His Cuban. [Alec] Yes, sir.
Speaker:- And you say,
Speaker:and we've talked that Cubans are very passionate
Speaker:and very, they talk with their hands and they're loud and.
Speaker:- [Luis] Yep.
Speaker:- But that's not your dad
Speaker:so that, it's not.
Speaker:- It's not all across--
Speaker:- It's not all across the board
Speaker:there's different types of people
Speaker:and so if you told your dad I'm selling Casa Cuevas
Speaker:for three billion dollars.
Speaker:- [Luis] He would sit there and say that's phenomenal
Speaker:and that's the end of it.
Speaker:(Rob laughing)
Speaker:- [Alec] It's true.
Speaker:- I'd be jumping up and down, really.
Speaker:- Mr. Spock.
Speaker:- I'm not living here anymore, I'm going, I'm out,
Speaker:I'm traveling.
Speaker:- Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:- I'm gonna go buy a motor home
Speaker:and follow Dave Matthews on tour.
Speaker:- There you go, that's cool.
Speaker:- I'm gonna be at every show, front row, "What up, Dave?"
Speaker:Okay, what would you do if you
Speaker:become financially independent
Speaker:and wealthy?
Speaker:What would you,
Speaker:what would your lottery ticket like buy be like?
Speaker:Mine's a motor home
Speaker:and go follow my favorite band across the country.
Speaker:- Prior to the pandemic,
Speaker:I mean, let's assume this is gonna pass.
Speaker:- Yeah, lets.
Speaker:- I would love to take a cruise around the world
Speaker:- Private cruise or public cruise?
Speaker:- No, it could be a public cruiser
Speaker:I wouldn't have a problem with it but.
Speaker:- You're a billionaire.
Speaker:- [Alec] I know.
Speaker:- That's three commas think about it, one, two, and three,
Speaker:most people only get to maybe two.
Speaker:- That's a lot of zeros, right?
Speaker:- There's not a lot of people in the three comma club.
Speaker:- You're right.
Speaker:- And you're in the three comma club
Speaker:you could buy your own private yacht
Speaker:have your own private captain
Speaker:and you're gonna go get on a public.
Speaker:- I'm thinking like a guy that's not a billionaire so.
Speaker:- You're gonna be on Carnival.
Speaker:- But I'd like to, no.
Speaker:- The dude, the billionaire on Carnival.
Speaker:- Maybe I'd buy one of the ships from Carnival.
Speaker:But I think I would do that.
Speaker:- You could buy Carnival.
Speaker:- What I wouldn't do is I wouldn't retire, though.
Speaker:I would not stop working.
Speaker:- Well, no but I'm just saying have fun for a minute.
Speaker:- I do that, cruise around the world
Speaker:I think would be kind of cool.
Speaker:- What would you do, Alec?
Speaker:- I don't know, if anything else, I'd most likely
Speaker:I'd like to go on ahead
Speaker:and place a lot of that into investments
Speaker:so first off actually getting properties.
Speaker:- We're talking about fun stuff.
Speaker:- For fun, so none of that, aside.
Speaker:- We're not talking investments and 401Ks.
Speaker:- For fun.
Speaker:I tell you what
Speaker:because I do love traveling a good amount
Speaker:I'm also very big into photography
Speaker:it's just, I love photography.
Speaker:I feel like there's an amazing art to it.
Speaker:I'd see myself if I did have that budget
Speaker:going to locations that normally
Speaker:you'd need to spend a pretty penny on
Speaker:so checking out all of Asia for example,
Speaker:where if you wanted to get a flight now to Japan
Speaker:a year in advance it's close to about $1,100
Speaker:so that right off the bat I get covered, right?
Speaker:And that's minute in comparison to $3,000,000,000.
Speaker:- You could take a private jet to Japan,
Speaker:you don't need to plan a year in advance.
Speaker:- That's the thing, but.
Speaker:- Get the plane ready, I'm going.
Speaker:- See I do that and then I'd also.
Speaker:- You guys aren't thinking like three comma people here
Speaker:let's get up in the,
Speaker:let's get up there.
Speaker:- Stratosphere, yeah.
Speaker:- And I'd also most likely put it into an island
Speaker:if I can get a separate island - You'd buy an island?
Speaker:I'd buy an island.
Speaker:- There's a Jeff Bezos over here.
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker:- You're not, I mean, it's three commas
Speaker:but, I mean, you know how much is the whole island
Speaker:maybe it's the whole three billion.
Speaker:- That's the thing but I even then
Speaker:and that I feel like I would be--
Speaker:- So then you're just a poor guy on a $3,000,000,000 island.
Speaker:- Yeah, with a camera.
Speaker:- With a camera.
Speaker:- [Luis] With a camera.
Speaker:- I'm really simple, you can ask my dad
Speaker:I've always just kind of been like that
Speaker:I'm not the type to really ask for much and.
Speaker:- Actually, to a fault.
Speaker:- I don't know you guys seem like pretty flashy guys to me
Speaker:- Yeah, right, we struggle his mom and I,
Speaker:getting them, getting him particularly a gift for birthday
Speaker:or Christmas or anything like that
Speaker:because he just doesn't ask for anything.
Speaker:He really doesn't.
Speaker:- Yeah, you guys do gifts? My family stopped.
Speaker:My wife's family pretty much stopped doing gifts.
Speaker:- [Luis] We do the gifts.
Speaker:- And we do experiences now so there's four couples
Speaker:and each couple per quarter picks a weekend.
Speaker:And they do an event so we've done like bowling,
Speaker:we've gone and seen art shows,
Speaker:we've done camping, we've done pottery
Speaker:so it's kind of like if it's my my wife and I's weekend,
Speaker:we pay for the majority of everything
Speaker:and then that's our gift to everyone-an experience.
Speaker:- I like that.
Speaker:- Yeah, it's fun, it's a lot of fun
Speaker:and I don't have to worry about like,
Speaker:oh what is her mom like,
Speaker:what does her dad like,
Speaker:oh I know her dad way better than her mom,
Speaker:and oh, man I wish I had him.
Speaker:- [Luis] I get it.
Speaker:- You know what I mean?
Speaker:- I like that. - Yeah, it's great.
Speaker:I might steal some of that.
Speaker:- People are more inclined to talk about experiences
Speaker:than they would gifts most definitely
Speaker:so same thing similar to traveling.
Speaker:- Yeah, I don't think the last time
Speaker:I talked about something was a gift I got.
Speaker:- No, now that's true.
Speaker:- I talked about something we did together.
Speaker:- We're we're big on the travel thing
Speaker:and that's the point I always bring up
Speaker:we've been fortunate enough to travel with these kids.
Speaker:Sister is not here, as a family quite a bit
Speaker:and travel always comes up
Speaker:much more than whether it be you went to a place
Speaker:or you've been to a place where I wanted to go and visit.
Speaker:Or hey, I visited that place too
Speaker:and then we'll talk about that commonality.
Speaker:But, yeah, I've never talked about I don't know, a watch
Speaker:or a pair of shoes or whatever the hell it may be,
Speaker:I just, yeah, you're right gifts never really come up.
Speaker:You're absolutely right yeah we're a firm believer in that.
Speaker:- You guys travel as a family every year
Speaker:like do you take one trip as a family every year?
Speaker:- We used to take a couple as a family every year
Speaker:the factory shuts down in the summers.
Speaker:- In the summer?
Speaker:- And forgive me. In the summers? In the winter.
Speaker:- I was gonna say, boy that's not a good idea
Speaker:but whatever you decide to do with your factory
Speaker:is up to you, my friend. That's a secret sauce
Speaker:every factory we do it different,
Speaker:we shut down during the busy time.
Speaker:- Absolutely, when we're scheduled to Vegas
Speaker:for the convention.
Speaker:- We don't like to launch any new products, we're good.
Speaker:- That's not in our wheelhouse.
Speaker:- But a couple we do things like
Speaker:we spent Thanksgiving with my family in Scotland,
Speaker:we went to Edinburgh a couple years ago before the pandemic
Speaker:or, you know, we'll we'll take a trip during spring break
Speaker:when they were in college and we went to London
Speaker:just for a couple days.
Speaker:- Just a couple days to London that's a long flight man
Speaker:that's like.
Speaker:- We did in Edinburgh, which is a long flight as well.
Speaker:We did
Speaker:Wednesday, Thanksgiving,
Speaker:Friday and then that Saturday we came back on a Sunday.
Speaker:It was four days.
Speaker:- Oh, I'm not doing that,
Speaker:I wanna be there for a week I went to Spain
Speaker:and I was there for two weeks.
Speaker:- We've done the Spain thing several times--
Speaker:- For 10 days, I don't know?
Speaker:- But, yeah, we do a lot of like these mini trips.
Speaker:- That's good though that you guys can do that
Speaker:because that just and is it like.
Speaker:- It's awesome.
Speaker:- Do you Airbnb it or do you get a hotel?
Speaker:And then do you have like an itinerary schedule like
Speaker:you wanna try to get everything in.
Speaker:- My wife's really good about setting the itinerary
Speaker:but when you visit a city for that short of time
Speaker:you can focus on that city and then not really
Speaker:miss out on a lot of stuff--
Speaker:- You don't feel like you're hustling to get.
Speaker:You wanna spend less time traveling
Speaker:once you get there and more time experiencing.
Speaker:- Correct and we've done that.
Speaker:- That's smart, that's good advice.
Speaker:- And it's worked out.
Speaker:So anyway yeah we've done stuff like that,
Speaker:we've actually traveled a lot as a family
Speaker:my wife and I have been on trips
Speaker:without he and his sister
Speaker:I think maybe three times in our lives and that's about it
Speaker:mostly they were, now they're getting older
Speaker:and it's a little more difficult.
Speaker:The rest of the time, they've always gone with us.
Speaker:Always gone with us.
Speaker:- That's impressive.
Speaker:- Even when they were tiny.
Speaker:- Yeah, now that you're gonna be an emptynester though
Speaker:it's gonna be very interesting how that is gonna change.
Speaker:- Well, it's changing already.
Speaker:Yeah. - Yeah.
Speaker:You can sense it and you feel it.
Speaker:- And they're doing trips on their own too
Speaker:with their friends and they take off
Speaker:and so, yeah, we're comfortable.
Speaker:- Cancun, here I come.
Speaker:- That's the thing though
Speaker:I really do like checking out new locations
Speaker:and I do follow by that principle
Speaker:of you're- it's better off to spend
Speaker:the minimal amount of time
Speaker:actually getting there
Speaker:and it's more so about experiencing it
Speaker:but I'm very on the road.
Speaker:I like to be on the road.
Speaker:I like to see different little locations,
Speaker:find niche spots.
Speaker:And it's not all about bars, it's not all about
Speaker:that sort of thing for me, it's a lot of the different food,
Speaker:the culture, in that regard
Speaker:and it's also about you come across something that
Speaker:the locals consider to be a diamond in the rough
Speaker:and those are the really cool locations
Speaker:you get to come across. - Yeah, you wanna
Speaker:get connected with the locals.
Speaker:- [Alec] Exactly.
Speaker:- And you just came back from three weeks
Speaker:of being on the road in Texas and Philadelphia,
Speaker:no Pittsburgh and then where, TPE,
Speaker:you're at TPE, so Vegas.
Speaker:- Vegas and California a week after that, before that.
Speaker:- California. Yeah.
Speaker:- So the one thing that I always do,
Speaker:especially like the cigar community is very gracious
Speaker:and like the hospitality that any cigar brand
Speaker:or maker or person gives me is always second to none.
Speaker:And I got here, we got taken out,
Speaker:and we sit down for food and he asks,
Speaker:"What do you guys like to eat?"
Speaker:And I go, you know, what, "We'll eat anything
Speaker:and the best thing that you can gift us right now
Speaker:is just ordering for us."
Speaker:So he's like, really?
Speaker:I was like, yeah, and he just orders everything in Spanish,
Speaker:so I have no idea what's coming
Speaker:and when it hits the table we just, we go, we try,
Speaker:and experience because I learned at a very young age.
Speaker:I hated the way something looked,
Speaker:so I didn't wanna try.
Speaker:So there's like a hot dish. You guys know what hot dish is?
Speaker:- Yes, sir.
Speaker:(Rob laughing)
Speaker:- Luis, I love your face right now.
Speaker:What's hot dish? Welcome to the Midwest.
Speaker:Basically you take
Speaker:maybe like the ingredients might be like a potato or rice
Speaker:or some sort of starch then some sort of meat
Speaker:some sort of vegetables and then like some sort of sauce
Speaker:put it all together and bake it, that's a hot dish.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- And then you just spoon it out
Speaker:and it's like you don't need anything else with the meal
Speaker:because everything's in there,
Speaker:they've vegetables, meat and starch you're good to go.
Speaker:So there was a hot dish and it looks like crap,
Speaker:it looks like porridge,
Speaker:it looks like stuff you would serve in prison
Speaker:or concentration camp. It's like not great,
Speaker:but it tastes amazing because it's great ingredients, right?
Speaker:- Yep.
Speaker:- So, I learned that early on,
Speaker:I was like no, you know, I was like five, six,
Speaker:seven years old, I don't want that.
Speaker:He said just try it.
Speaker:I tried it, I was like I want more.
Speaker:So now I just carry that little lesson,
Speaker:it may not look great, it may not be something that
Speaker:I think I'll like, but I have to try.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- In order to know.
Speaker:- Definitely.
Speaker:- And once you try it then you could say, no.
Speaker:But if you say, no, in the beginning
Speaker:well, no, is you never had it before anyway
Speaker:so that's the same.
Speaker:- [Alec] Yeah.
Speaker:- But, no, I didn't like is,
Speaker:I said yes to trying.
Speaker:- [Luis] Yep, it's really neat.
Speaker:- I'm on this whole kick of saying yes and no,
Speaker:it's like a big philosophy in my life right now.
Speaker:- Well, yeah, we talked too earlier about this.
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah, no is status quo,
Speaker:yes, you actually have to do something.
Speaker:Did you resurrect the Casa Cuevas Reserva brand?
Speaker:- Yeah, originally it was called Cuevas Habanos
Speaker:and my dad and my uncle had attempted this in the '90s,
Speaker:early 2000s to
Speaker:come out with a brand
Speaker:and it was actually sold in of all the places
Speaker:in Kansas City,
Speaker:Kansas City, Missouri,
Speaker:it never went anywhere, it didn't do anything.
Speaker:- Not in Miami?
Speaker:- Not in Miami--
Speaker:- Boy you are out of your wheelhouse
Speaker:operating in Kansas City what are we doing,
Speaker:Dorothy what are we doing in Kansas right now?
Speaker:- In Kansas and...
Speaker:- Why Kansas?
Speaker:- We have a distant relation called Ivan
Speaker:his name is Ivan Cuevas,
Speaker:I've never met the gentleman
Speaker:and my uncle and my dad.
Speaker:- Or just because he shares the same last name.
Speaker:- Well, he's related to us somewhere along the way.
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:- And, Ivan, was
Speaker:in charge of selling these things over there in Kansas City.
Speaker:- Did he own a shop or just?
Speaker:- I mean, there was a couple of shops
Speaker:that I got the names of.
Speaker:- Ivan didn't own a shop.
Speaker:- No.
Speaker:- He's a cigar broker.
Speaker:- He was our cigar sales guy
Speaker:yeah, I don't know what the arrangement was between my uncle
Speaker:and my dad and Ivan
Speaker:but that's the only place we were being sold
Speaker:and that faltered and it faltered in a hurry
Speaker:so when I revived it
Speaker:I couldn't trademark the word Habano.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- So, but the FDA allowed you to change it
Speaker:you could keep the line
Speaker:because it's a grandfathered product
Speaker:so it pass muster with the FDA and the regulations
Speaker:and whatnot, way when back when they were like
Speaker:they were essentially hanging a guillotine
Speaker:over the entire industry
Speaker:so they would allow you to come out with the same sizes,
Speaker:same box count and you could change the name though
Speaker:so we called it Reserva and that's the way that came up.
Speaker:- Nothing against Kansas by the way great--
Speaker:- By the way I love that part of the country
Speaker:we've gone there several times.
Speaker:- But it's just not the spot
Speaker:that I would probably launch a cigar.
Speaker:- The guy was living there.
Speaker:I love Kansas City.
Speaker:- Right, okay.
Speaker:So that's that.
Speaker:Did the blend change, though?
Speaker:- No, we tried to keep it as much as we could
Speaker:but, I mean, clearly crops change.
Speaker:- Right, but did you have the same types--
Speaker:- Of ingredients that we did, yes.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- It stayed true to form.
Speaker:Say true to form and and that's--
Speaker:- Did you have any of those cigars to smoke
Speaker:to see what it tasted like or is it all off of memory.
Speaker:- No, my dad has all the blends of anything we've ever done
Speaker:written down and he writes it by hand.
Speaker:- Where does he keep those.
Speaker:- He keeps them in the filing cabinet right next to his desk
Speaker:behind him on the right hand side bottom drawer.
Speaker:- You got a sledgehammer I can borrow?
Speaker:(all laughing)
Speaker:Is that thing locked or is it just open?
Speaker:Maybe I don't even need a sledgehammer.
Speaker:- It's just open.
Speaker:- It's just open.
Speaker:- It's just open - You guys
Speaker:I'm gonna help you with security problems.
Speaker:Lock up the recipe
Speaker:and get security on the inventory
Speaker:and then insure that stuff, okay?
Speaker:- Insure that stuff right, absolutely.
Speaker:- Do you have copies of this notebook?
Speaker:You might want some redundancies, like digital redundancies,
Speaker:paper redundancies, possibly.
Speaker:- I don't think there's any copy.
Speaker:- I think Marisol has gotten a couple copies.
Speaker:- Has she gotten some?
Speaker:- She shared a few with me that I ended up seeing.
Speaker:- There's this thing called the bank
Speaker:that has like a lock box for you
Speaker:called the safety deposit box.
Speaker:- Really, there's one of those?
Speaker:- I think you might wanna invest in a couple.
Speaker:One in the D.R. or Nicaragua,
Speaker:where they where are the cigars being made?
Speaker:- Dominican Republic, Santiago.
Speaker:- We'll get one in the Dominican,
Speaker:get one in Cayman because that's just like
Speaker:that's like the Wild Wild west
Speaker:nobody thinks to look in Cayman
Speaker:and then also get one here
Speaker:so you'll have like a triple redundancy.
Speaker:We back up all of our footage three times
Speaker:so just, you know, word to the wise.
Speaker:- You know, it's interesting my dad writes everything
Speaker:even the bookkeeping that he does for the factory
Speaker:everything's by hand and every once in a while
Speaker:the internet has gone down at the factory
Speaker:and they don't miss a beat.
Speaker:It's just because he does it old school,
Speaker:I mean, literally everything is done by hand.
Speaker:- I don't need the internet to do my work here we go.
Speaker:- Yep.
Speaker:- Payroll.
Speaker:Yeah that's still going out don't worry
Speaker:about I know how much you made this week.
Speaker:- [Alec] That's interesting.
Speaker:- Do you think that we've relied too heavily on technology
Speaker:in our lives?
Speaker:- I do, but it's indispensable, right?
Speaker:But I do, I do think--
Speaker:- There's a change though, I mean, I can't
Speaker:I can only remember my childhood phone number
Speaker:and my wife's phone number
Speaker:because I have to type it in for grocery points.
Speaker:- [Alec] Okay.
Speaker:- Yeah, but other than that.
Speaker:- But when we were growing up
Speaker:you remembered everybody's number.
Speaker:- Yeah, if right now if I get arrested
Speaker:and my wife doesn't answer I'm staying at the jail
Speaker:because I'm, do you know any other phone numbers?
Speaker:No sir, I don't. Can I look at my phone? No sir, you cannot.
Speaker:Okay, I'm stuck here.
Speaker:- Yeah, yep, I hear you.
Speaker:- I mean, could you rattle off your wife's phone number?
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- How about could you rattle off your dad's phone number?
Speaker:How many phone numbers you got memorized?
Speaker:- Six.
Speaker:- Six.
Speaker:How many you have memorized?
Speaker:- Oh, I got a lot more than six.
Speaker:- More than six? You still have more than six?
Speaker:- He's really good with numbers, though.
Speaker:- You're good with numbers? - And with memorization.
Speaker:- I got a lot more than six.
Speaker:- I got like two numbers memorized.
Speaker:- But you forgot all the others then.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah, because my phone
Speaker:half the time I'm like what's the name it's under?
Speaker:What name did I put it under? That's my problem,
Speaker:I have to put cigars in a lot of things
Speaker:so then I just type in cigars
Speaker:and then it's like, oh that's right Luis Cuevas,
Speaker:that's the guy I'm looking for.
Speaker:I'm looking for Alec, yeah, not an X with a C.
Speaker:I screwed it up, you know, it happens.
Speaker:- I don't know I wouldn't say that
Speaker:I'd say the way things are going
Speaker:I don't think we're relying too much per se on technology
Speaker:I but then again I'm from a different generation, right?
Speaker:I think I'm Generation Z as a matter of fact.
Speaker:- I don't know what the hell you guys are.
Speaker:- Yeah, I think I'm Z, 2001.
Speaker:- They stopped counting after the Millennials
Speaker:because everything just went to, you know.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- Like it's a technology industry okay great.
Speaker:- That's it, it's like it's it helps although
Speaker:I'm also not a big believer that you should absolutely
Speaker:lose your marbles if you don't have technology available.
Speaker:That's something that to me
Speaker:doesn't personally make a lot of sense
Speaker:however I do get it a lot of individuals
Speaker:have plenty of their contacts
Speaker:numbers that you need to remember,
Speaker:emails you need to look into
Speaker:that you have at your pocket it's at your disposal.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah, the phone has become a portable office.
Speaker:- I think because even more than that.
Speaker:- I think of my phone as that,
Speaker:I mean, all the a bunch of stuff it's on here
Speaker:so when when you lose your phone
Speaker:or misplace it which I'm really absent-minded with stuff
Speaker:I'm more afraid of what may be on the phone that I've lost
Speaker:that I need to contact someone
Speaker:or I got it than I am about the phone itself
Speaker:I could give a crap about the phone.
Speaker:- No, it's more the connection that it plugs you into,
Speaker:the convenience.
Speaker:- Correct.
Speaker:- It's the adaptation of it
Speaker:so and just like back in the day
Speaker:you had to memorize everybody's number,
Speaker:you had to go through a phone book
Speaker:and pull up everybody's accounts actually call
Speaker:and dialed manually and now.
Speaker:- You really had to call Empire Social Lounge and say,
Speaker:is Luis and Alec in the shop?
Speaker:Yeah, they are. You wanna talk to them?
Speaker:Sure, nowadays is get you on your own phone
Speaker:like that's so weird.
Speaker:- It is.
Speaker:- But, you know, you know what I've always fascinated me
Speaker:as cool as email is, as interesting as it is
Speaker:and we can do text, and all that
Speaker:the fax, the fax machine.
Speaker:I remember just thinking about a fax.
Speaker:You get a piece of paper and it's got some ink on it
Speaker:and you send it to I don't know Tokyo, Japan,
Speaker:to talk about, you know, and boom they get it.
Speaker:I just, I mean that was kind of cool.
Speaker:- It's unbelievable.
Speaker:- It was kind of cool way back when, right?
Speaker:Who has the fax anymore? But-
Speaker:- You can take through a phone line letters and text
Speaker:and then make it come out basically on another printer
Speaker:and then why is the fax line so secure?
Speaker:They're like, oh, we can't accept email
Speaker:but we can accept fax, why?
Speaker:- Why, I know.
Speaker:- Because there's somebody over there by the fax machine
Speaker:guarding it. Do not look at this piece of paper coming up.
Speaker:Half the time it falls on the ground face up
Speaker:and everyone can see it-
Speaker:there's your social security number everything else.
Speaker:- Absolutely.
Speaker:- What are you talking about this is more secure?
Speaker:So, Alec, you were named director of operations in 2020.
Speaker:- Yes, sir.
Speaker:- What does that mean, director of operations?
Speaker:- Director of operations in my position means
Speaker:keeping track of all the reports
Speaker:and doing the commissions
Speaker:making sure that other local shops
Speaker:if they don't have representation,
Speaker:proper representation in that territory that I call on them
Speaker:make sure they're doing all right.
Speaker:Checking up on the back orders
Speaker:and making sure we get that out as soon as possible.
Speaker:Maintaining that relationship with the brokers as well
Speaker:not only to make sure they're content
Speaker:but also in the same notion of they're doing
Speaker:what they're supposed to be doing
Speaker:and most of the time they are, right?
Speaker:So it's not, you know, jumping into the fray of things,
Speaker:especially with that title being handed towards me
Speaker:that's not something you can just outright.
Speaker:- That title was handed to you?
Speaker:- By my father, yes sir.
Speaker:- Your what?
Speaker:- My father, yes sir,
Speaker:he was like, you know, what as at this point.
Speaker:- But you didn't earn that title.
Speaker:Director of operations.
Speaker:- That's the thing
Speaker:so back before I was director of operations
Speaker:I was essentially the packaging department,
Speaker:so I'd put things together
Speaker:and I would I remember doing drives over to like let's say,
Speaker:Stuart, Florida, a two hour trip to go over there
Speaker:and drop off product and make the trip back.
Speaker:I had a blast doing it, don't get me wrong.
Speaker:- You're a glorified delivery unit.
Speaker:- Exactly, UPS, give me a call.
Speaker:- Put the pizza thing on the top and head out.
Speaker:- There you go and you're good to go.
Speaker:- The Casa Cuevas Pizza hood.
Speaker:- Yeah, it was a the Cuevas car
Speaker:or whatever you'd like to call even then.
Speaker:I had a lot of fun doing that
Speaker:because I still had the availability to go see shops
Speaker:and still show my face around
Speaker:so they knew who, you know, the lineage and everything else.
Speaker:- But you weren't directing operations.
Speaker:- Not at that moment in time
Speaker:we had another director of sales Gabriel Alvarez,
Speaker:who recently passed away
Speaker:but even on that notion when I did end up
Speaker:how it occurred and I don't actually talk about this
Speaker:very often, so something else that you can only catch on
Speaker:Box Press, my father when we were doing the numbers
Speaker:and everything else says,
Speaker:you know, what I'm gonna put you in a position
Speaker:of director of operations
Speaker:and it was, I said okay, I said let's do it
Speaker:but obviously it's it's nerve-wracking as hell.
Speaker:You don't go to college for being director of operations,
Speaker:most of the time they don't give
Speaker:that information to you on paper
Speaker:you're not taking exams on it,
Speaker:so it was really nerve-wracking.
Speaker:I didn't quite know what that position entailed
Speaker:at least for the company end point.
Speaker:- You just did the easiest thing
Speaker:box up orders and deliver them.
Speaker:- And at that time though
Speaker:I couldn't really do much else though
Speaker:yeah, now I'm the operation side of things.
Speaker:So but here's the thing, I had a lot,
Speaker:you know, I recently graduated, so
Speaker:back then I was still starting off in college.
Speaker:At that point in time, I was hell
Speaker:even a freshman if not sophomore,
Speaker:and I had a lot of classes and
Speaker:I had a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker:I was studying for accounting,
Speaker:jumping into that program that FIU has,
Speaker:which is where I went to school.
Speaker:They have an immense program
Speaker:but you really have to study hardcore for it.
Speaker:Given that time that I allocated
Speaker:towards actually packaging up and everything else
Speaker:if I were to do hence what I'm doing now,
Speaker:I don't think I would have done too well in my studies.
Speaker:Some of that really required a good amount of my attention
Speaker:and to really divvy it I think it was well thought out
Speaker:if anything else, I got to a certain portion
Speaker:where I took my exam to enter the intermediate class
Speaker:and everything there was been history
Speaker:and I had that opportunity available to me
Speaker:a lot more free time to actually learn that aspect of things
Speaker:so when my father said,
Speaker:you're gonna take the mantle of director operations,
Speaker:I was thrilled and I felt that it was a great time to do it.
Speaker:I did not know what I was doing at first
Speaker:a lot of that came from Gabriel Alvarez,
Speaker:who was a huge mentor
Speaker:when it came to actually running the systems,
Speaker:which should be done properly
Speaker:in accordance to how he's been doing it
Speaker:and he was doing phenomenal for us
Speaker:before I even jumped onto the board full time.
Speaker:So all that aside my position right now
Speaker:and not only is it a blast
Speaker:and I'm not gonna consider it easy by the slightest
Speaker:a lot of numbers and a lot of different paperwork
Speaker:you do need to end up doing for export
Speaker:and import regulations,
Speaker:for certain shops that have issues with their credit cards
Speaker:sometimes hunting down shops when it comes to a payment
Speaker:that maybe is a little bit overdue,
Speaker:things like that do take time
Speaker:and it's a relatively tedious position
Speaker:but it's one that I'm extremely grateful for
Speaker:and one that's taught me
Speaker:a lot on that business managerial aspect of things
Speaker:when it comes to helping nurture a brand.
Speaker:- So you learn more from Gabriel than possibly your father
Speaker:on how to be a director of operations.
Speaker:- Exactly.
Speaker:- You were never really the director of operations.
Speaker:- No, I just gotta sign the pay checks.
Speaker:- You always just hire somebody smarter than that.
Speaker:- Absolutely.
Speaker:- Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Alec really does a really good job
Speaker:and he's gotten a handle on it and as the brand has grown,
Speaker:we travel a great deal to visit accounts
Speaker:and to give them support,
Speaker:a lot of times we'll visit accounts
Speaker:meaning out of state just to say thank you,
Speaker:it's not even a sales call.
Speaker:We just drop by. We go to Phoenix three or four times a year
Speaker:and, you know, half those times
Speaker:they've already purchased whatever they're purchasing.
Speaker:I'm not going for an event we're going just to say,
Speaker:"Hey, thank you so much for carrying our product
Speaker:and we really appreciate."
Speaker:All we do is just smoke a cigar.
Speaker:Well, as we've expanded our territories,
Speaker:we can't be at two places at once,
Speaker:so sometimes we'll divvy it up
Speaker:and Alec will go by himself
Speaker:he was just in Texas by himself.
Speaker:- Oh, right. - As of this week.
Speaker:- And doing the job
Speaker:of being essentially the brand owner
Speaker:you know, he carries the last name.
Speaker:- So why not change the title to that.
Speaker:- That's me only.
Speaker:- A founder or.
Speaker:- Because as of right now it's
Speaker:which is an interesting point.
Speaker:Yeah, but even that so I was talking about this in Texas
Speaker:and they call it principles,
Speaker:essentially you've the principles come in,
Speaker:which is a term that although it's coined
Speaker:and it is used at least domestically here in the States
Speaker:and probably universal at that,
Speaker:but something I've never heard before
Speaker:because he's considered the president of the company
Speaker:but we're both considered the principal
Speaker:because we're literally a two-man show.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- Excuse me, especially down here
Speaker:where we're packaging department, shipping department,
Speaker:complaints department. I clean the bathrooms
Speaker:- The janitorial-
Speaker:- Like the whole nine,
Speaker:we do it all. So it's
Speaker:and it's also fun I have to say on a side note
Speaker:to go out to these locations in these territories
Speaker:and they're expecting an individual that's more in his,
Speaker:you know, his mid years.
Speaker:He's been smoking for a good portion of time.
Speaker:He's got that lineage with them,
Speaker:but it shows. Whether in the wrinkles,
Speaker:or the laugh lines whatever the case may be
Speaker:so to have a young schmuck like me walk through the door,
Speaker:who the heck is this guy?
Speaker:Like well I'm, Alec Cuevas, director of operations
Speaker:and right off the bat the biggest thing that I've received
Speaker:and it's also another
Speaker:not really a con something that I consider bittersweet
Speaker:is that I'll walk through a door with my position
Speaker:and a lot of shopkeepers and shop owners,
Speaker:even managers, customers, you name it,
Speaker:will look at me in the first glance
Speaker:they'll be like what does he know about cigars
Speaker:that I haven't picked up in my lifetime?
Speaker:And I always, you know, I'm very honest truthful with it
Speaker:and it's to say maybe I possibly haven't had that experience
Speaker:under my belt, of course not,
Speaker:I have been smoking for only a few years, at this point.
Speaker:A hefty amount of time and a good variety,
Speaker:but possibly not like these individuals
Speaker:that have been smoking for 20 to 25 plus years
Speaker:have been running their shops since
Speaker:God knows how long.
Speaker:So to come through and give them the experience
Speaker:on my side of things as a distributor
Speaker:and they see that knowledge
Speaker:and that gives me that little token of respect from them
Speaker:that is that is tremendous to me
Speaker:it makes all the difference in the world
Speaker:and not necessarily for sales
Speaker:but in terms of keeping that connection strong
Speaker:because at the end of the day like my father said,
Speaker:I am one of the individuals of this industry.
Speaker:And makes, you know, looking at it you can look at my father
Speaker:and immediately you'll understand
Speaker:he's the president of the company
Speaker:and it fits his bill. You look at somebody like me,
Speaker:I'm 23 years old,
Speaker:a younger individual walking through your shop,
Speaker:you might as well,
Speaker:you won't know know me from him and Adam.
Speaker:I'm a consumer.
Speaker:I'm, you know, the guy who's gonna replace the AC.
Speaker:I could be anything.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- But to be associated as director of operations
Speaker:for a brand,
Speaker:most people get taken back by that.
Speaker:- Why not sales manager? Director
Speaker:or national sales director?
Speaker:- We didn't wanna take that title
Speaker:of director sales from Gabriel Alvarez,
Speaker:so he started off with us from the beginning
Speaker:and we even even from when he left, we wanted him
Speaker:and only him to keep that title.
Speaker:- Oh, he already had that title.
Speaker:(cross-talking)
Speaker:He wasn't the operations guy.
Speaker:- No, Gabriel was director of sales. He was the guy.
Speaker:- But he also operations.
Speaker:- He did but that was his title director of sales.
Speaker:His cards the director of sales and when Gabe left
Speaker:and wound up in the construction industry.
Speaker:I just wanted to keep that aside.
Speaker:So he became director of operations.
Speaker:And piggybacking, I mean, if the company keeps going
Speaker:the way it's going and we keep growing
Speaker:then sometime in the future Alec will be promoted
Speaker:to something else.
Speaker:- Yeah, because we actually need a director of operations
Speaker:in that spot.
Speaker:- Exactly.
Speaker:- Not that he hasn't already earned it.
Speaker:(Alec laughing)
Speaker:- He's earned it.
Speaker:- But are you're gonna have to get
Speaker:another director of operations in that spot
Speaker:because he needs to move on to being a principal.
Speaker:- Correct, except he can be a principal,
Speaker:be director of operations.
Speaker:If I'm president of the company
Speaker:and I freaking clean toilets just as well
Speaker:and sweep and and mop and do all the stuff
Speaker:that a president wouldn't do
Speaker:and he very well can have a a title
Speaker:that means something else perhaps
Speaker:and still do what he's doing the grunt work, I mean.
Speaker:- But that's the never ever give up attitude,
Speaker:never give up, be humble.
Speaker:- Yep, exactly.
Speaker:- You're humble enough to clean a toilet
Speaker:and you never give up. So the title.
Speaker:A title is a title.
Speaker:I do whatever it takes to move Casa Cuevas forward.
Speaker:- And that's where at.
Speaker:- That's where we're at.
Speaker:- I mean, and I, you know,
Speaker:they're small companies, mom-and-pop shops.
Speaker:We are as small as it gets
Speaker:right, with my dad running the factory
Speaker:and Alec and I doing the stuff over here
Speaker:to promote the brand,
Speaker:give it the support it needs, really all of it.
Speaker:So we're pretty much as small as you can get,
Speaker:even when the cigars sometimes don't come out
Speaker:the way we want them to. There's been issues
Speaker:with, let's say binder or some cigars
Speaker:are just not doing what they're supposed to be doing,
Speaker:I can't really point a finger and say
Speaker:it's the factory's fault,
Speaker:because I am the factor, right.
Speaker:So, I'm just pointing at myself
Speaker:and so you know we take that very much to heart
Speaker:and our motto has always been the customer's always right
Speaker:and the customer is always right if, we say.
Speaker:- Now that's a lot to say though in the tobacco industry.
Speaker:- Always right, let me tell you.
Speaker:- Nah, man, these retailers
Speaker:and some customers, even consumers,
Speaker:they're not always right, they don't know.
Speaker:- You know what, they complain about this or that
Speaker:we once went into a shop in Phoenix
Speaker:in the middle of the summer, so 115 whatever the heck it was
Speaker:and 0% humidity and an individual had walked in
Speaker:and he had bought a box of our Maduro Gordo
Speaker:from the core line
Speaker:and they had all essentially just blown up on the guy.
Speaker:So when we walked into the shop,
Speaker:I had already gotten the complaint,
Speaker:we had sent him, - Should have had a Boveda in there.
Speaker:- They should have. We had sent him a replacement box
Speaker:and when I walked into that humidor,
Speaker:we walked in the humidor,
Speaker:the level of humidity that they had in there
Speaker:was super, super low
Speaker:I mean, their stuff was just going to hell in a hand basket.
Speaker:We remedied the issue by pointing that out.
Speaker:- See, they're not always right.
Speaker:- Correct, but that consumer was made whole by us.
Speaker:And I never called that shop out on it
Speaker:and said by the way we replaced this box
Speaker:when it's really your fault,
Speaker:we just don't function that way.
Speaker:The shop knew at that point we had indicated,
Speaker:look at the levels that you have of humidity in this place,
Speaker:they knew they were wrong.
Speaker:I just didn't sit there and say, hey by the way
Speaker:how can you let this happen, you follow me up?
Speaker:So you nudged him into that.
Speaker:- Then why would you even get involved in the first place
Speaker:because if I'm the retailer I go, holy crap.
Speaker:Your cigars are all blown up, let me double check,
Speaker:oh man my humidity is way off I gotta tweak this
Speaker:and you wouldn't have even been involved had I done that.
Speaker:- Correct.
Speaker:- Correct, so it all worked out
Speaker:and all the the five years, we're gonna hit five years now
Speaker:in April that we've been around
Speaker:I've always, we've always stood behind that,
Speaker:that the customer is always right
Speaker:and whenever we get a complaint,
Speaker:we replace, no questions asked
Speaker:and then, you know, we'll try to get to what the problem is
Speaker:but still customer service comes first
Speaker:and we have had maybe five instances in five years
Speaker:where. - Really good.
Speaker:You know, where somebody has actually said, hey by the way
Speaker:this dude bought a box of this or the other
Speaker:and, I mean, the other day we had a weird one happen.
Speaker:This gentleman bought,
Speaker:I've never seen this one happen,
Speaker:Two Maduro Flacos going back to the Flacos, the Maduros.
Speaker:He opened up one of the boxes and it was full of Habanos
Speaker:he had 10 Habanos,
Speaker:so he essentially got a Maduro and Habanos
Speaker:but the dude got two Habanos
Speaker:because they were boxed incorrectly.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- We just sent him another box straight to his house,
Speaker:literally this morning we sent it to his home.
Speaker:And by the way, now he's got himself three boxes
Speaker:for the price of two. So, you know, you kind of
Speaker:you don't sit there and make an excuse,
Speaker:you just make sure that that consumer is made whole.
Speaker:- And you're not even asking them
Speaker:to send back the faulty box.
Speaker:- No, sir.
Speaker:- I love that. - No, sir.
Speaker:- That's, you know, there's part of that
Speaker:that's like, you know, I get some industries
Speaker:that's a really expensive product,
Speaker:so they do wanna ship it back but at the end of the day
Speaker:- We've shipped incorrectly sometimes,
Speaker:they'll ask for
Speaker:I don't know a Maduro Robusto in our Reserva line
Speaker:and they also asked for a Maduro Robusto in our core line
Speaker:and what happens is they receive two Maduro Robustos
Speaker:in the Reserva and not the core so we say keep the core one,
Speaker:right.
Speaker:- You don't even charge them for it.
Speaker:- No, you keep the core one.
Speaker:- Oh, I'm surprised, if you wanna keep that one
Speaker:you can go ahead and keep it
Speaker:we'll charge you for it
Speaker:and we'll send you the other or.
Speaker:- Well, because it's on our fault
Speaker:it's on our end that--
Speaker:- It was our fault
Speaker:we're the ones that made a mistake packaging it.
Speaker:- Well-run company by two great individuals
Speaker:plus the whole team that you have behind you
Speaker:Alec, Luis, thank you guys for sitting down with me.
Speaker:- Thank you.
Speaker:- Thank you for sharing your story.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing key inside information
Speaker:with our fans out there.
Speaker:If you guys are interested in picking up these cigars,
Speaker:you guys do not sell direct to consumers.
Speaker:So you either gotta go through a brick-and-mortar
Speaker:or an online retailer.
Speaker:- Yep.
Speaker:- Okay, so you can pick it up,
Speaker:find somebody who's selling Casa Cuevas cigars.
Speaker:They're great cigars.
Speaker:This was phenomenal, it had some spice to it
Speaker:and then it had some balance and mellowing out.
Speaker:I love it when it kind of changes as you smoke it
Speaker:so it's great, I appreciate it gentlemen.
Speaker:- [Luis And Alec] Thank you.
Speaker:- Is there anything else you'd wanna say
Speaker:to the fans out there if not we'll end it here.
Speaker:- No, I mean, thank you for even giving us the opportunity
Speaker:our aim is always to be part of your humidor
Speaker:not the only thing you smoke
Speaker:but part of your rotation.
Speaker:I've said and I'll say it again
Speaker:life's too short to smoke a bad cigar
Speaker:and too long to smoke the same cigar,
Speaker:so by the same token if you're just married
Speaker:to one particular brand, branch out there
Speaker:and if we can make it in your humidors
Speaker:that would be just a blessing so.
Speaker:- I've never heard the inverse of that
Speaker:so, yeah, it's life's too short to smoke bad cigars
Speaker:but I've never heard
Speaker:it's also too short to smoke the same thing,
Speaker:that's a good point I like that. I'm gonna use that.
Speaker:- Yeah, and then on my end, I'd say if you are a fan
Speaker:of that Lancero size I do know that it's a niche market
Speaker:but I'm a personally huge fan of Lancero sizes.
Speaker:Get them while they're hot.
Speaker:We have a couple hundred left over
Speaker:but there's no, not nearly enough a 750 count of each
Speaker:as of right now.
Speaker:- Yeah, we've sold through two thirds of them.
Speaker:- When they're gone they're gone,
Speaker:you gotta wait for five years.
Speaker:- You gotta wait four years.
Speaker:- Four years.
Speaker:- It'll be 2026.
Speaker:- 2026.
Speaker:- 2026, okay four years.
Speaker:- So pick them up while they're hot,
Speaker:especially at your local retailers
Speaker:and if they don't have them.
Speaker:- Ask for them.
Speaker:- Ask for them we'd be more than happy to do business.
Speaker:- Awesome, that's another episode of Box Press.
Speaker:As always, keep that humidor humidified with Boveda,
Speaker:protect your passion. Go over to Bovedainc.com
Speaker:if you need anything or hit up your local retailer.
Speaker:We appreciate you and have a great weekend.
