I’ve been hitting up Instagram Live quite a bit in the last two weeks and for good reason: you get to see, hear, listen to, and learn from the people making the creative decisions about the products we love!

As you may have picked up on, I’ve become completely smitten with La Palina cigars over the last month, also for good reason: they’re well constructed, they burn perfectly, they draw effortlessly, and they’re priced at about half of what they should be.

There’s a point in the interview where I say to Sammy: the ultimate high of whiskey buying is finding the next great $25 bottle of whiskey, not the next great $100 bottle.

Seeing that no one gives a shit about $25 whiskey anymore, I’ve had to transfer that bargain-based emotion over to cigars and as of late I’m riding a nostalgic high over La Palina. Considering the La Palina Classic sticks are only $5.99 a piece (and smoke like $10-$15 cigars), it’s as excited as I’ve been about doing my job in years.

I think cigars are where whiskey was 20 years ago: phased out, passé, but primed to make a serious comeback. Get in while the gettin’s good because we all know what happens when categories get hot.

-David Driscoll