Back-room cigar talk, road-tested and rowdy.
Cigar Hacks sounds like a table of regulars taking over the back room after hours. The show mixes cigar impressions, local lounge stops, event talk, bargain finds, sports detours, and off-color riffing from a rotating panel.
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Cigar Hacks is a cigar podcast built like an after-hours hangout. The table matters. Episodes often begin by locating the crew in a back room, shed, lounge, or cigar shop, then letting the panel settle into its familiar mix of nicknames, drops, wrong turns, and cigar talk. The show’s Local Spotlight frame gives it a strong travelogue quality across cigar rooms such as Plaistow Cigar Company, The Tobacco Shack, Rhino’s Cigar Lounge by Owl Shop Tobacconists, Twins Smoke Shop, Founding Fathers Executives, Castro’s Backroom, and Cigar Castle. It is not a sterile review show. The panel talks about cigars the way regulars do when they are already sitting together: whether a Connecticut is easy with coffee, whether a cigar has enough strength for one smoker without overwhelming another, whether the construction is holding, and whether a box deal is worth splitting. Short tasting judgments sit beside long detours. The show can go from Perdomo favorites to the Celtics scoring high in a half, then from cigar sales to prepper shopping, bowling, ice fishing, barn work, and shop ventilation. That sprawl is part of the identity. The cigar culture here is social, regional, and practical. Events get mentioned. Lounges get compared. Shop owners and guests get room to describe what makes their place work, from age-diverse customer bases to bigger humidors and better exhaust. The hidden-smoke format and ash challenges give the episodes game-like energy, but the conversation rarely stays buttoned up for long. It is loud. It is loose. It can be crude and knowingly immature, with adult jokes and recurring bits carrying as much weight as formal cigar vocabulary. The appeal is the back-room realism: people teasing each other, chasing deals, talking wrappers and strength, and turning every local stop into another chapter in a cigar-community road map. Cigar Hacks best suits listeners who already enjoy the culture around lounges, humidors, road trips, events, and cigar-shop regulars. It is for listeners who want the cigar table, not just the cigar score.
Made for: Cigar enthusiasts who like lounge culture, regional shop stops, practical tasting talk, and a rotating table of regulars. Best for adults comfortable with blunt humor and messy conversation.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by treating cigar discovery as a live social room, not a polished review desk. Local lounges, panel chemistry, mystery smokes, event chatter, and running jokes all shape the experience.
A weekly podcast where we have regular segments that include the Hidden Herf, where we don't know what cigar we are smoking for the first half of the show; Local Spotlight, featuring a local or no-so-local cigar lounge or bar; and the Conspiracy Corner where any topic is fair game as long as it carries some controversy.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Cigar Hacks makes cigar knowledge social, pairing practical smoking notes with the loose humor and local intelligence of a well-used lounge.
Cigar Hacks turns a cigar-shop table into a lively group conversation, with a regular panel trading jokes, assessing the cigar in hand, and taking stock of lounges around New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
A cigar deal becomes group lore before you've finished deciding what to smoke.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Plaistow shop visit brings the Cigar Hacks crew together for a group smoke and loose back-room conversation.
After a three-leaf event, the Cigar Hacks crew gathers in the back room of a Plaistow cigar shop for a group smoke. Shop talk gives way to a discussion of how the cigar is smoking and who might enjoy it.
A hidden lounge visit turns a cigar sale find into table talk.
Cigar Hacks meets in a hidden after-hours lounge, where introductions and teasing give way to a guest's account of a sale after work. He spots a table of half-price Avos, picks up Tres Compadres in three sizes, then finds a box of another cigar and offers to split it.
Cigar shop banter, a long ash, and a maker's hopes for future releases.
At the Tobacco Shack in Rowley, Massachusetts, the Cigar Hacks trade jokes and sound drops between stretches of cigar talk. They remember a cigar they rated highly, then recall how fast the rest of two boxes disappeared.
Bulk-buying jokes, lounge events, and a visit with Atul at Cigar Castle.
A debate over whether bulk packs of paper towels save money opens the episode, and a forgotten stash of toilet paper turns up in a story about unpacking a storage unit. From there, the hosts move through cigar lounge announcements.
A crowded lounge and Brayden's letter give the Cigar Hacks plenty to talk about.
The Cigar Hacks settle in at Grumpy's Cigar Lounge in Hudson, New Hampshire, with a large crowd around them and plenty of room for the usual table talk. Ricky has coffee instead of alcohol, Mike jokes about having followers, and the introductions soon turn into easy banter.
Mental-board chess drills for focused practice.
German fragrance talk with real collector judgment.
A cigar podcast episode featuring a panel discussion at Grumpy's Cigar Lounge in Hudson, NH, with a focus on Rocky Patel cigars and local cigar culture.
A group of cigar enthusiasts chat in a cigar shop, discussing Star Wars and introducing panel members.
A group of cigar enthusiasts host a podcast from Castro's Backroom in Manchester, NH, discussing cigars and local topics.
A casual cigar podcast episode recorded at Plaistow Cigar Company in New Hampshire, featuring banter about mulch and a special guest.
A group of friends gather at a cigar shop in Rowley, MA for a casual, humorous conversation.
A casual cigar podcast episode recorded in a heated shed at Mustang Ranch, featuring banter among hosts and a local spotlight on Rhino's Cigar Lounge.
The hosts discuss a new part-time job mucking barns at the Mustang Ranch and share anecdotes about horses and special logging shoes.
A group of cigar enthusiasts gather at Twins Smoke Shop in Londonderry, NH, for a casual, humorous conversation filled with crude jokes and banter.
Joe says Founding Fathers began with "three original guys" and expanded to "13 Founding Fathers," with one veto sending an idea back for revision.
The panel tries to light a tiny figurado that has a nipple-shaped head and a tricky draw.
Episode 431 of Cigar Hacks is recorded from the After Hours Lounge at Castro's in Manchester, New Hampshire ('ManchVegas'), with a smaller-than-usual panel filling in for regulars Ricky, Pat, and Mustang Mike.
A group of cigar enthusiasts gather at Grumpy's Cigar Lounge in Hudson, NH to discuss and review Rocky Patel cigars.
A group of cigar enthusiasts host a live event at Castro's Backroom in Manchester, NH, engaging in humorous banter and people watching.