The 14th annual No Joke Smoke (NJS) 2023 dinner was held on 4/1/23 and hosted by Kalani Matsuura from Mokuleia Cigar Company. The theme this year was Validated?, a term used by the Aganorsa Leaf Cigars to showcase its amazing tobacco.
Helping us celebrate the dinner was Eduardo Fernandez, the owner of Aganorsa Leaf Cigars. NJS guests felt extremely special as Eduardo rarely attends cigar events and shared his cigar/tobacco journey. Eduardo even blessed a few of the guests with a Rare Leaf maduro, a cigar which will be released this summer.
Attendees were able to enjoy some amazing Aganorsa Leaf featured cigars at the event, including:
- Supreme Leaf
- Rare Leaf
- Aniversario Maduro
- Signature Series Corojo and Maduro
- La Validacion Connecticut and Habano
- Guardian of the Farm Cerberus and Apollo
- JFR Lunatics
- Buena Cosecha
Giving Back
One of goals for No Joke is for our guest to give back to the community. Our guests donated monetarily around $1300 and 1800 lbs of canned goods to The Hawaii Food Bank. The cigar community was very gracious and in return won fantastic prizes. The grand prizes were 3 Siglo humidors worth over $1000 each from Siglo Accessories in Hong Kong.
Supporters
Kalani Matsuura – Owner of Mokuleia Cigar Company stated:
“No Joke Smoke was made possible with the support from Bernie Leong of Havana Club Honolulu, David Suzuki of Urbane Cigars, Keane Tanaka of Aloha Tobacco, Pearl Country Club for the food and beverages, Don Baduria for the sound system, Leia Tsubota and Desiree Razon for working hard at the check-in table, Markus Yamabe and Kyle Matsumoto for setting up and to all the friends who helped take down after the event. A big mahalo to all my guests who attended and making this a successful dinner.“
Eduardo got to experience the Hawaiian smoke culture and witnessed everyone validating his great cigars. Aganorsa Cigars has been a guest of No Joke Smoke for three events and our guests truly enjoyed spending time with Eduardo. The dinner was festive with amazing cigars, dinner, beverages and prizes. Now it’s time to plan next year’s event.
All Photos Courtesy of Mokuleia Cigar Company