The 17th annual No Joke Smoke 2026 dinner was held on 3/28/26 and hosted by Kalani Matsuura from Mokuleia Cigar Company. The theme this year was Only Ashes Remain, a tribute to Aric’s days as a firefighter.
Helping us celebrate the dinner was Aric Bey, the owner of Black Star Line Cigars. The dinner felt extremely special as Aric made an exclusive cigar for the event dedicated to our local firefighters called The Table, made at Tabacalera La Isla. My good friend HFD Captain Kainoa Villalon named the cigar The Table as the dinner table is the most important place at any fire station. Aric is extremely rooted in his culture and all the names for his cigars has personal or historical meaning.
Featured Black Star Line Cigars:
- Dark War Witch
- Lalibela
- Mr. Fahrenheit
- Meadowood MLK
- Marun
- The Table
- Giving Back
One of goals for No Joke Smoke is for our guest to give back to the community. Our guests upped the ante from last year and donated monetarily around $700 and 3131 lbs (1.5 tons) of canned goods to The Hawaii Food Bank. The cigar community was very gracious and in return won fantastic prizes. Our islands were recently hit with devastating storms and our cigar community stepped up and generously donated when it counted. The grand prizes were 4 Siglo humidors worth over $1000 each from Siglo Accessories located in Hong Kong.
Supporters
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 at Kalauao the event site
- Rayna and Mo Morris of Just Blessed Photography for taking da pics
- Don Baduria for the sound system
- Desiree Razon and Leia Tsubota for working hard at the check-in table
- Kamu Kaneshiro for helping with Foodbank collection
- Gunther Weamire for Ubering Aric and Bratt
- Jenny Martin for the trivia game and to all the friends who helped break down after the event.
A big mahalo to all my guests who attended and at the end of the night, only ashes remained.
Aric was able to experience the aloha spirit and made a ton of new friends. All who attended enjoyed spending time together and smoked an amazing boutique brand. The dinner was festive with awesome cigars, dinner, beverages and prizes. Now it’s time to plan for next year’s event.
Kalani Matsuura – Owner, Mokuleia Cigar Company
