Oak and Smoke » Events

Aleppo Smoker 2010

dandyman — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:05:50 +0000

It’s that time of year again, and no I don’t mean tax prep season. No I just received my annual invitation to the Aleppo Smoker at the Shriner’s Auditorium in Wilmington, MA. If you like a good cigar, then I strongly recommend you attend. The swag and meal alone are enough to recoup your initial $125 outlay and that isn’t even taking into consideration that its for a really good cause.

Come join us and celebrate the pleasures of a fine cigar. Your ticket price includes a variety of handmade cigars from the premium cigar producers. Indulge yourself on a full course steak dinner. Enjoy a variety of premium spirits at our tasting booth. The entertainment for the evening will be a surprise for all to enjoy. Explore the variety of cigars and accessories provided by our local cigar distributors.

Tickets are $125.00 and are limited to the first 150 participants – or so.
Tickets must be purchased in advance – No tickets will be sold at the door.
To reserve your seat at this premium event call Sheila at 1-800-700-0013 X20
Visa and MasterCard are accepted.
Checks can be made payable to: Aleppo Shriners

Proceeds from this event will benefit Aleppo Shriners Childrens Transportation Fund

Aleppo Smoker 2009 Recap

dandyman — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:02:41 +0000

For a “Fair Weather Smoker” like myself, the Aleppo Shriners Smoker is the “Opening Day” of cigar season. Coincidentally, this year’s event occurred on the very first day of spring, this past Friday (March 20). The event is held every year at the Shriner’s Auditorium in Wilmington, MA to benefit the Shriners Transportation Fund. This was my second consecutive year and it both exceeded and fell short of my rather high expectations.

Dinner & Drinks

Dinner was absolutely fabulous. The steak was gigantic and enormous. The general consensus was that there is one less herd of cattle in the world right now. The rest of the meal great too, but next to that steak the green beans and baked potato looked rather ordinary.

In addition to the meal, there was a tasting booth set-up near the back of the dining area with a wide variety of single malts, ports, and other forms of alcohol. Throughout the course of the night, I had a few old favorites like Oban and The Balvenie as well as some new ones. The McClelland Islay was probably my favorite, but the Glen Farlach (sp?) was quite good as well.

Auction & Raffle

Not only was I amazed at the items up for auction, but thoroughly blown away by the amount of money people were bidding on them. I’m sure the Stradivarius cigars are a great cigar, but $750 for twenty cigars seems like an awful lot of money to spend on something to be burned. I know it may sound like heresy to some of you, but I can think of a whole lot of things I’d rather spend $750 on. I mean for that price they should cut and light themselves on command. Then again, I’m probably just jealous I don’t have that kind of disposable income. The fact that I didn’t come up a winner in any of the raffles didn’t help either, but I must remind myself that it is for a good cause and I’d rather see the money go to helping kid’s than in the till at .

Entertainment

Last year’s entertainment was absolutely brilliant. Sir Jeremy Bell was funny, informative, and just plain entertaining. The Elvis karaoke guy they had this year was none of the above. He was a more than competent Elvis, an even better Johnny Cash, and a slightly less than stellar Neil Diamond, but he just didn’t fit with the theme and/or crowd. To make matters worse, the PA system was absolutely cranked and my ears only stopped ringing a few hours ago. On the bright side, they brought in “Blue Hawaii Elvis” and not “Rhinestone Jumpsuit Elvis”.

Hand Rolled Cigars

Benji Menendez of General Cigar was in attendance for the event and he brought with him one of his master rollers from his Miami factory, Jose Luis. Mr. Luis was hand rolling “La Gloria Cubana” cigars all night for the two hundred or so attendees. Watching Mr. Luis work was truly a sight to behold. The man worked with amazing speed and accuracy and like any great artisan, Mr. Luis made an extremely difficult task look simple. According to his assistant the tobacco is only partially aged and should be stored in a humidor for a couple of weeks at a minimum. I plan on giving mine at least a month or two.

The Loot

I was stunned at the amount of stuff they gave us last year and when I saw my “take” this year I was absolutely blown away. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go. I’ll leave this plenty big enough so you can see the names on the bands(You can see pictures of the take from last year’s event here.)

Aleppo Smoker 2009

dandyman — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:59:43 +0000

The time is rapidly approaching for one of the greatest cigar events in all of New England, the Aleppo Smoker put on by the Shriners to support the Aleppo Shriners Children’s Transportation Fund . Last year’s event was an absolutely fantastic time filled with great scotch, outstanding entertainment, good food, and a boatload of free cigars.

If you’re unfamiliar with the event, I strongly recommend you read my recap of last year’s smoker here.

You absolutely cannot miss this event!

I’ve got a copy of the official flyer for download here.
cigar-ad-2009_color

Aleppo Smoker Recap

dandyman — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:52:38 +0000

Every year the Aleppo Shriners host a cigar night at their temple in Wilmington, MA. Like all Shriner events, all of the proceeds from the event go to charity like the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children. This past Friday, I was finally able to attend one of these cigar nights and after the time I had, I don’t think I’ll miss another one. It was a fun filled evening full of food, fun, whisky, and of course cigars.

The Loot

At conventions they call it swag, at weddings they call them favors, at the Aleppo Smoker the only word you can use to describe what they give you at the door is “Loot” because you feel like you ripped them off. Of course, you would have paid $100 to get in, but with the free Scotch, steak dinner, and entertainment you can’t help but feel like you took them to the cleaners. It says a lot about the organizers and the sponsors that even if you showed up with nothing but a ticket you would have, at your disposal everything you would need to enjoy some great cigars.

Humidor

The humidor itself is rather simple. It is essentially the kind of canister many of us have on our counters; designed to hold things like flour, sugar, and coffee beans. It has a circular piece of spanish cedar on the bottom and a simple, sponge humidifier. There is no hygrometer included, but its pretty easy to understand why not. The cheap hygrometers are pretty clunky and wouldn’t leave much room for the cigars. Still I’ve seen some pretty slim digital hygrometers that would work very well in there. This little humidor can hold about 20 medium sized cigars and will look great in my office.

Chateu Real Cutter

I can’t say enough good things about this cutter. It’s made of real heavy duty steel and I’m pretty sure you could use it like a set of brass knuckles in a pinch. It is a closed back cutter, however, so torpedo lovers will probably have to make two, maybe three cuts.

Cigars Cigars Cigars

My first thought when I saw how many cigars they were giving everyone was, “quanity, not quality”, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Most of the cigars are from well known manufacturers with cigars from Punch, Partagas, and Gran Habano. They represent a wide array of shapes and sizes including a few monsters.

Rocky Patel – Decade

Probably the biggest surprise in the selection of cigars was this Rocky Patel Decade. While I haven’t seen the review myself all everybody kept talking about was that it received a 95 rating from Cigar Aficionado. This one is going in the humidor and it is going to stay in there a while. I’ve always been a bit of an impatient smoker, but I’m not lighting this one up until I can sit out on the patio, in comfort, for a good long time. I’d tell you to look for the review in late summer or early fall, but I know I wont be able to wait that long. Right now, Memorial day is sounding like a pretty solid plan.

El Tiante Cigars

El Tiante Cigars is a new line of cigars from Boston Red Sox legend Luis Tiant. Kevin Anderson of El Tiante was kind enough to give me a couple of natural and maduro wrapped cigars and I’m looking forward to smoking these out on the patio with the game on in the background.

Aleppo Smoker – 2008

dandyman — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:49:45 +0000

Pleasant Smoke Shop and the Aleppo Shrine Center are presenting the “4th Annual Smoker” on Friday – March 7, 2007 at 6pm. Tickets are $100.00 and are limited to the first 150 participants. Tickets must be purchased in advance as no tickets will be sold at the door. Your ticket price includes a variety of handmade cigars from premium cigar producers. Indulge yourself on a full coarse steak dinner and enjoy a variety of premium spirits at the tasting booth. There will be entertainment and local cigar distributors on hand.

To reserve your seat at this premium event call Sheila at 1.800.700.0013 x20. Visa and MasterCard are accepted.