PTDC recap

[Mowee]

Well our 10th annual Post Turkey Day Crawl is in the books. Wow what a day. I know I will be forgetting something so others can chime in….I am still exhausted….but smoking.

We began the day at Tobacco Gallery in downtown Dallas. Bob Smalley has been our host for most of the years…this is the second year at his downtown location and he bought us lunch! Some great barbecue. (Nothing like free food to bring out people from all over….including Mike Maring from San Antonio and his new CIGAR club/store..and a couple of guys—Greg and Mark-- from the Arkansas Rat Pack.) At the store Bob offered all kinds of special…like 30 percent off the new Monte Carlos AND another half a box….heck that was less than COST!!!!! Everyone got a Monte Carlo Churchill courtesy of Tom Poehler –who did the blend…and has it made for him by Christian Eiroa. Tom’s brother Ryan had a Gurkha special as well. We also found La Aurora Habinitos…a really tasty cigarette sized cigar made with the scraps from the Preferidos so though it is short fill it has that taste. Those were a great find.

The next stop was Addison Cigar where the new La Flor Dominicana rep Paul was there for a special. Mark provided us with coffee, soft drinks and beer and deals on different sticks….but by then the Texas alumni were engrossed in the Texas- Texas A&M game….worrying that Texas might lost. (Then woke up and pulled it out. But it was a lot closer than people thought it might be.) Lito Gomez also donated a signed box of the La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero 700s to our raffle.

Our last stop before dinner was Two Brothers Cigars in Plano. We ate some Mexican food and drank their beer and soft drinks while Tom and his other brother PJ offered us all kinds of deals. Rick had received plenty of the new La Aurora 1495s so we were able to load up…..I even bought a box. George Rico from STC cigars gve Tom boxes of his great VLs so each of us could get one…we first tasted the cigars at last year’s Post Turkey Day Crawl.

Then it was onto dinner as Kirbys in Plano. Our local liquor distributor (Glazers) provided us with 5 single malt scotches to taste. Glenmorangie burgundy wood, the Glenmorangie 10 year old, Oban,, Arbelour and one other I didn’t get the chance to taste…but all the ones I tried were excellent. Our before dinner smoke was the new Tropical JFR (Just for Retailers). This is a stick that knocked us out at the Nashville RTDA and we’ve been after Tropical to make it as a regular stick. Tey now have. Should be hitting store shelves in the coming weeks. It is a criollo/corojo lend that one of our guys swore was Cuban!

We had some terrific calamari, fried pickles for appetizers and then onto the main course of steam….a lot of cows died for our pleasure last night and the steaks as always were wonderfully done.

The after dinner smoke was the new La Aurora 1495 coronas. A nice full bodied smoke with perfect construction. These have become some of my favorites…they have an Ecuadorian wrapper which is a sun grown Corojo, with a coroojo binder and Nicaraguan & Peruvian ligero and Dominican Pitto Cubano leaf filler.

Then it was onto our charity raffle. Many thanks to the Poehlers who provided things like a Don Lino Africa Humidor, many boxes of cigars and other items for the raffle….to Litto Gomez for his signed box of DL 700s…to Guerillmo Leon& Jose Blanco of La Aurora for a signed box of the 1495s…to Perdomo, General, Altadis, Ashton, Torano, CAO, Gurkha, STC and our special overseas friends. Also to the brothers from the Rat Pack who donated a pair of OpusX slippers.....thanks guys and hope your trip home was safe.

All in all we raised just over $2500 for the Salvation Army Disaster Relief Fund. Thanks to everyone!