Tabanero Blog

Exploring the Interplay Between Premium Cigars, Festivities, and Business Rituals

As the holiday season approaches, the art of celebration becomes intertwined with various traditions and customs. One such tradition that has seamlessly blended into the fabric of festivities is the enjoyment of premium cigars. In this blog, we explore the unique connection between cigars, celebration, and business, delving into how these carefully crafted indulgences have become an integral part of holidays and corporate festivities alike.

Rituals of Celebration

The act of lighting a cigar has long been associated with moments of triumph, celebration, and reflection. Whether it's to mark a personal achievement, a holiday gathering, or a successful business deal, cigars play a symbolic role in elevating these occasions. We look into the historical significance of cigars as a symbol of victory and the joyous moments they accompany.

Corporate Bonding and Cigar Culture

In the business world, the shared experience of enjoying cigars has become a powerful tool for networking and relationship building. Many corporate events and holiday parties now feature designated cigar lounges, fostering an environment where professionals can connect on a more personal level. Explore how cigars have become a bridge for building camaraderie and strengthening business relationships.

Cigar Selection for Festive Occasions

Explore into the art of choosing the right cigar for different celebrations. From rich, full-bodied options for special milestones to milder choices that suit a casual holiday gathering, understanding the nuances of cigar selection adds a layer of sophistication to the festivities. Provide recommendations for cigars that complement various occasions, enhancing the overall celebration experience.

Cigars as Gifts

 Uncover the tradition of gifting cigars during the holiday season and its role in expressing gratitude or sealing a deal. Explore how the presentation of a thoughtfully chosen cigar can convey a sense of appreciation and celebration in both personal and professional settings.

In the world of celebrations and business, cigars have evolved from being a simple indulgence to a symbol of shared joy, achievement, and connection. This blog aims to highlight the rich tapestry of experiences that cigars bring to festive occasions, weaving together the threads of celebration, personal milestones, and professional relationships. Whether you're a seasoned aficionado or a newcomer to the cigar culture, understanding the connection between festivities and cigars adds a layer of depth to the joyous moments we celebrate.

The Legacy of Tampa: Cigar Capital of the World

Tabanero Cigars and Tampa's Cigar Capital Legacy

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tampa, Florida, earned the prestigious title of "Cigar Capital of the World." This recognition was a culmination of factors, including a boom in cigar manufacturing, the founding of Ybor City, access to fine Cuban tobacco, industry innovation, expansive cigar export, and significant cultural impact. Tampa's cigar industry thrived, shaping the city's cultural identity and architectural landscape.

One integral part of this legacy is Tabanero Cigars, which has been in Tampa since 2007. While Tabanero Cigars has since shifted production to Nicaragua due to a scarcity of skilled cigar rollers, its history remains closely intertwined with Tampa's cigar heritage. Tampa may no longer hold the official title, but its deep-rooted connection to the cigar industry endures, making it a destination for cigar enthusiasts seeking to explore its rich tobacco history. Tabanero Cigars, with its legacy and continued presence, is a testament to this enduring heritage.

Crafting Moments of Purpose and Friendship with Fine Cigars

Premium Tobacco - Is There A Difference?

When it comes to tobacco, there is usually a well-defined distinction between the Regular Vs. Premium kind.

You will often find 'premium' tobacco products, such as cigars, priced at outrageously high rates. These rates are only attached to products that have the premium label attached to them.

Are you craving a taste for premium tobacco? Tabanero Cigars has got you covered. Their range of premium yet well-priced cigars are sure to satisfy your cravings, as well as your budget.

Today, we will look at a typical example of a premium tobacco product - such as premium cigars - and make a judgment on whether a booming difference in prices is justified. We shall also go over some common types of tobacco and which products are available in the market.

What Makes A Tobacco Cigar Premium?

A premium cigar differs from a non-premium cigar in several ways, including the work, craft, and price. The production of premium cigars is manual. Non-premium cigars, on the other hand, are frequently manufactured by machinery.

Premium cigars use tobacco solely and are harvested, cured, and fermented in the same way as non-premium cigars. Non-premium cigars, in opposition to premium cigars, may be treated chemically.

Non-premium cigar makers can change the color and flavor of their tobacco by treating them with chemicals. The color, aroma, and flavor profile of premium cigars, on the other hand, are all created through the curing and fermenting process.

Each of these cigars is rolled by hand to showcase the workmanship associated with premium cigars. As you may have seen, the price gap between premium and non-premium cigars is large.

Premium cigars are more expensive because of the time and effort required by cigar rollers to hand-roll your cigar.

There is also a distinction in the locations where premium cigars are supplied.

Aside from pricing, the location where you buy the cigar may indicate whether you're obtaining a premium or non-premium cigar.

One of the easiest ways to identify if you're buying a quality cigar is to inquire about its origins and whether it's hand-rolled or machine-rolled.

Furthermore, understanding the roots of how your cigar was rolled can give you a new respect for the effort and dedication that went into making it.

While some quality cigars are more expensive than others, not all premium cigars are.

So, do you think the high price is justified for a premium tobacco product? After going over the above information, it might be so.

What Are The Common Types Of Tobacco And Its Products?

Tobacco can be smoked, chewed, or sniffed. Cigarettes, cigars, bidis, and kreteks are examples of smoked tobacco products. Some individuals also use a pipe or hookah - also known as a water pipe - to smoke loose tobacco. Chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, and snus are all chewed tobacco products. The type of chewing tobacco known as snuff can also be sniffed as opposed to chewing.

Cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, bidis, chuttas, and kreteks are among the many smoking tobacco products available on the global market. Blended tobaccos are used in cigarettes and cigars, and the type of tobacco used in these products has a significant impact on the physicochemical nature of the smoke produced.

Plant genetics, farming practices, climatic conditions, and curing procedures all influence the chemical composition of tobacco leaves. The leaf tobacco frequently used in cigarettes is classified primarily by curing procedures and tobacco kinds.

There are two or more varieties in each class. Individual flue-cured tobacco types are no longer easily distinguishable, and the type identification usually solely refers to a marketing region. Although different countries use different words for categorization, the underlying premise remains the same.

The Unique Attributes Of The Maduro Wrapper

The wrapper refers to the cigar's exterior tobacco leaf. Because there are so many varieties, the wrapper can have an influence on the full flavor and appearance of the cigar.

Wrappers are often taken from the larger, thinner leaves near the bottom of the tobacco plant. However, Maduro wrappers are frequently sourced from top leaves. The leaves are aged from their natural green tint to varied degrees of brown perfection. The variety of flavors and aesthetics is vast, with no less than fifty wrapper types.

As you guessed it - here we will be discussing the Maduro Wrapper. We will be going over what a Maduro Wrapper is and what exactly makes Maduro Wrappers unique from other wrappers.

What Is A Maduro Wrapper?

Maduro Wrappers, unlike most other common wrappers, are not really defined by their country of origin or even the type of leaf involved. Maduro is a Spanish word that means matured. Maduro wrappers, on the other hand, are made from matured leaves that have gone through a natural fermentation process, resulting in a gorgeous dark brown leaf.

Maduro wrappers have deeper and more nuanced flavors as a result of their age. The end product is determined by the type of leaf used, albeit not any leaf can be used as a Maduro wrapper. Just those who have the rigor to withstand the aging process for years are eligible.

You can choose from a wide range of Maduro wrappers to suit your preferences. They're easy to recognize because of their darker color, but keep in mind that they differ depending on the type of leaves utilized.

What Makes Maduro Wrappers Unique?

Natural wrappers are lighter in color, whereas Maduro wrappers are darker. Because the color of the brown can range from dark brown to midnight black, there are many different sorts of Maduro.

The Maduro receives more sunshine throughout the growth phase, as well as an extra fermentation during the processing of the tobacco leaves, which results in the color variation.

After undergoing a lengthy fermentation process to convert the starches in the leaves into sugars, the wrappers are cured for an extended amount of time to achieve their trademark black, oily surface.

Natural wrappers with a lighter hue are created from tobacco that has not been exposed to direct sunlight. To shelter them from direct sunshine, some tobaccos are grown in cheesecloth.

The darker Maduro, on the other hand, has been exposed to direct sunshine. Natural wrapper leaves are also dried at a slower rate, giving them their distinctive light golden tan hue.

The extra fermentation that the Maduro wrapper receives gives it a richer, more nuanced flavor than the natural wrapper. Maduro wrappers have a spectrum of flavors from chocolate to peppery, with a sweet taste from the extra fermenting that makes it a perfect match with cognac or rum.

Many people love Maduro-wrapped cigars during the cooler months, gently smoking them and being warmed by the deep, sweet flavor and a natural pairing with cognac and whiskey. Natural wrapped cigars, on the other hand, are popular in the spring and summer because of their light flavor, which goes well with hot, humid weather.

Are you looking for high-quality cigars to enjoy year-round? Well, your search is over! This is because Tabanero Cigars is here to provide you with some of the best cigars in affordable ranges!

Check them out to bring a whole new level of flavor to your taste buds!

The Lector

Ybor City: The Story

The Genesis Story of Tabanero Cigars

The Story of Tabanero Cigars

“You can do whatever you dream.”
Those were the words my mother spoke to me often.

Just as the golden rays of the rising sun would greet the fertile ground of Cuba, so the words of her encouragement greeted me each morning and planted themselves in my heart. The Cuban soil produced crops of the sweetest sugar and finest tobacco. My heart produced a dream of the truest Old World values and New World optimism.

My name is Yanko Macedo and this is my story. It is a story of how my Cuban heritage and the American Dream are bringing a renaissance of the cigar industry in Tampa by providing you with the finest cigars handmade by greatest artisans who truly love the craft.

I was born in 1978 to a really poor family in the outskirts of Havana. I'm not lucky enough to say my immediate family had farms or factories; we were pretty poor.  It is a wondrous thing that dreams can grow in such a situation, but the human heart is fertile ground regardless the circumstances that surround it.

Cuba is world renowned for her cigars. It is not just the tobacco that is produced there, it is also the craft of the artisan who makes the cigar. I was fortunate to witness these truths in person as a young boy. Growing up I was sent to visit a member of my extended family who had a farm in Pinar de Rio where they still grow tobacco today. It was during the summers spent amongst the fields and people of Pinar that a love for the way of the cigar was cultivated in me.

Even as a young boy I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur.  Something that was instrumental in shaping that desire was a movie I saw when I was six or seven. The movie was Baby Boom. The main character starts a business making and selling baby food. She starts it in her home in New York. The business became a big industry. That really caught my attention. Living in Cuba I couldn’t believe there was a country in which you could do things like that. To have a dream, to start in the kitchen of your house and to become such a big industry – this is wonderful. It is amazing. I wanted to see my dreams come true in America.

In school, every time that they ask me, ‘So Yanko, what are you going to do when you finish this or that?” I always said, “I’m going to America!”  They would say, “ Ah man, you always say that same thing that you are going to America.”

Well, I finally made it when I was sixteen. The first nine years I wasted in Miami by chasing the wrong dreams. I thought that what I was looking for was money, was riches and all that came with it. It took me nine years and eight different ventures, eight different ideas before I understood that what I was looking for was a purpose. The real dream was to feel that I had a purpose.

I remembered those fields from my youth and the beautiful way the artisans made the cigars. The vision of Tabanero Cigars was born. It is my American dream arising from my Cuban heritage. But how was I going to make my dream, my passion a reality?

One of my early ventures was a restaurant in the heart of Tampa, in Ybor City. I remember that on my breaks between lunch and dinner, I used to walk 7th Avenue. It was full of small boutiques. Every time I'd go into a small shop and try different cigars. I was astonished by the lack of consistency. On Wednesday it would taste like this and then on Friday it would be a different batch and it was a completely different taste. I thought, “Well, it looks like these people are treating their small business like a souvenir shop.”

So, I started to search in order to discover if there was a hand-made brand made here in Tampa. Whenever I asked someone the first word out of their mouths was Arturo Fuente or JC Newman.  However, Newman stopped producing hand made cigars in the 50s and switched to machine made. Arturo Fuentes left Tampa in late 70s and moved to Nicaragua. It didn’t work out in Nicaragua and they moved to the Dominican Republic. So there was no hand made brand in Tampa, Florida. That is when I became determined to start a brand to put Tampa back on the map as the premier place for the finest hand-made cigars.

Thus began the adventure of Tabanero Cigars. The first chapter of our journey began by opening a small cigar lounge by the airport in Tampa. It only lasted a year and depleted all my money. It failed. I fell. So, I took a break and started really small with one cigar roller in a little 120 square foot space.  After working with me for two weeks my only roller left because he said that I didn’t have enough clients coming through the door for me to pay him. I said to myself, “Well, what do I do now?”

But I was so sure of my dream and I was working so hard on my vision of having a hand made brand in Tampa that no obstacle was going to stop me. The feeling was so strong that God had been lining up every piece that I needed to make the dream a reality. He was putting together every piece to make the Tabanero brand the most famous brand in the world. My vision was clear. When people mention Cuba anywhere in the world, whether in Dubai, Paris, or Chicago they think of quality cigars. That is what I wanted for Tabanero. Wherever a person is located, whenever they think of fine hand-made cigars, they will think of Tampa and Tabanero.

So in that little space I grew to five rollers. I had to work outside because there was not enough room for me to work in the same place as the rollers. I realized that we needed a new location. We moved five times in a short span of time. At one location we were having our best sales when we were presented with a new opportunity. The owner of a new Cuban-themed nightclub approached me and said, “Yanko, would you like to have an opportunity to move to 7th Avenue?” I jumped at the chance. They put us in a corner of the nightclub where the patrons to the club could watch our rollers. We were doing good numbers from that corner and I thought we had finally arrived. But after six months the nightclub failed and someone called to tell me we had to be out by the end of the month. It was a difficult time.

People saw me pack all our stuff into a truck and they thought, “Well, that's the end of Tabanero.” I had to move into a house which we rented in Ybor Heights. It was a disappointing setback. So I prayed more earnestly and worked even harder on my vision. I would come to the four corners in the heart of Ybor each day for an hour and envision our store in this location. Then I would say to God, “I want to be on one of these corners. I don’t know where and I don’t know how. You know we don’t have the money, but God I want to be on one of these four corners.”

I wait patiently and patiently at the little house where we were barely surviving. One day a business owner approached me and said, “I have a place on 22nd across from the Columbia restaurant which has been in Tampa for a hundred and five years.” I said, “Well, that's better than a house!” So we moved over there and begin growing again. But I did not forget about my prayer to God to be located on one of the four corners.

My heart focused upon a storefront on Seventh avenue that was perfect. I called the landlord telling him I wanted to rent. He said, “No.” But I did not give up. I kept calling him. For four months, every week I would call him. At first, he would answer but after the sixth call he got really mad at me and said, “Please don’t call me anymore I said 'no' already.” I kept calling anyway and would leave a message saying, “This is Yanko Macedo and this is your weekly call. Please if you change your mind let me know – this is my number.”

One day I was overwhelmed by my passion for making Tabanero Cigars the best hand-made cigar boutique in the world. I called the landlord and left a voice mail from the bottom of my heart.  God knows it was from the bottom of my heart. I said, “Sir, you've been saying “no” for four months, but I really, really beg you that we meet face to face and allow me to share with you how we can infuse that corner with the right clientele. There have been bars at that corner forever and it has never positively affected your surrounding neighbors. Let me share with you how my clientele is going to help make that corner a destination point.” The next day at 8 a.m. I got a phone call from the landlord saying, “Ok Yanko, I want to hear what you have to say. I'll see you at 10 am.”

We met and he believed in our dream. So we are now in that location! I love it; I'm so blessed. Customers say to me, “You have a great location.” I respond, “No I don’t have a great location. I have the best location!” From Tampa, Florida we can save the world. If we are talking about cigars, there is not a location like this in Miami, there is not a location like this in New York, there is no location like this anywhere in the world. I am so blessed. Every time I write my check to the landlord I always put a note in there: “John, Thank You. Thank you for the opportunity. I can't thank you enough.” I do it every month.

When I reflect on where we are and remember from where we came – wow.  It is hard to believe that a kid from Havana, a kid with no schooling, could have such an opportunity and through hard work fueled by an unwavering belief in his dream come to this place. Well, that is my dream; this is my story.

Tabanero Cigars Are Better Than Cubans

Handmade by Trained Cuban Artisans

All of the cigars at Tabanero Cigars are handmade in the USA by Cuban Artisans. Every one of our Cuban Artisan rollers are trained in Cuba and come to the famous Ybor City for a chance to live out their dream!

Each cigar rolled at Tabanero Cigars is better than a Cuban cigar. Look next for a Cuban with a Made in the USA logo! There will never be a better cigar than a Tabanero. Find out for yourself here.

Ybor City Cigar Festival - November 19, 2016

Enjoy the 2016 Photo Re-Cap Below and We'll See You in 2017!

Tabanero Cigars - Featured on TV Show: Wild Travels

TV Show, Wild Travels makes a stop in Ybor City to learn more about Ybor's cigar heritage and passion that goes into cigar making at Tabanero Cigars. Click here to watch