The Greatest Stogie Ever Rolled
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Wallace Reyes, co-owner of Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. in Tampa, wraps a section of the cigar he and his wife, Margarita, hope will set a world record Saturday at the Cigar Heritage Festival in Centennial Park.
JULIE BUSCH / Tribune
By PHILIP MORGAN The Tampa Tribune
Published: Nov 13, 2006
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TAMPA - Can't you just see it in a Tampa timeline?
•1824 - Fort Brooke established.
•1898 - Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders arrive.
•2006 - World's longest cigar completed.
If all goes as planned, that should be what a brief history of Tampa looks like after Saturday. That's when local master cigarmakers Wallace and Margarita Reyes will do the final assembly on their 101-foot-long stogie.
That's right, a cigar longer than a basketball court.
"The eyes of the world are going to be on this cigar," says Wallace, co-owner of Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co., a fourth-generation family business specializing in handmade cigars.
When it's completed at about 3 p.m. at the Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City, Simon Gold of Guinness World Records will measure it. If it passes the test, he'll christen it the world record holder. If no one else beats that record before next July, the feat should be recorded in the 2008 edition of Guinness World Records.
It must be of excellent workmanship, Gold writes in an e-mail, and someone will have to smoke it.
"Not all of it, of course," he writes, "but the organizers will have to prove that it is, in fact, able to smoke like a normal-sized cigar.
"I'm sure there will be a number of cigar aficionados who will be delighted to try."
Actually, Wallace explains, trying to draw a puff on a 101-foot-long cigar would probably make your eyes pop out. Random pieces will be cut and smoked.
Bringing the world record to Cigar City has long been a dream of the Reyeses, says Wallace, who was born in Puerto Rico, where his great-great-uncle started the business.
Margarita, a native of Chile who speaks little English, says they also took on the challenge to honor her father and her father-in law, both of whom died 12 years ago.
The Reyeses, both 53, have been working on the project for about two weeks in their cramped shop on West Columbus Drive, their two German shepherds sprawled at their feet. During the day, they make cigars for others; at night they work on what Wallace calls their "double, triple, extra super long Presidente."
Using $5,000 worth of tobacco - which also makes this the most expensive cigar ever, Wallace says - they turned out 12 8-foot sections and a 5-foot piece. Each is an inch in diameter, slightly thicker than the average cigar.
Wallace built special molds and an 8-foot box to hold the sections, which are being preserved in the coolers of Oliva Tobacco Co. in West Tampa.
He and Margarita will assemble the sections in a tent along 19th Street, connecting them head to toe - smoking end to lighting end - by adding the proper mix of tobacco filler and binder leaves and wrapping for a seamless finish.
"We're going to start at Ninth Avenue, going toward Eighth Avenue," Wallace says.
If the cigar beats the current record holder - a 66-foot-long smoke made in Havana last year by Jose Castelar - Gold will make the announcement on the spot.
The new champ will be cut into 6-inch pieces, each of which will be framed with a copy of the Guinness certificate and sold for $99 each, says Wallace. The dog-loving couple plans to donate the money to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay and the Ybor City Museum.
It will also be a legacy for 85-year-old Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co., which will close for good when Wallace and Margarita retire.
"It's the end of the road for the company. We always said if we're going to go, we're going to go with a big bang."
EVENT PREVIEW
Cigar Heritage Festival
WHAT: An annual celebration featuring cigar-rolling demonstrations and sales by major Tampa cigarmakers, food vendors, live entertainment, a charity beer garden, museum tours and more
WHERE: Centennial Park, Ninth Avenue between 18th and 19th streets in Ybor City
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday
ADMISSION: Free; www
.ybormuseum.org
Reporter Philip Morgan can be reached at
pmorgan@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7609.
