“If you Google ‘Cuban woman smoking a cigar,’ that looks just like my grandmother,” said Yvonne. The Rodriguez sisters source their cigars from a factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

To start, they would like to import 10,000 pounds of Cuban tobacco, enough to handroll 150,000 to 175,000 cigars. “We’ll take as much as we can get or as little as we can get,” Newman said.

The J.C. Newman Company in Tampa's Ybor City would like to import 10,000 pounds of Cuban tobacco, enough to handroll 150,000 to 175,000 cigars.

Cuban cigar sales jumped 9 percent to $401 million in 2011 as spending on luxury items increased in countries with stronger economies, Cuban cigar executives said on Monday.

It became a way for workers to educate themselves. It also helped spread the cause of Cuban independence at the end of the 19th century — political activism that led to temporary bans.

The J.C. Newman Cigar Company purchased a bale, which is stored in their Ybor City factory basement, prior to the U.S. government cutting off all business relations with the socialist nation in 1962.

They created their cigar business 10 years ago. Now, they’ve added Cuban espresso because cigars and coffee are better together.

They also purchased the H. Upmann name in Havana and were producing both brands. As with most Cuban cigar makers, Menendez and his family fled Cuba in 1960 after the communist revolution.

Buena Vista Cuban Café along Houston's Washington Corridor opened in 2023, bringing delicious island fare to the city courtesy of owners Roberto and Esther Diaz. But they also decided to add some ...

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — On this day 137 years ago, a cigar manufacturing business became the first place in Ybor City to roll a Cuban cigar. According to the J.C. Newman’s cigar museum, on April ...