J.C. Newman Cigar Company<\/a> prepping for Founder\u2019s Day celebrations
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The free event is scheduled for Saturday, April 25 at 2701 North 16th St. in Tampa from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
\nDrew Newman, a fourth-generation owner of the J. C. Newman Cigar Company, says he enjoys sharing the factory’s history, traditions and culture<\/p>\nThe company is preparing to celebrate their Founder\u2019s Day, offer free tours, cigar rolling demos, live music, food and drink.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we are on the third floor of the historic El Reloj Cigar Factory,\u201d said Newman. \u201cAnd this is where we roll cigars by hand, the same way my grandfather and great grandfather did a century ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hector Ciquera is also carrying on his Cuban family traditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandfather rolled cigars,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of history of the Cuban people that made cigars here. I love the history about the cigars.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company also has a museum gallery devoted to the history of cigar making. They took over their Ybor City cigar factory in the 1950s. They started tours just a few years ago \u2014 including the basement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t find basements very often in Tampa, but every cigar factory had one,\u201d said Newman.\u201cThat\u2019s because the consistent temperature and climate in the basement is perfect for aging and storing cigars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once made, the cigars age like fine wine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the cigars are rolled by hand, we bring them down here to our aging room, where they sit between six and 12 months. And they get better with time,\u201d\u00a0said Newman.<\/p>\n
A special vault holds the oldest cigars they own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love about them, you can put them next to a cigar Hector rolls today on the third floor and they look the same,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n
It all happens next to their archive room, holding historical artifacts from multiple factories. And all comes back to the leaves and the immigrants who made the factory and made Ybor City.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, by welcoming visitors to our cigar factory, we get to share the history, the traditions, the culture,\u201d said Newman.<\/p>\n
And the culture continues at the last cigar rolling factory in town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWalking into our factory is like stepping back in time,\u201d said Drew Newman, a fourth-generation owner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[28,2200,115,4094,7149,139,135,137,136,2032,7148,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-240995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-instagram-bn9","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-on-the-town","12":"tag-on-the-town-app","13":"tag-orlando","14":"tag-tampa","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news","17":"tag-trending-topics","18":"tag-virginia-johnson","19":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}