Casa UBA Cigars

If you take cigars seriously and you're anywhere near Tampa, Casa UBA Cigars is a place you need to know about. Ask anyone who smokes around here and Bill's name comes up fast. He owns the shop, and the word around town is that his knowledge of wraps, wrappers, sizes and blends is about as deep as it gets. People who shop here swear by the way he'll sit down, pour you a coffee, and talk you through picking a cigar that matches your palate.

Angel is another familiar face behind the counter, and folks say the service from either of them is hard to beat. The heart of this place is the hand-rolled cigars, made with Cuban seed tobacco and rolled, as regulars describe them, with a superb draw and flavorful, well-aged smoke. There's a house blend of mint coronas that visitors like to grab in bundles, plus the Crown Estate line that people rave matches the quality of just about anything on the market. You've got single selections to enjoy on-site or bundles to take home, and a private humidor door with more to explore.

One local put it plainly: the humidity in Bill's humidor is kept just right, which keeps the natural oils alive and the smokes tasting the way they should. As one three-cigar-a-day smoker said, these are his best daily smoke. You can light up right there inside the shop, coffee in hand, which makes it an easy hang. It sits in the La Teresita Supermarket plaza, and plenty of people treat it as their way to skip the drive to Ybor.

The prices come up again and again, described as local, reasonable, and honest, the kind where you're paying for quality and not the branding. Casa UBA sits among the highest-regarded cigar shops in the Tampa area, and it earns that easily. They ship too, and more than a few regulars admit the shipping is so quick they rarely make the trip in person anymore. If you're a cigar smoker in Tampa, this one's worth the visit.