J.C. Newman Cigar Company

J.C. Newman Cigar Company is more than a place to buy a cigar in Tampa. It's a working factory in Ybor City, housed in the beautifully renovated El Reloj building with its rooftop sign, and locals will tell you it's one of the most beloved cigar destinations in the whole area. Ask anyone who's taken the guided tour and they'll go on about it: two hundred years of tobacco and cigar-making history, a museum full of artifacts, and hand rollers working upstairs crafting cigars the traditional way.

Even folks who walked in on a random Thursday afternoon come out talking about how blown away they were. The tours are the heart of it, but there's plenty more. For added fees you can roll your own cigars in a hands-on class or sit down for a tasting course, and both come highly recommended even for seasoned cigar people. One name that keeps coming up is Holden, a tour guide and rolling instructor people describe as patient, funny, and deeply knowledgeable.

We've heard he can make a first-timer feel like a connoisseur by the end. The whole crew comes across less like employees and more like part of the Newman family, genuinely proud of the place and happy to answer any question about the cigars in the humidors. The gift shop on site is where you'll find the cigars themselves, and there's a deep bench of house lines to explore: Diamond Crown, Cuesta-Rey, Brick House, Quorum, El Baton, Perla Del Mar, La Unica, Julius Caeser, and the El Reloj and Tampa Smokers labels among many others. There are fun accessories and gifts too, and word around Tampa is the prices are fair and well worth it.

If you're a longtime aficionado or someone who's never smoked a cigar in your life, people who visit swear by this place. Put J.C. Newman on your list.