TAMPA — As a bigwig for one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, Rick Rodriguez travelled the globe in support of CAO Cigars.
When Rodriguez told a cigar aficionado that he was born and raised in Tampa, the reply was typically the same.
“Whether I was in China or Europe, even if they couldn’t point out Tampa on a map, they replied, ‘Cigar capital of the world,’ ” the 63-year-old said. “We haven’t really been cigar capital in more than 50 years, but people know that history.”
Rodriguez retired from CAO in April after 24 years with the company, most recently as their top blender — or cigar chef — as he called it.
He returned to Tampa to launch West Tampa Tobacco Company, which produces cigars that tell the city’s history and his family’s connection to it.
“These aren’t just cigars,” said Sara Rodriguez, his 31-year-old daughter and business partner. “They are ways for us to tell stories.”
That will be done through art on the labels and cigar boxes, written accounts inside the cigar boxes, and online videos.
“Each cigar has a QR code on the foot band,” Sara Rodriguez said. “Take a picture of that and you’ll be sent to a video.”
West Tampa natives might recognize the symbol on the label of the West Tampa White and West Tampa Black, the company’s inaugural cigars, produced in Nicaragua.
“It’s the logo for West Tampa Little League,” Rodriguez said. “Growing up, I was either at that ballpark or at the Boys Club around the corner. I think every neighborhood kid did the same thing. Little league and the Boys Club are our childhood stories.”
West Tampa Tobacco Company also has a line of cigars titled the Attic Series, which will tell tales that have been locked away inside Rodriguez’s mind, or what he calls his attic, he said.
The cigar’s inaugural label has a drawing of a chaveta, which is the knife that rollers use to cut the tobacco wrapper leaf. The box art showcases that same chaveta leaning against a chair in an attic.
Future cigars will focus on more nuanced stories of Tampa, Rodriguez said, but these initial ones emphasize his family and their tobacco origin story.
According to the written story inside the West Tampa White cigar box, “The seed for West Tampa Tobacco Company was planted in 1953? when his grandparents, Emanuel and Olga Rodriguez, “both highly respected master cigar rollers, heeded the call of the U.S. They left behind the glamour of Havana for U.S. shores, seeking to capitalize on the booming cigar business of West Tampa.”
The chaveta featured on the Attic Series is a replica of the one that his grandparents brought from Cuba, Rodriguez said.
He followed in his grandparents’ footsteps, first as a salesman with CAO.
“I did that for about four years,” he said. “Then they pulled me from sales to train me as a blender. I became the head chef of cigars. Tobacco is like food. If you want steak, I know the right amount of garlic, salt, pepper and other ingredients.”
He left CAO primarily for the opportunity to work alongside his daughter.
“She graduated college and then traveled the world,” Rodriguez said. “When she told me that she wanted to come home and work with me in the family business, I couldn’t wait to retire from a major corporation to do something together.”
The father and daughter remain coy on what future stories they will tell, saying only that labels could include an airplane and white pants.
“They’ll have something to do with Tampa and our ancestry, but you’re going to have to wait to know what those symbolize,” Sara Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez promises, if future cigars disclose more about West Tampa Little League, he won’t embellish his skills.
“I was a shortstop, and my glove was beautiful,” he said with a laugh. “But I couldn’t hit a thing.”
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
