Tampa, Florida EUA

Two master cigar makers in Tampa, Florida, plan to enter the Guinness World Records by assembling on Saturday a 101-foot-long cigar, according to a report by Philip Morgan in The Tampa Tribune. The current record is apparently held by Jose Castelar, who produced 66-foot-long cigar in Havana last year.

The recorder-challenger, currently in 12 eight-foot lengths and one five-foot length is due to be assembled by local master cigar makers, Wallace and Margarita Reyes, as part of the Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City.

If they are successful - the cigar has to be measured and tested in the presence of a Guinness World Records official - and if nobody makes a longer cigar by July next year, they will be included in the 2008 records book.

Wallace, co-owner of Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co, a fourth-generation family business specializing in handmade cigars, calls their creation, which is about an inch in diameter and which contains tobacco worth about $5,000, a "double, triple, extra super long Presidente." Can be also consider the most expensive single cigar ever made.

The giant cigar will be cut into 6-inch pieces, each of which will be framed with a copy of the Guinness certificate and sold for $99, with the proceeds being donated to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay and the Ybor City Museum.

For information contact cigarman@cigaroftampa.com or visit www.worldslongestcigar.com