WORLD RECORD IN TAMPA!
November 19 – In Tampa, Florida, Wallace Reyes and his wife Margarita master cigar makers, completed successfully their world-record attempt to make the longest cigar in history yesterday Saturday, finishing a 101-foot-long cigar at the Tampa Heritage Festival in Ybor City.

The Reyeses created the giant cigar – 101 feet long, approximately an inch thick (64 ring) and 53 1/2 pounds to mark the 85th anniversary of their Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. Counting labor and materials, the cost of the single stick was about $5,100; the project required about 76 hours and 36 minutes in total. For this challenge they were assisted by 14 volunteers specially trained.

The record-setting cigar overwhelmed the previous longest-ever by an amazing 34 feet. The world's longest cigar record had been held by Cuba's Jose (Cueto) Castelar, who put together a 67-foot cigar in Havana in 2005. Assuming no one creates a longer cigar, the Reyes's record cigar will be acknowledged in the 2008 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Tampa holds now two records, "Capitol Cigar of the World & World's Longest Cigar." The Guinness World Records office here in London will confirm the record this week.

The Super Cigar...