Road Trip to Ybor City & Tampa

Finally made the road trip over to visit Cigar City Brewing Co. In Tampa yesterday and what a treat! For any craft beer junkie, this is the mother load! . They have some 2-3 dozen beers and ales on tap in the tasting room. With a preference for dark beers, I had 8 or so to choose from. A friend and I each had a sampler flight of 4 and my favorite was a Torcedores Series Andre's Baltic Porter, which was awesome! We then picked up a freshly rolled cigar from a resident torcedore, a rather attractive, friendly lady.
Later, we strolled across town to visit Tampa Sweethearts cigar shop. What a clean, attractive and well stocked shop! Everyone was friendly and made us feel at home. It was neat to meet Arturo Fuente, Jr., the owner. He helped us with some choices and explained the difference between the various lines of Fuente cigars. The Tampa Sweethearts are rolled by apprentice Torcedores, but are the same tobaccos used in the regular Fuente lines. The Flor de Ybor City cigars are made by more experienced rollers and are the cigars that Arturo personally enjoys daily. Among other goodies, I picked up a nice sampler of Anejos that included two Sharks. They have plenty of stock in Anejos, including sampler packs for very good prices. Excellent road trip that I'll be making again.

[Ogre]

Sounds like a great time. I have spent many an hour at Tampa Sweethearts.

[Remo]

Nice! Never made it when I was there, gives me a reason to go back

Originally Posted by Remo

Nice! Never made it when I was there, gives me a reason to go back

ROAD TRIP,

Have to get the FL gang together, kidnap Mike and do it! Anejos, beer, cafe con leche...mmm.

[Porch Dweller]

Good info, thanks! Both my wife and I have family around the Tampa-St. Pete area. One of these trips down there I want to spend an afternoon in Ybor City. I've been there just once before, for lunch at The Columbia (damned tasty and well worth it.)

A question: is the Cigar City Brewing Co. different from the Tampa Brewing Company? I was only aware of the Tampa and didn't know there was another brewpub down there.