Rick Rodriguez worked at General Cigar for 25 years. He trained under Benji Menendez before starting West Tampa Tobacco Company in 2022 with Gus Martinez.
While Rodriguez has built an extensive and impressive (cigar life) resume, he didn’t smoke his first cigar until he was forty. He talked with Cigar Life Guy about that first-smoke experience, the importance of keeping stories and tradition alive, and why he isn’t worried about cigar life ending any time soon.
Rick Rodriguez First Premium Cigar Experience
Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.
Rick Rodriguez: That’s a great question. I have been interviewed a thousand times, and one of the questions I’ve always thought about is, “When did you smoke your first cigar?” Amazingly, no one asked that question. Therefore, I had my first cigar the day I interviewed to work for General Cigar.
Dave Bullock, now the president of sales for Rocky Patel, interviewed me. He heard my story about my grandmother and grandfather coming from Cuba to Tampa to roll cigars. He worked for Nestle and said, “Hey, you need to sell candy bars for us.” And I said, “I’m not selling candy bars. I’m happy with the carpet business.“
He called me back two years later and said, “I’m working for General Cigar now.” But I had yet to learn what or who General Cigar was. I had been in a tobacco shop maybe twice when I was thirteen. So I said, “Perfect, we’ll have dinner.”
We had dinner, and he explained he worked for General Cigar and that my territory would be in Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. And I said, “You know what? You got your guy. I’ll take the job.”
After dinner, we took a walk. We were in Ybor City, and we saw a cigar shop. I walked in and bought two cigars: a Macanudo Hyde Park and an 858 from Fuente.
I gave him the Macanudo because he was a cigarette smoker, and he asked what I was smoking, and I told him, Fuente. He said, “In the future, only smoke their product when you get the job.” And I said, “I didn’t see any General Cigar.” Then he told me they own Macanudo, Cohiba, Hoya, Punch, and all these brands.
I knew all the brands he spoke of, but I thought they were all individual. So, my first cigar was an 858 in Ybor City, and I choked through that cigar. (Laughs).
Thank God I had felt a cold coming on at dinner, so I blamed my choking on the cold. He said, “It’s okay; you’re hired!” I received my first box of sample cigars the following Monday, and that’s the long story. I smoked my first cigar when I was forty years old.
Traditions in the Cigar Business
Cigar Life Guy: You worked for General Cigar Co. for 25 years. What’s it like starting your line?
Rick Rodriguez: Fascinating and very scary. I was very nervous about it. We knew what we were doing.
General Cigar teaches you everything about cigars. Without working for them for 25 years, there’s no way in hell I would have started West Tampa.
Because of their training, we knew we’d have a starting chance. Doors opened for us the day I announced, on May 2, 2022. We celebrated our second year this May.
I remember calling my first account and telling them I left General Cigar, and no questions were asked. It was, “Ricky, we’re in.” So, having that history and that trust was an asset. So it was terrifying, but we knew we had an upper hand.
A Look Back at Cigar Variety Evolution
Cigar Life Guy: You have been in the tobacco industry for a long time. What is your favorite aspect of the cigar business, and how has it changed over the years?
Rick Rodriguez: People. Travel is tiring, but when you can connect with people that is my favorite aspect. That has not changed.
If you look at cigars, there are many types, each varying in body, size, and brand, and I’ve seen that grow. But what I enjoy the most about cigar life is the people I meet, the people I have been friends with for twenty-five years, and the opportunities to share our stories.
Rick Rodriguez’s Biggest Cigar Industry Challenges
Cigar Life Guy: What is the cigar industry’s biggest challenge today?
Rick Rodriguez: Individual state taxes and the struggles with what we have to do with warning labels. Those are the scary things. As far as people enjoying cigars? The market is likely going to continue to grow. So, I see many younger people coming.
Tax and smoking bans in restaurants, bars, and sometimes shops… Those are the struggles I worry about. Other than that, I have no worries about tobacco, manufacturing, or consumers. I would not get Sara (Rogriguez’s daughter) into this business if I didn’t think it would be around for the next twenty years.
Building a Friendship
Cigar Life Guy: You partnered with Gus Martinez, another General Cigar Co. employee. What was that like, and how is it different being on the ownership end of the business?
Rick Rodriguez: I think we’re lucky. We grew not only a business relationship but a friendship along the way. We both worked at General Cigars but only had a little one-on-one communication. He was in the marketing, and I had my marketing guy.
When I saw Gus, we talked more about our families than we did cigars or business, so the friendship grew. When he said, “I would love to partner with you,” we knew the partnership would be magical because his kind of training was behind the scenes.
He can do the business and marketing sides; my side is the entertaining, the storytelling, the blending, and working with the factory. The perfect combination — a kind of yin and yang of a business partner worked for us.
Cigar Tradition and the Circle of Life
Cigar Life Guy: Your grandparents came to Tampa from Cuba in the 1950s as cigar rollers. What do you want the cigar world to know about this legacy, tradition, and its connection to your new line of cigars?
Rick Rodriguez: Don’t forget the stories. Once I finished training, I remember Benji Menendez said, “You think your job is to sell cigars for General? It isn’t. That’s the job of the salesman who will work with you. Your job is to keep these stories alive. Tell them about the history of General Cigars. Tell them the history of your family, your connection to Cuba, and why they moved to Tampa. Those stories connect to that cigar and connect to that fanbase.” You have no prayer if you have a cigar without a believable story.
Benji Menendez, who owned the H. Upmann Factory in Cuba, trained me. He sold cigars to Kennedy, so I understood the value of that.
Furthermore, these cigars are hand-rolled. So, there are no machines. As a result, the process is not something like seeing a car being put together in a factory by machines. So, connecting the stories, sharing those stories, and keeping the memory alive is so important.
Looking Forward with Rick Rodriguez
Cigar Life Guy: You introduced the Black, White, and Red cigars in your first year. What’s next for West Tampa Tobacco Company?
Rick Rodriguez: Circle of Life. We just introduced the new full-time line. We’ve been working on this project with Ernesto Perez-Carillo (EPC) for about six months. We need to ship it at the beginning of June. And we are very proud of this because it connects my kind of history, my story, and my journey in my tobacco life.
We chose Ernesto because he was the first person in the Hall of Fame to train me. I was trained by four Hall of Famers, but he was the first who took the time to train, and that’s why we connected.
He loved the story. There are three typical sizes that people will love: the Robusto, the Toro, and a 6×50. They range in price—without taxes—between 13 and 15 dollars.
The Final Wrap with Rick Rodriguez
Cigar Life Guy: Have we missed anything? Please tell us anything else you’d like the cigar world to know.
Rick Rodriguez: If you enjoy cigars, try our cigars! Enjoy our cigars. Even if you don’t smoke our cigars, please keep smoking cigars and loving this community of cigar smokers. It’s one of the only things you can do today in your life that will connect you to people.
You can go to restaurants or bars and meet one person, but go to any cigar shop and try not to meet five, six, or seven people. Our connection is impressive.
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Photo Credit: WTTC