Cuban Cigar Maker for a New Guinness Record

[KevinG]

Cuban Jose Castelar Cairo (also known as Cueto), who has won the Guinness record several times for the world's longest cigar made by a single cigar maker, will try to beat his own record with a gigantic cigar of over 65 feet.

More info and video here.

[CRider]

What kinda draw do ya think a cigar that long would have?

[JAX]

65 foot cigar!?!?!?

[anton]

Jeez. By my calculations it would take me at least 130 hours to smoke that, but that doesn't take into account any increased diameter which I'm sure it has.

[Dayve]

Imagine a plug 37' into your cigar >.<

[KevinG]

You guys crack me up.

[Madmike]

yeah but we are talking like 20 FEET of SWEET SPOT....

[Cycleman]

Looks like they failed....



The Associated Press

Published: May 7, 2008

HAVANA - Looks like it will be close, but no giant cigar, for Cuba's stogie-rolling king Jose Castelar.

The former world-record holder has teamed up with five assistants, using nearly 93 pounds of top-quality tobacco to assemble a 98-foot cigar.

Castelar set Guinness World Records for the world's longest cigars in 2001, 2003 and April 2005, when he completed a stogie measuring 20.41 meters, just shy of 67 feet. On Tuesday, he said he is shooting for a fourth title.

Castelar, 64, who learned the art of making cigars from an uncle at age 5, is likely to fall short this time: Guinness says Puerto Rican cigarmaker Patricio Pena crafted a whopping 135-foot stogie last year.

Competition from cigar rollers in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico is stiff but friendly, driving Castelar to keep rolling.

"I'm working to take it to the maximum," he said. "We'll be back in two years with a longer one."

Still, in a colonial fortress across the bay from Havana's main drag, his team is now crafting a cigar so long and so thick - more than 2 inches across - it can never actually be smoked.

It will have taken five eight-hour days of work before this stogie is ready for unveiling Friday at an international tourism fair, Castelar said.

Hand-rolled cigars are one of communist Cuba's signature products. The island sold $402 million worth of them last year, with top markets in Spain, France, Germany and Switzerland. The United States is excluded because of its trade embargo against the island.

In 2006, the Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. brought the record to Tampa with a 101-foot cigar.

[JAX]

So I wonder what happens with the cigar now?

[Cycleman]

Originally Posted by JAX

So I wonder what happens with the cigar now?

The one in Tampa, they chopped into sections and sold them for 99 bucks a piece.