If you ever found yourself scurrying down some city sidewalk in the rain, just wishing you could duck into a comfy nook for coffee and a cigar until the weather cleared, your wish could be fulfilled with a visit to Tabanero Cigars in Tampa, Florida. And if you had never before encountered a Tabanero cigar from the house of Maceda, your visit would prove all the more eye-opening and consequential. Tabanero makes good cigars, which have won the company’s lounge in Tampa a passionate following; and with Tabanero’s growing online presence, word about the cigars is beginning to spread.
Tabanero founder and owner Yanko Maceda, 46, immigrated from Cuba in 1994 at the age of 14. He spent his first nine years in Miami “chasing money any way I could”—working as a cook, taking on construction jobs, trying a hand for several years at his own rain gutter business. Entrepreneurship is a strong current running through Maceda’s life. Always, he had dreamed of life as an engineer, or a business owner. He never found time for engineering school, and cigar lovers can just be glad that he took the business route instead.
At age 23 Maceda decided on a move to Tampa, where he found a cigar culture and history that felt inviting, with an open business climate that seemed to offer realistic prospects. It proved the ideal place for a young native-Cuban cigar lover in search of purpose to answer the call of the cigar industry. So it was that Maceda seized his purpose on the day in 2010 when he first started manufacturing cigars.
He explains that Tabanero is “kind of a made-up word.” Maceda, as a Havana native, can properly be called a “habanero,” only he substitutes the H with a T in tribute to his adopted home town, the historical cigar center of Tampa. Tabanero Cigars is located right in the heart of Ybor City at 1601 East 7th Avenue, and it has proved a true asset to the neighborhood—a peaceful haven where cigar people commune in 70-degree climate-controlled repose seven days a week year round over Cuban-style coffee with no hard alcohol, music, or TV sets to complicate the vibe. This is a place where, as Maceda likes to put it, “We believe in the enjoyment of craftsmanship that lets you stop time, reflect on life, and plan the future ahead.” In short, Tabanero Cigars is something of an old-fashioned venue: a space for convivial discourse among thoughtful grown-ups. Keith Pelaez, a local regular who has been hanging out at the lounge for years, says, “It’s just a great place to come, relax and have conversation and a cigar. It’s not like a noisy sports bar. Tabanero gives us a peaceful place to unwind.” The lounge can accommodate 60, but most days at any given time there are perhaps only a dozen, or maybe 20, customers present.
Maceda can reach into his humidors and offer any size, hue or flavor cigar your heart desires, as long as it is one of his cigars. This is a Tabanero-only cigar retailer.
Much has been made of the designation “boutique,” but however you define the word, Tabanero’s yearly output of only about 80,000 cigars places it easily in the category. Still, the steady foot traffic the lounge attracts, and the growing online sales of Tabanero Cigars, have afforded Maceda a gracious lifestyle—a beautiful home and a measure of security for his growing family. And the business has enabled Maceda to branch out into some international ventures, notably in Estelí, Nicaragua, where Maceda currently has the Esteban Disla factory rolling his brand. Maceda has purchased a part-time home in Estelí and opened a CNC box-fabricating firm there. Already, he has box-making contracts with the Joya de Nicaragua and La Familia cigar factories. Furthermore, he is scouting properties and developing plans for a cigar factory of his own.
One thing at a time, of course. But Maceda, being in the prime of his strongest years, can only be expected these days to keep the cogs tumbling. This brings to mind the word “momentum,” a word that Maceda has been experimenting with for several years in search of an apt marketing descriptor. It is no accident that Tabanero’s latest cigar release is called the Momentum, a medium-bodied maduro available in Toro and Robusto sizes. (See our review of the Momentum Robusto, which follows.) Distinctly, while nearly all Tabanero cigar bands conspicuously proclaim the family name Maceda, the Momentum’s band does not. This is one offering Maceda wishes to hold slightly apart for potential marketing purposes. (Always thinking ahead.)
For years, Maceda kept a few rollers busy crafting his cigars in the shop window in Tampa, but his recent move of all production to Nicaragua gave Maceda easier access to skilled cigar labor and opened a way for Tabanero to ramp up production. At present, we count 34 separate cigar offerings on the company website tabanerocigars.com. They range the gamut of vitolas and come in mild, medium and full-bodied flavor profiles. The company website lays out the cigars intelligently, making it easy for users unfamiliar with the brand to find exactly the style and blend of cigar they want, at the desired price point. Tabanero’s Connecticut wrappers come from the state of Connecticut. Other wrappers include Ecuadorian Sun-Grown Habano, Mexican San Andrés Maduro and Sumatra Rosado. Fillers include Nicaragua, Jalapa, Condega, San Andrés and Ometepe. (Maceda has a special soft spot for Ometepe. See our feature on the tobaccos of Nicaragua’s Ometepe Island, “Roots of Tradition,” p. 54.)
MSRPs for singles range from $10 for a Momentum Robusto to $59.99 for a Patriarch Double Robusto Box Pressed draped in sun-grown Havana Oscuro. The majority of Tabanero cigars are priced from $12 to $15, making them a solid retail value. Tabanero’s biggest seller is the $12 Robusto Connecticut. Worth mentioning: The website emphasizes that Tabanero cigars are “100% Drawmaster tested.”
Maceda says he is not seeking vast riches in the cigar industry, just a position to call his own. In truth, what he has already achieved could give satisfaction for a lifetime. But in the recesses of any active mind, a certain momentum becomes inevitable, and so the dreams keep arising: of a second lounge in north Florida, and yet a third, perhaps in Texas; and Maceda soon wishes to explore the possibilities that Broadleaf tobacco can bring to his products. He doesn’t want to break his stride. Ideas and dreams are what propel entrepreneurs. They fairly animate Yanko Maceda, who knows that sheer momentum can bring life its most intriguing possibilities.
Cigar merchants wishing to open an account with Tabanero can expect attentive support, same-day shipping and keystone pricing (even a bit lower for the Momentum). Ask for sales manager James Collins or general manager Karen Sewell to get the ball rolling. Collins says, “We just brought Tony Gomez onboard as a field rep, and we’re eager to put him to work.” Call Tabanero Cigars at 813-402-6316 or visit tabanerocigars.com.
– Story by William C. Nelson. Photography courtesy of Tabanero Cigars.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 2, 2025. To receive a copy of this magazine, you must be a current PCA member. Join or renew today at premiumcigars.org/membership.