In his wonderful article, "Cigar Overdose in Ybor City", Jack Boulware lives out every cigar lover's dream: an indulgent overdose of cigar history, cigar culture, great Cuban food and, of course, great cigars.

This is Cuba, right? Nope. He goes to the Cigar Capital of the World: Ybor City. AKA Tampa, Florida.

Jack describes Ybor (pronounced EE-borh) as a sort of cigar central, hosting the headquarters of numerous cigar companies and distribution corporations. The prices for cigars in Ybor are often half the cost of elsewhere, and smoking cigars is totally and completely acceptable, unlike his experience in his home state of California, where passers-by take a dim view of the practice.

After reading his article, we are packing our bags for our pilgrimage to the source.