位于坦帕市中心的時鐘雪茄廠（ El Reloj）從1910年開始就一直在生產雪茄，紐曼雪茄公司最近收購了一盒1906年出廠的奎斯塔·雷伊（Cuesta Rey）雪茄，這個文物比雪茄廠本身還要古老。如今這盒雪茄被放在了時鐘雪茄廠的三樓的雪茄博物館，在那里保管和展出。

雖然技術上這些雪茄還可以抽，但是過了116年，而且很長一段時間沒有保管在雪茄保濕盒里，雪茄的煙草味道肯定大為減弱。紐曼家族認為，把這盒雪茄放在博物館展覽，發揮的價值要更大。

這盒雪茄設計成一個體驗裝的雪茄包裝盒，裝著奎斯塔·雷伊當時的一個產品線Ponce de Leon。這個產品線是在美國卷制的，使用的是古巴煙葉，在那個年代這樣的做法很普遍。雪茄盒一共分為五個托盤，根據雪茄的形狀和尺寸不同，又分為20個隔斷，每個隔斷裝五支雪茄。

這種擺放樣品的展示雪茄盒是當時位于坦帕市的奎斯塔·雷伊公司制作，該公司委托一些推銷員到全國各地的零售商那里走訪，介紹展示盒里的20款雪茄。

這盒幸存下來的雪茄起初存放在德克薩斯州的一個干燥黑暗的地下室，雪茄的主人是一名達拉斯的男子，但是不清楚他最初從哪里得到這盒雪茄，他將雪茄送給了朋友拉爾夫·斯托（Ralph Stow）。斯托本來打算將這盒雪茄送去參加一次慈善拍賣，但是他在研究這盒雪茄的起源后，找到了J.C. 紐曼雪茄公司。紐曼公司1958年買下了奎斯塔·雷伊的品牌所有權。

斯托得知紐曼公司經營著一家雪茄博物館，他認為這是這盒雪茄最好的歸宿地。他向紐曼公司提出物物交換，這樣他可以繼續完成慈善拍賣的愿望。紐曼公司提供了兩件四英尺高的手工雪茄雕塑，和斯托交換了這盒古老的雪茄。斯托將這兩件雕塑用于拍賣，而將收藏的奎斯塔·雷伊雪茄交給了紐曼公司。

在20世紀大部分時間里，奎斯塔·雷伊是坦帕市銷量最大和最知名的雪茄品牌之一。19世紀末期，一名年輕的西班牙移民安吉爾·拉·馬德里·奎斯塔（Angel La Madrid Cuesta ）創辦了一家雪茄廠，并很快獲得了首屈一指的雪茄制造商的美譽。幾年后，他和佩雷格里諾·雷伊（Peregrino Rey）合作建立了奎斯塔·雷伊品牌。他們的雪茄引起了上流社會的關注。尤其是西班牙國王阿方索十三世（Alfonso XIII），他授予奎斯塔“西班牙國王和宮廷煙草供應商”的稱號。

J.C. 紐曼雪茄公司起初在克利夫蘭營業，后來搬到了坦帕市。1958年他們收購了奎斯塔·雷伊品牌。有一段時間，紐曼公司將這個品牌變成了一個機制雪茄品牌，即使如此，仍然是藥店和超市的暢銷品。最后，公司的負責人斯坦福·紐曼（Stanford Newman）選擇和老卡洛斯·富恩特（ Carlos Fuente Sr.）合作，委托多米尼加的富恩特雪茄公司生產奎斯塔·雷伊品牌，變成手工卷制。合作關系一直延續到今天。

如果你要參觀這盒歷史悠久的雪茄，可以前往時鐘雪茄廠。工作日的上午九點到下午五點半博物館都會開放。包含導游費用的門票價格是每位成年人15美元，而老人、學生和退伍軍人的票價是12美元。

JC. Newman’s historic El Reloj Factory, located in the heart of Tampa, has been producing cigars since 1910. But the combination cigar factory and museum has artifacts that are even older than the establishment itself—the company recently acquired a box of 100 perfectly pristine Cuesta-Rey cigars from 1906. The cigars were added to J.C. Newman’s three-floor museum where they will be preserved and displayed for future generations.?

Though the cigars are technically still smokeable, after 116 years (many of them spent outside of a humidor) the tobacco’s flavor has surely diminished. The Newman family decided their value was much greater as an exhibit at their growing museum.?

The box of cigars is a sampler’s case that features what was then Cuesta-Rey’s new line of Ponce de Leon smokes, which were hand-rolled in the United States with Cuban tobacco, as were many cigars from around the turn of the 20th Century. The display case carried 100 cigars in total, separated into five trays that were further denoted by sections of five based on the 20 different shapes and sizes the line of cigars came in. The display case was created by Tampa’s Cuesta-Rey Cigar Co., which commissioned a handful of traveling salesmen to visit retailers across the nation to introduce the new cigars. But how have the cigars fared so well after all this time?

J.C. Newman says a dark, dry basement in Texas played some part in the healthy survival of these smokes. A Dallas man kept them in his cellar for years, but it’s unclear for how long or where he got them from in the first place. Eventually, however, he decided to give them to a friend, Ralph Stow, who used the item in a charity auction to support Folds of Honor, a nonprofit organization that helps families of fallen and disabled service members obtain educational scholarships. Stow, who assists with the auction, soon decided that these smokes deserved a better fate than ending up in the hands of an individual.?

Stow began researching Cuesta-Rey which led him to J.C. Newman, who has owned the brand since 1958. Seeing that J.C. Newman operated a cigar museum, Stow quickly understood this was the perfect home for the sampler’s box. With the auction still in mind, Stow proposed a trade, the cigars in exchange for promotional items to be auctioned off in their place. Newman offered up two four-foot-tall hand-painted sculptures of cigars and Stow accepted.?

Cuesta-Rey was one of Tampa’s biggest and best-known cigar brands for much of the 20th century. Its history goes back to the late 19th century, when a young Spanish immigrant Angel LaMadrid Cuesta started a cigar factory and quickly garnered a reputation as a premier cigar roller. A few years later, he formed a partnership with Peregrino Rey and Cuesta-Rey was born. Their cigars earned them the respect of high society, particularly Spain’s King Alfonso XIII, who honored Cuesta with the title of “Tobacco Purveyor for the Spanish King and Court.”?

J.C. Newman, originally operating in Cleveland, was also a 19th century conception, so it was only natural that a few years after the company moved to Tampa they would purchase the Cuesta-Rey brand, which happened in 1958. For a time, Newman transitioned Cuesta-Rey into a machine-made brand, but it was still a huge seller in drugstores and supermarkets. Eventually, Stanford Newman, longtime patriarch of the family business, would collaborate with another industry legend, Carlos Fuente Sr., to transfer the production of Cuesta-Rey to Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia in the Dominican Republic, returning the brand to hand-rolled craftsmanship. The partnership between the families continues today and Cuesta-Rey remains a prominent brand for J.C. Newman after years of serving as its flagship cigar.?

To see the historic box of cigars yourself, visit El Reloj in Tampa, open to the public on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Guided factory tours are available for charge of $15 per adult and $12 per person for seniors, students and veterans.