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Industry night · Tampa, FL

The main cigar roller at Carlos Fuente Jr.’s 70th birthday in Tampa

Black tie in Tampa, with Arturo Sandoval playing. He was brought in as the roller for the night.

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Franklin with guests in white dinner jackets at the celebration
1 of ~28hands trusted with the Opus X — the same ones at your partyCigar Journal, 2016
6 minfrom loose leaf to a cigar in your guest’s handHis own words
150+nights that ended with the room around his tableFranklin’s own count

Before the party

Two days inside El Reloj

Before the party there was the blend. In April 2024 he spent two days inside El Reloj, the J.C. Newman Cigar Company in Tampa, opening the bales in the tobacco warehouse “to make sure that I was making the right and special blend for my mentor the Tampa Boy” — Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr., the man he credits with bringing him into the cigar world. They met in 1996.

The night

Black tie in Ybor City

The celebration was on Saturday, April 27, in Ybor City, and he was there, in his words, as “the main professional cigar roller.” It was black tie, with white dinner jackets, and Arturo Sandoval played. The day before, he posted that the Dominicans from Santiago were “Ready for the Tampa Boy Birthday PARTY.”

He wrote afterwards that it was “the first time that a humble Tabaquero has celebrated a tremendous Birthday Party with this kind of Levels” — seven decades, he added, of a man giving love and support to everyone, and the night he finally received it back.

I am very excited and very honored to be invited as the main professional cigar roller for the celebration of the responsible person who has bring me to the Cigar World.
Franklin PichardoPosted April 28, 2024

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The Opus X years

Trusted with the Fuente Opus X—At the Fuente table since 1995—Formula 1 Miami’s official roller—Featured in Cigar Journal—Chosen by Hublot, Tudor and Bell & Ross—

The same hands can be at your event

Franklin Pichardo has been rolling since 1995, the year Arturo Fuente released the first Opus X — and he is one of the few in the world the family cleared to roll it.

See how he earned them

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