Move Over Havana, Bobalu Cigar Company Has Got You Beat!

Legendary John Boblu getting ready to take a titan-sized puff

I consider myself to be a junior cigar-connoisseur: A little Cohiba here, a dash of Romeo y Julieta there, and I can generate enough flashy conversation to please any noble tobacco patron. Yet as I wandered into the Bobalu Cigar Company, located on the historic Sixth Street district in Austin, TX, it was necessary for me to not boast myself with such immature delusions. The best thing to do was to follow the good ole advice some shmuck named Socrates once told me between puffs: "The wisest thing a man can know about cigars is that he knows nothing." (Ok, I mixed it up a little, shoot me.)

Now don't expect to actually find any Cuban made cigars at Bobalu's, unfortunately that's still illegal. In this quaint little shop you will find "a huge stock of great-tasting cigars from the most exotic tobaccos to the largest selection of shapes, sizes and blends available anywhere north of Havana." Offering unique tobacco designs ranging from military to wedding occasions, Bobalus remains the Super Walmart of the Southwestern cigar world, except without all the corporate greed.

The wide variety of tobacco styles isn't the key to the Bobalu's sucess but the Cuban handrollers who roll your tobacco right in front of you. If 6th St. is too far of a drive, the company offers online orders and live webcams of the guilded rollers at work. I reccomend though stopping by in person to get that special first-person glance of a top notch smoking-product being made. Remember, the journey to the cigar's inception is just as important as the first puff.

My personal reccomendation? Well the closest country to Cuba is the Dominican Republic, so literally the closest thing you can get to a Cuban cigar is Bobalu's Dominican Cameroon Maduro: Black Label. It's just perfect for the someone who has minor smoking experience but knows the difference between quality and inferior tobacco. Also with Austin being the capital of Texas, it is necessary to suck down one of their Texas Select cigars as you reside in the cultural center of the Southwest. When you head to Bobalu's you have my permission to make the same mistake Kramer did during his smoking binge in "Seinfeld": In this instance, the Bobalu Cuban tobacco-rollers are actually better than cigars from Cuba. Smoke up!

Bobalu Cigar Company
509 E 6th St
Austin, TX 78701

Check out Bobalu's website at http://www.bobalucigarco.com/ or their live roller cams at Livecigarrollers.com