A few days ago, Jeff Lipton, owner of Bobalu Cigars in Austin, posted up a promotion that Bobalu was running. I noticed he had only a few posts in the time he has been a registered user of CG, so I sent him a pm, suggesting that he post a greeting and tell us about Bobalu. Jeff is a busy man (more on that later), and he answered back that as much as he would like to be more active on the site, his work schedule did not allow much interaction on our site, or any other cigar site (there are others???
). I offered to meet up with him and see what his shop was all about, and he graciously offered me some time to hang out, check out the shop and tell me about Bobalu. I called Jeff to let him know that I could be up at the shop earlier on Saturday than we had planned, and he invited me to lunch with him and his marketing guru, Steve Rosenbaum. Lunch? Well alright then! The three of us had a great lunch, got to know each other a bit, and then headed to Bobalu's new shop on Burnet Rd. in Austin. Steve and Jeff gave me a grand tour, showed me a limited production cigar called the Elluminati that they were about to release, and gave me a Bobalu Sun Grown grand toro to smoke while we sat down to chat some more. We discussed Bobalu Cigars, which has been around for 20 years, and produces over 26 different blends, all their own. Jeff has tobacco stored here in Austin, and in warehouses in Pennsylvania and Miami. The shop only sells their brand of cigars, and they roll a selection of the lineup right there in the shop. They also roll cigars for over 200 events around the country every year, and wedding parties are very popular with Bobalu. I watched the Elluminati being rolled (a video link is included here), which is a boxed cigar, with a torpedo head, and a figurado foot, which is very difficult to produce (see pics below). Jeff has rollers from Cuba, most of whom rolled cigars for Romeo y Julieta. I knew about Bobalu before this day, but I did not know that they were actually producing their own cigars, rolling a good portion of the lineup here in Austin, and that they only sold their brand. There is so much more that I am leaving out, but this post is long enough for now! More will be coming from Bobalu for us Cigar Geeks, as Jeff and Steve are very interested in doing promotions designed just for us geeks! I bought a bunch of cigars, and after having the Red Sun Grown, I am looking forward to trying them all. If you are looking for a boutique cigar, made by a small, honest and genuine cigar manufacturer, then Bobalu Cigars should definitely be on your list. Check out their site, and give em a try!
Elluminati video...WATCH THIS!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIwoEUD7MY