PCA 2022: Xhaxhi Bobi

If there was an award for “happiest person to be here,” it would be Bob de Goede of Xhxahi Bobi. de Goede is a Dutch man who has lived in the Dominican Republic for more than two decades and has worked a variety of jobs—more on that in a bit—one of which is making cigar boxes for cigar companies. After doing that, he eventually decided to make cigars for himself and they eventually made their way over to the U.S.

The name Xhaxhi is Albanian for “uncle,” which de Goede was given after working at a mine in Albania. Yes, working at a mine in Albania. As he explains in the video below, de Goede went to another Dutch man in the Dominican Republic—Hendrik Kelner Jr.—to make some cigars for him and the rest is history.

I’ve seen de Goede a few times this year and he’s always smiling, always happy and his cigar brand seems to really encapsulate that. The packaging is a bit whimsical, but de Goede is very clear about one serious thing: he is going to put the name of the factory that made the cigar on every cigar band. For better or worse, he wants you to know where the cigars came from.

Here in the U.S. the brand is distributed by Vlada Stojanov, who also distributes Casdagli and Lampert, which explains why Xhaxhi Bobi was in the booth. I must say, of the three, de Goede also gets the award for being the most organized, which I suppose you probably need to be if you once managed a mine in Albania.