Ozgener Family Cigars Bosphorus B-55

Something that gets talked about regularly within the cigar business is that people never seem to leave. For the longest time, Tim Ozgener served as a rare example of someone who actually exited the cigar world. Yes, there were rumors that Ozgener—the former head of CAO—was a partner in Crowned Heads, but those died down after Crowned Heads established itself and Ozgener stayed away.

Earlier this year, I heard that Ozgener was planning to return to the business, something that seemed confirmed by a trademark filing for “Ozgener Family Cigars” that appeared in the spring. I emailed Ozgener and asked him about it, and he said he was just protecting the name but sidestepped the question of coming back. At that time, I figured at some point, Ozgener would be back.

So it was of no surprise earlier this year when Ozgener announced his return. Ozgener Family Cigars launched this summer with two different blends and distribution through Crowned Heads.

Bosphorus is the main line, a four-vitola offering that is named after the Bosphorus Strait, a reference to a waterway in northwestern Turkey, the country where both his parents were born. It uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper over two binders—one an Ecuadorian Connecticut and the other an undisclosed varietal grown in Jalapa, Nicaragua—along with fillers from the Estelí, Jalapa and Ometepe regions of Nicaragua.

• Cigar Reviewed: Ozgener Family Cigars Bosphorus B-55
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera Pichardo
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Sumatra)
• Binder: Ecuador (Connecticut) & Nicaragua (Jalapa)
• Filler: Nicaragua (Estelí, Jalapa & Ometepe)
• Length: 5 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 55
• Vitola: Robusto Extra
• MSRP: $13.50 (Box of 20, $270)
• Release Date: August 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Ever since I saw the press release for Ozgener Family Cigars, I’ve been intrigued by the bands and all of the colors used. I’m not in love with the font, but the overall appearance is eye-catching. My favorite part of the band is the scenery that is on its back side, which is going to be more or less missed by most people since it is on the back parts of the sides of the band. This is a box-pressed cigar that even in its most subdued form is an aggressive box press, but one cigar has one of the most extreme presses I’ve ever seen. As shown in a photograph at the bottom, the press is so aggressive that’s there’s a small cylinder running down one of the sides of the cigar, almost like the burr of a knife’s edge. While there’s a lot going on visually and a medium dark brown wrapper, there’s not really much oil to speak of on the wrapper, though it does feel soft to the touch. The aroma from the wrapper has lots of barnyard and leather, while the foot has barnyard over cocoa and some coffee beans. Cold draws have barnyard, nuttiness, earthiness and cocoa. In two cigars, I find the resistance on the cold draw to be somewhat open.

The first puff of the Ozgener Family Cigars Bosphorus B-55 delivers gritty earthiness over some sunflower seeds and a weird grassy flavor, though there’s also a bright, fruity flavor. After just a couple of minutes, the profile has changed quite a bit. It retains a chewy texture that it had from the start, but I find a sweeter profile led by some graham cracker-like carbohydrate flavor over nuttiness, red pepper, leather, a more pedestrian earthiness, cedar and white pepper. The finish is crisper than the main flavor with nuttiness and creaminess before transitioning to white pepper, black pepper, cedar and a toasted earthiness. There’s also a mild underlying sweetness, though here it is a more generic sweetness than the fruitiness found in the first puff. Retrohales have lemon, earthiness, white pepper and meatiness. The finish gets a touch saltier and grittier thanks to the mineral flavor along with a generic earthiness, white pepper and creaminess. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. Construction is pretty good, though one cigar has a slightly open draw.

While the flavor’s intensity increases to full, the number of flavors I am able to taste decreases. There’s nuttiness, earthiness and some herbal flavors—but I no longer taste much in the way of sweetness and pepper. The finish has leather, creaminess, some of the graham cracker flavor from earlier, now with honey, and each flavor is much more intertwined than before. Retrohales have lots of bread, leather, saltiness, earthiness and some strawberry sweetness. The finish has black pepper, saltiness and earthiness—a mixture that is not as exciting as the main flavor. On two cigars, there’s a chili pepper that I taste on my lips. The feeling starts right around the halfway mark of the cigar and lasts for about 20 minutes. Flavor is full, body is full and strength is medium-full. One cigar’s open draw remains my only real issue with the construction, though I also notice that the burn line is super thick.

I find the Ozgener Family Cigars Bosphorus B-55 to settle down a bit in the final third. It’s not that the second third was aggressive, but it’s a much softer profile as the cigar comes to an end. There’s still earthiness, saltiness, creaminess, cedar and white pepper, but there’s now also acorns and pizza dough. The finish has a honey sweetness, citrus, leather, meatiness and a touch of barnyard. As I get closer to the end, the pizza dough flavor increases in intensity. Retrohales are substantially smoother than before with flavors of meatiness, peanut shells and oak. Notably, there’s no real pepper. Or at least there’s no pepper until a touch of black pepper emerges in the finish of the retrohale. There’s also saltiness, meatiness, some bread feathers, lime skin and some leather. Flavor is full, body is full and strength is medium-full. All three cigars need help from the lighter to get to the finish line.

Final Notes

• Tim Ozgener was the former president of CAO, a role he left in 2010 after General Cigar Co. absorbed CAO into its portfolio. His father, the late Cano A. Ozgener, founded CAO as a pipe company but eventually expanded to cigars. In 2007, the Ozgeners sold the family business to Scandinavian Tobacco Group, which was a different company than the Scandinavian Tobacco Group of today.
• One of the biggest misconceptions is that “General bought CAO.” What actually happened is that CAO was sold to Scandinavian Tobacco Group, which had already purchased two factories that made CAO cigars earlier. At the time, that Scandinavian Tobacco Group didn’t have much presence in the premium cigar business and was a competitor to General Cigar Co., which was owned by Swedish Match. Eventually, Swedish Match spun off General Cigar Co. and merged it with the old Scandinavian Tobacco Group to form the new Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Given that General Cigar Co. was the larger cigar company, CAO was moved into the General portfolio.
• Since then, Tim has been involved with OZ Arts, an art center he and his father founded in the old CAO headquarters in Nashville.
• Ozgener Family Cigars doesn’t appear to have a working website at the moment. This is something that I imagine only works when most of your clients already know who you are and you are a “new” company.
• While I don’t think most cigar smokers today would be able to make this connection, the Ozgener-owned CAO produced some of the more elaborate cigar bands of the day. The CAO Odyssey is one of my favorite bands from that era, released in 2000.

• This was the extreme press, which only occurred on one of the four angles of the cigar. It was so crisp, almost like a heavy starch job at a dry cleaner that went awry. What’s odd is that the band also had this indentation, meaning that someone looked at this cigar and determined it was good enough to ship.
• The cigar performed fine, but it’s obvious that it’s not supposed to look like this.
• For those wondering why Crowned Heads is the distributor: Mike Conder and Jon Huber—Crowned Heads’ co-founders—worked at CAO when Ozgener owned and ran the company. Ozgener has also been a silent partner in Crowned Heads, though now that’s no longer silent.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was one hour and 50 minutes on average.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co. and Famous Smoke Shop carry the Ozgener Family Cigars Bosphorus B-55. Cigar Hustler does not list the B-55, but does sell the other sizes.