PCA 2023: Ozgener Family Cigars

While this might only be Ozgener Family Cigars’ second PCA Convention & Trade Show, if I had to guess, this is probably Tim Ozgener’s 32nd trade show. Ozgener spent most of his cigar career at CAO, the company his father founded. While he stuck around for a few years after the company sold, he’s spent most of the last decade sitting on the sidelines of the cigar industry. Not that I had any doubt, but spending 15 minutes with Tim Ozgener at an event like this leaves zero doubt about his credentials in the cigar industry: Tim knows most of the people here and goes “way back” with lots of them.

Ozgener Family Cigars is distributed in the U.S. by Crowned Heads, a company that was founded more than a decade ago by two former CAO employees. Ozgener is also a co-owner of Crowned Heads, though he was a silent partner for years. As such, the two companies share a booth. I remember various iterations of Crowned Heads’ booths—the cowhide chairs stick out—but it’s clear the company’s booth has grown up. I can’t help but wonder if Tim’s experience running OZ Arts, a Nashville-based art foundation, has a little bit to do with this booth layout: products are displayed in cases that look very reminiscent of a stereotypical art gallery.

There’s no real separation between the Ozgener and Crowned Heads parts. One display will have one company’s products, the next will have the other company’s products. Unfortunately, the lighting in these booths is generally quite bad for photographs, though the one new product that Ozgener has is properly lit.

Pi Synesthesia Red

What does the color red taste like? That’s the question that this cigar answers. Pi Synesthesia is a follow-up to the Pi Synesthesia (Yellow) that debuted last year. As Ozgener explains in the video below, he wanted to create a cigar that tasted like the color red, which likely means pepper and spice. This is a completely different blend than the original Pi Synesthesia, and is also made at Tabacalera La Alianza S.A., a different factory compared to the original. The Pi Synesthesia part of the name references an art series created by the late Cano Ozgener, Tim’s father. After selling CAO, he created OZ Arts, a Nashville-based art institute that occupies the old CAO headquarters. In addition to his work at OZ Arts, Ozgener was a prolific painter.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Sumatra)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua

• Pi Synesthesia Red (6 x 52) — $15 (Box of 12, $180)

Production: 2,500 Boxes of 12 Cigars (30,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: September 2023