Oz Family Karatoba Toro Cigar

Oz Family Cigars was founded by Tim Ozgener, whose family established CAO Cigars before selling it to Swedish Match in 2007; he returned to the industry in 2022 after more than a decade away and today runs Oz Family Cigars as CEO in partnership with Crowned Heads. Karatoba, released in 2025, is the brand's fourth regular production line and its first collaboration with the NACSA factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The name is a portmanteau drawn from Ozgener's half-Turkish lineage: 'kara' is Turkish for black or dark, while 'Toba' refers to Indonesia's Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world and the ancestral home of the wrapper's Sumatra seed.

The Karatoba is built around a dark Ecuadorian-grown Sumatra-seed wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder, with long-filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. It is rolled at Nicaraguan American Cigars S.A. (NACSA) in Esteli, Nicaragua, the first factory partnership of its kind for Oz Family Cigars. All four sizes in the line, including this Toro, are given a soft box press and are packaged in 21-count boxes.

The Karatoba Toro opens with natural sweetness and gentle spice layered over soft earthy undertones, with honeyed sweetness and cinnamon defining the first half. The second half brings creamy earth and a syrupy richness, and the final third adds a refined dark chocolate tone. Blender Tim Ozgener describes the overall arc as a rich, lush profile evoking a hearty, well-seasoned bolognese sauce with a maple-syrup finish.

Reviewers describe the Karatoba Toro as a pleasurable anytime smoke, refined enough for experienced palates yet accessible for anyone seeking an inviting medium-bodied profile. At 6 1/2 inches it rewards an unhurried sitting of well over an hour.