COO: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Ecuador Havana 2000
OZ Family Cigars’ Bosphorus blend is named after the Bosphorus Strait that separates Europe from Asia in Turkey.
The cigar is rich, box-pressed, and complex: featuring a Havana 2000 seed Ecuador wrapper, a double-binder — Connecticut seed, Ecuador, and Nicaraguan Jalapa — and a trio of sweet & savory Nicaraguan fillers from Esteli, Jalapa, and the volcanic island Omotepe. The result is a dense cigar with an explosion of flavors. The cigar begins as spicy and bold, with notes of black pepper. Then it settles in with a dessert-like quality, layering the palate with notes of cocoa powder and coffee, balanced by secondary annotations of nutmeg, leather, and wood, culminating in a finish that smacks of toffee.
The cigar recently got two 93s, a 92, and a 90 from Cigar Aficionado, making it the Ozgener family’s highest vertical rating in their over 40 years in the tobacco business. This award-winning blend is made at Tabacalera La Alianza in Santiago, Dominican Republic, under the watchful eye of Cigar Aficionado Hall-of-Famer Ernesto Perez-Carrillo.