The 2025 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show was the fourth one for Oz Family Cigars. Company founder Tim Ozgener has used each of those PCA Trade Shows to introduce a new release. 2025 would also see Oz Family Cigars release its fourth regular production, Karatoba. This would be a very different release for Oz Family Cigars.
The Karatoba is a cigar with a Dark Sumatra wrapper. Originally, Ozgener was intending to call this “Black.” One reason for this was not just the dark wrapper, but also because CAO Black was Ozgener’s first release during his CAO days. After seeing the name “Black” on several other releases, Ozgener decided to go in a different direction. The name Karatoba is an amalgamation of two other words – Kara and Toba. Kara comes from Turkish and translates to “dark” or “black.” Toba refers to Lake Toba, a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of the Toba super volcano.
Karatoba is different because after releasing its first three regular production lines (and limited edition lines) with Casa Carrillo, this time Ozgener turned to the NACSA factory to make Karatoba. NACSA has already been working with Crowned Heads, for which Ozgener serves as President.
Interview with Tim Ozgener, Oz Family Cigars
Our interview with Tim not only discusses the Karatoba, but a fun tradition we have is that we ask Tim to do impressions of some cigar industry personalities.
Product Reports
Photo/Media Credits: Cigar Coop
