Aramas From Ozgener Making Debut Next Week
Tim Ozgener is keeping busy in his new venture. Not long after debuting his first brand in years, he is now coming out with Ozgener Family Cigars Aramas. The name combines the Turkish and Armenian names for a mountain that’s important to both cultures, reflecting Ozgener’s Armenian and Turkish heritage.
Ozgener intended to name the cigar for Mount Ararat, a mountain in Turkey that’s meaningful to Turks and Armenians alike. Ozgener’s father was Armenian, his mother is Turkish, and the mountain is pictured on the artwork for the cigar. In Armenian, the mountain is called Masis. Trademark issues kept him from using those names, so he combined the two to create his own name, Aramas.
The cigars are rolled in the Dominican Republic, by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, and the filler blend contains some Connecticut broadleaf, a somewhat unusual touch. The rest of the filler is Dominican and Nicaraguan. The binder is Ecuador Sumatra and the wrapper is dark, Mexican San Andrés.
“The cigars have been ready and aging,” says Ozgener, but packaging has delayed the launch. He intends to show them off to retailers at the TAA show next week in La Romana, Dominican Republic, although the cigar will not be a TAA exclusive. Aramas should ship by late April.
Like his first line, Bosphorus, the sizes begin with the first letter of the brand, followed by a number referring to ring gauge: A52 measures 5 inches long by 52 ring gauge and has a suggested retail price of $12.75; A55 is 5 1/2 by 55 and will retail for $15; A 54 (a torpedo, the lone figurado in the brand) is 6 1/4 by 54 and will sell for $13.75; and the A60 is 6 by 60 with a $15.75 price tag. They come in boxes of 20, and are round.
Ozgener describes the cigars as medium to full bodied.
