Smoked: Ozgener Bosphorus 52

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Ozgener Bosphorus 52 features a smooth, dark Ecuadorian Sumatran wrapper with nary a vein to be found – nice. Soft, squeezy, box-pressed beauty. You have to love the cigar band – elegant.

Flavor profile: Cream, cedar, pepper, nuts, mild chocolate/cocoa, some fruit (hard to identify), sweetness like honey and allspice. Some of what I taste could be characterized as caramel – something I rarely taste in cigars. I’m thinking of pairing it with a Speyside Scotch – a Macallan or The Balvenie Doublewood 12. There’s a nice rich complexity and well balanced flavors.

The construction was near flawless until around the halfway mark. Then the burn line became uneven. It hit a soft spot, tough to keep it lit. Touchups didn’t help. Huffing and puffing, hot boxing it for awhile until it finally recovered and I was able to smoke it again. Ignition recovered. Houston, we no longer have that construction problem. Well, the cigar is relit. But, as is so often with relights, this stick has lost much of its flavor from the relight, the soft spot and the hot boxing.

Perhaps this cigar needed some more time in the humidor. Or I just got an oddball rolled stick. I’ll have to try this again sometime because I really enjoyed the flavor until hitting the soft spot.