CAO Cigars: A Turkish Engineer, a Nashville Basement, and a Flathead V8

From meerschaum to Nicaragua

The through-line in every CAO product is design. The company built its reputation in the 1990s and 2000s on cigars that looked like nothing else on the shelf and were named like nothing else either, and that instinct came directly from an engineer who had spent a career thinking about how objects are made. Ozgener's children joined the business: Aylin as national sales manager, and his son Tim, who became president in 2006.

Cano Ozgener died on 9 June 2018, aged 81. Tim Ozgener left CAO in November 2010 after the business moved to Richmond, Virginia, and returned to the industry in 2022 with Ozgener Family Cigars, debuting the Bosphorus line at the PCA trade show that May.

Who owns CAO now

ST Cigar Group acquired CAO International effective 1 January 2007. In late 2010, following the merger that created Scandinavian Tobacco Group, operations moved from Nashville to Richmond and General Cigar Company assumed control of the brand.

On 2 February 2026, STG reshuffled its US premium portfolio between two houses. CAO stayed with General Cigar Company, alongside Macanudo, Hoyo de Monterrey and Excalibur, and was joined there by Partagas, Room101 and Don Tomas, which moved in. Going the other way to Forged Cigar Company were Cohiba, Punch and Havana Honeys.

Those three were the only brands to join Forged in 2026. Bolivar, Diesel and La Gloria Cubana had been Forged brands since the house was created in February 2021, and Alec Bradley since 2023. This gets reported backwards constantly, so it is worth stating plainly.

Every CAO line we carry

Flathead: hot rods and a squared-off head

Flathead is the cigar that made CAO's design instinct impossible to ignore, and it remains the best-selling CAO brand. The concept is 1930s and 1940s American automotive culture, and the execution is thorough. The cigar is hand-shaped into a hard box press with a flat top, a visual pun on a flathead engine. The box lid is a removable engine cover meant to be mounted on a wall. Every vitola gets its own band color rather than one band across the line.

The frontmarks are engine parts. The V prefix denotes the engine block, then length and ring gauge: V660 is six inches by 60 ring, V770 is seven by seventy.

The blend is unusual for a Nicaraguan-made cigar: an American Connecticut broadleaf wrapper over an American Connecticut Habano binder, with a filler built on Dominican piloto cubano ligero and Nicaraguan ligero. Two ligeros in the filler is what gives it the weight. Made at the STG factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

We carry the Flathead V660 Carb and the Flathead V770 Big Block.

Pilón: named for the fermentation pile

A pilón is the stacked pile of tobacco leaves used in natural fermentation, the traditional method in which the weight of the stack generates heat and the pile is turned by hand as it works. CAO named the line for the process and built it round-fermented and box-pressed depending on the size.

The core Pilón blend is an Ecuadorian Habano viso wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, at medium strength. Viso is a priming designation: the leaf between seco and ligero on the plant, carrying more flavor than seco without ligero's weight. Line sizes are Corona 5.5 x 44, Robusto Extra 5 x 52, Toro 6.25 x 54, Gigante 6 x 60 and Churchill 7 x 49.

There is also a Pilón Añejo, a separate and fuller line built on a Cuban-seed Ecuadorian wrapper with a Honduran binder and a Nicaraguan and Dominican filler, made at STG's Danlí factory in Honduras. It launched in spring 2023 and returned as a full-time line, in Robusto 5.5 x 54, Toro 6 x 52 and Gigante 5.9 x 60.

We stock the Pilón Toro box pressed and the Pilón Robusto Extra. Call us if you want to confirm which fermentation and which factory is in the box currently on our shelf, because Pilón and Pilón Añejo run side by side.

BX3: three Brazilian leaves

BX3 released in July 2022 and the name is the recipe. Three of the components are Brazilian: a Mata Fina wrapper, an Arapiraca binder, and Brazilian leaf in the filler alongside Honduran, Mexican and Nicaraguan tobacco. Made at STG Estelí. Medium to full.

Brazilian tobacco is not common as a wrapper and it tastes distinctly different from Habano or Connecticut seed. Mata Fina, grown in the Recôncavo region of Bahia, gives a dark, sweet, cocoa-and-earth character. Arapiraca, from Alagoas, is thicker and more assertive and works well as a binder. Line sizes are Robusto 5 x 52, Toro 6 x 52 and Gordo 6 x 60.

We carry the BX3 Robusto and the BX3 Toro.

Brazilia: the Bahia original

Brazilia predates BX3 and takes the simpler route: a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. Medium to full, sweeter and more chocolate-forward than the Nicaraguan-wrapped alternatives at the same strength. The vitola names are all Brazilian: Samba 6.25 x 54, Amazon 6 x 60, Lambada 6 x 50, Box-Press 5.25 x 54, Gol! 5 x 56, Corcovado 4.25 x 60 and Minis at 3.5 x 20.

We stock the Brazilia Lambada 6 x 50 and the Brazilia Gol! 5 x 56.

The wider CAO catalog

CAO has released a lot of cigars, and a lot of them are still findable. Names worth knowing:

World series: America, Amazon Basin, Brazilia, Colombia, Italia, Nicaragua, Zócalo, Orellana, OSA Sol.
Modern: BX3, Flathead, Flathead Steel Horse, Pilón, Pilón Añejo, Session, Consigliere, Bones, Vision, CX2, LX2, MX2, CAO 60, Arcana Firewalker, Speed Shop, Stokk, Thunder Smoke.
Classic: Signature Series, Gold, Gold Maduro, Cameroon, Maduro, Criollo, Black, Concert, La Traviata.
Flavours: Moontrance, Bella Vanilla, Eileen's Dream, Gold Honey.

Notable scores beyond the Flathead: CAO Zócalo took 91 points at halfwheel on a Mexican San Andrés Morrón wrapper with a Cameroon binder, and the BX3 Robusto took 88.

Wrapper, binder, filler, and the leaf names

The wrapper (capa)

The outer leaf, and most of the flavor. Across the CAO lines: Connecticut broadleaf, Ecuadorian Habano, Brazilian Mata Fina, Brazilian Arapiraca, Mexican San Andrés, Cameroon and Nicaraguan leaf.

Wrapper shades, palest to darkest: Double Claro / Candela Claro Colorado Claro Colorado Colorado Maduro Maduro Oscuro

Primings: where the leaf grew on the plant

Written phonetically the top leaf comes out "lahero" or "lejero"; the word is ligero, lee-HEH-roh. The other terms you will meet are the capa or wrapper, the capote or binder, the tripa or filler, and the pilón itself, the fermentation stack this line is named for.

Sizes, vitolas and the box press

Length in inches by ring gauge, ring gauge being diameter in 64ths of an inch. A 7 x 70 is seven inches long and 70/64 of an inch across.

A box press is a cigar pressed square rather than left round. CAO uses it heavily. It changes two things: the flat sides sit differently in the hand and the mouth, and the compression tightens the bunch, which usually means a slower burn and a slightly more concentrated draw. The Flathead takes this furthest with a hard press and a squared-off head.

What we taste, from our own humidor

Flathead V660 Carb

The one that earned the 95. Cold draw is cocoa and cedar. It opens on dark coffee and molasses with a broadleaf sweetness that arrives early and stays, and the two ligeros show up as weight rather than harshness. Because it is hard box pressed, the draw is tighter than a round 60 and the burn is slower. Around ninety minutes. Cut it square across the flat head.

Flathead V770 Big Block

Seven by seventy is a lot of cigar and this is one of the few that carries the size. Same flavor as the Carb, broader and cooler, and it will take two hours. Needs a wide cutter.

Pilón Toro

Lighter than the Flathead by a good margin. Toasted grain, a dry cedar note, black pepper on the retrohale that fades by the halfway mark. The Ecuadorian Habano viso wrapper is doing the flavor work and the Nicaraguan core keeps it earthy rather than sweet. A good afternoon cigar.

BX3 Robusto

Distinctly Brazilian and you notice immediately. Cocoa and dark bread up front, a raisin sweetness in the middle, and an earthiness underneath that the Mexican and Honduran filler contributes. Fuller than the Pilón, sweeter than the Flathead.

Brazilia Lambada

The simplest cigar on the list and one of the more satisfying. Chocolate and coffee from the Arapiraca wrapper, black pepper from the Nicaraguan filler. Burns clean. Good value.

Brazilia Gol!

Shorter and fatter at 5 x 56, so the flavor concentrates faster. Same profile, more of it, less time. Roughly an hour.

Pairing, cutting, storage

Flathead wants bourbon or a heavy stout. Brazilia and BX3 take espresso, port, or a rum with real sugar to it. Pilón is the one you can put next to a lighter whiskey or a beer without losing it.

Box-pressed cigars need a straight cut across the flat, and the wide ring gauges need a cutter rated past 60. See our cutters and lighters. Store at 65 to 70 percent relative humidity, 68 to 70 degrees. A box-pressed cigar will slowly round out in a humidor over months, which is normal and does not hurt the smoke. Our humidors and humidification range covers it.

The bottom line

CAO is the brand for people who like the object as much as the smoke. The Flathead is genuinely excellent and genuinely cheap for what it is, which is a rare combination and the reason it stays the best seller. BX3 and Brazilia are the most interesting Brazilian-wrapped cigars in general distribution. Pilón is the everyday one. Start with the Flathead V660 Carb and work outward.

Keep exploring

Same house, General Cigar: Macanudo · Hoyo de Monterrey · Partagas
Sister company, Forged: Cohiba · Punch · Bolivar · Diesel · La Gloria Cubana
If you like the Flathead: Camacho · Perdomo · Espinosa · Foundation

For adults 21+. Please enjoy responsibly.

Cigar Inc. · 21900 Burbank Blvd UNIT 265, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 · 1 818-719-9885 · Info@Cigarinc.com