CAO

CAO is the work of one man’s initials. Cano Aret Ozgener, an engineer born in Istanbul in 1937, started the Nashville company in 1977, first selling handcrafted meerschaum pipes, then humidors, before moving into cigars in the mid-1990s. The early CAO cigars were rolled in Honduras and Nicaragua with help from Néstor Plasencia and reached US shops in 1997.What set CAO apart was nerve. The brand built its name on bold marketing and concept blends, putting Brazilian tobacco in the Brazilia, Italian leaf in the Italia, and a hot-rod theme on the Flathead. Ozgener sold the company to Scandinavian Tobacco Group in 2007, and it now sits within General Cigar. CAO cigars still lean toward the rich and unconventional.