El Septimo Cigars: Every Collection, Size and Price

El Septimo is the deepest brand in our catalogue and the one we are asked about most. It was founded in 2005 by Gilles Botquin, a French cigar distributor, and acquired in early 2019 by the Younan Collection, with Zaya S. Younan as chairman and chief executive. The cigars are made in Costa Rica, at the factory halfwheel identified at the time of the acquisition as Pure Aroma Cigars S.A., the former D'Crossier facility.

This is the whole house in one page: every collection, the sizes and the published blends, the Sheba releases, the accessory range, and what we actually see across a very large amount of stock. Start browsing at the El Septimo collection.

The company, and who owns it

Gilles Botquin founded El Septimo in 2005. In early 2019 the brand was acquired by the Younan Collection, part of the Younan Company, and Zaya S. Younan has led it since as chairman and chief executive. The company presents itself as El Septimo Geneva and its live domain is el-septimo.com.

El Septimo does not publish a named master blender. We say that plainly because several retailers name one, and none of them cite a source.

Four ways into El Septimo

The most approachable sizes across four different expressions, at the lower end of the range.

Why Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a rare origin for premium cigars. It has no long tradition in the category the way Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras do, which means every decision about an El Septimo is deliberate rather than inherited. Our Costa Rican cigars collection is very short for exactly that reason.

Where El Septimo publishes a blend, it is usually multi origin rather than a puro. The Zaya Nueva Reserva, a 5 by 54 robusto in a run of 15,000, uses a Costa Rican wrapper over a Dominican binder with Nicaraguan filler. The Alexandra Collection is the exception: its Coco at 5 and 5 sixteenths by 52 and its Marilyn at 5 and one eighth by 58 use Costa Rican wrapper, binder and filler throughout, making them genuine Costa Rican puros.

Every collection

El Septimo organises its cigars into named collections rather than into strength tiers, and each has its own collection page with us.

Alongside those, we carry a run of cigars named for places and their drinks: Spain Rioja, France Bordeaux, Italy Toscana and Japan Nigori. They are among the most approachable El Septimos we stock and a sensible first purchase.

The Emperor Collection, size by size

The Emperor Collection was released at the 2022 trade show in boxes of twenty, and it is the most systematically documented part of the range.

The Napoleon at nine inches is a genuine occasion cigar, and the salomón shape, tapered at both ends, changes character across its length. Compare it against the rest of our Salomón collection.

Emperor and Sacred Arts

Sheba, and the naming that confuses everyone

This is the single most misunderstood corner of the range, so here it is plainly. The Empress of Sheba arrived in 2023 as a 6 by 60 gordo. The Queen of Sheba Conquest Edition Series II followed as a 6 by 54, with an Ecuadorian habano binder and filler drawn from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua; its wrapper is not disclosed.

The cigar we list as the Empress Sheba Toro is the Queen Sheba Conquest Edition Series II. Same cigar, two names in circulation. And the boxes are 28 count, not the 14 or 20 that several sites state.

We mention it because getting this wrong is how people end up ordering the wrong box.

The limited editions

Three releases are worth knowing by name.

Vartan the Dragon is a 6.75 by 58 presidente in 999 boxes of eight, with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Dominican binder, and filler from Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, aged fifteen years.

Mi Familia is a five cigar set sold as a twenty cigar presentation in 1,000 boxes: Sherry's 7.5 by 40, Daniel's 7 by 47, William's 6 by 54, Alexandra's 5 by 56 and Andrew's 5 by 52, over an Ecuadorian Criollo binder with Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian and Peruvian filler. Pennsylvania and Peru together in one filler is genuinely unusual.

The 20th Anniversary Doble Gran Reserva, a 6 by 52, marks two decades of the house.

The top of the range

For the presentation sets and gifting formats, see El Septimo gift boxes.

Humidors, lighters, cutters and the S.T. Dupont line

El Septimo makes a full accessory range, and it is a substantial part of what we carry. The published categories include marble and acrylic humidors, ceramic Safari Collection ashtrays, rose gold and gold double guillotine cutters, double jet torch lighters with a built in punch under the Gilgamesh name, four in one punch sticks, and travel tubes.

The Presidential Collection sits above those: 18 karat gold lighters set with ruby, sapphire and emerald, and humidors faced in six stones, tiger's eye, mother of pearl, red jasper, malachite, amethyst and lapis lazuli, over Spanish cedar interiors.

Browse them by category: all accessories, humidors, Royal Collection lighters, Royal Collection cutters, ashtrays, Authentic Skins and travel.

Separately, El Septimo and S.T. Dupont built a capsule collection together, announced in March 2024: six Ligne 2 lighters with six matching Line D Eternity pens, named for El Septimo's own lines including Alexander, Augustus, Napoleon, Raphael and Yao. We carry it in the El Septimo x S.T. Dupont collection, and the full story is in our S.T. Dupont profile.

One practical note. The El Septimo lighters are torch lighters, which makes them the right choice outdoors, where the soft flame lighters from Brizard and Co. are not.

What we notice first-hand

We hold 229 El Septimo SKUs, 175 of them in stock and 123 of them boxes. That is not a boast so much as the reason this page exists: we see more of this brand than anyone, and a few patterns are consistent.

The first is that El Septimo rewards patience more than most. These cigars arrive tightly packed and they read hot if you smoke them straight out of a shipment. Two weeks in a stable humidor changes them noticeably.

The second is about where to start, because the price range here runs from the teens to well over a hundred dollars. Start with a Spain Rioja Robusto or a Japan Nigori rather than with a limited edition. They are the same house style at a fraction of the commitment, and if you do not like them, the expensive ones will not convert you.

The third is that the large ring gauges genuinely suit this brand. The Double Shot at 3.75 by 68 and the Bomba at 6.5 by 60 are extreme formats, and El Septimo builds them well, with an even draw that a lot of makers do not manage above a 60 ring gauge. If you have written off big cigars, these are the ones to retry.

The full El Septimo range, live

Browse all El Septimo

The bottom line

El Septimo is a young house with an unusual origin, a serious accessory business, and a range that runs from an everyday robusto to an 18 karat gold lighter. Start low, rest what you buy, and move up through the Emperor Collection before you look at the limited editions.

If you want help choosing, our Cigar Finder narrows it quickly, and we know this brand better than we know any other.

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