El Septimo at InterTabac 2026: A Unique Cigar Box

There are a thousand boxes of Mi Familia in existence. There will never be another one made.

Zaya Younan named every cigar in it after someone he loves. His wife of 35 years. His children. Five different blends, five different vitolas, one box that celebrates the people who made the man.

Both of El Septimo’s new releases were introduced at PCA. In September they come to Dortmund, and this is the only chance Europe gets to stand in front of them before the allocation is gone.

I would tell you to go and look at the box. But you will not really understand what you are holding until you know where the man who made it came from.

Table of Contents

Mi Familia: One Box, One Family

One thousand boxes for the entire world. Made once, never again.

Twenty cigars in a single box. Five blends, five vitolas, two wrappers. Not variations on a theme. Five genuinely different cigars, each one named after a person Zaya Younan built his life around.

Sherry, his wife of 35 years, is a Lancero, 7½ x 40, in silky Connecticut. The hardest vitola in the world to roll well, given to the person who held everything together. Daniel, the eldest, is a Churchill, 7 x 47, in Maduro. William is a Toro, 6 x 54, in Connecticut. The steady one. Alexandra is a Grand Robusto, 5 x 56, in Maduro. The soul of the family. Andrew is a Robusto, 5 x 52, in Connecticut. The youngest, the future.

The leaf comes from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Honduras, aged five to ten years before anyone rolled it, then taken through the extended fermentation El Septimo built its name on. That process is why their cigars taste as clean as they do, and after smoking most of their range I can tell you it is not marketing.

Five blends of that quality in one box is something the industry almost never does, because it is expensive and difficult and nobody makes you do it. El Septimo did it once, for one reason.

You Have to Know Where He Started to Understand the Box

Five names on five bands does not sound like much until you know what those names cost him.

Zaya grew up in one of Tehran’s worst neighborhoods, in a one room apartment shared with his parents and five sisters. Polio had paralyzed his right leg as a small child, and he walked to school knowing grown men would be waiting for him. When a single piece of fruit came into that home, his mother cut it so every person got the same share.

At twelve he was told that if he could get himself to America, a school in Chicago would take him in. He did not ask anyone for the money. Every bicycle in the neighborhood was black, so he collected paint a local shop threw away and repainted bicycles for a few dollars each until he had the price of a plane ticket. He was thirteen when he landed in Chicago with twenty five dollars in his pocket.

That is the man who has now put his wife and his children on five cigar bands. Once you know that, Mi Familia stops being a limited edition and becomes something closer to a signature at the bottom of a life.

The full story is here: The Story of Zaya Younan and El Septimo

Why This Box Is Different

Zaya and Sherry could have afforded any help they wanted. They raised five children without a nanny, on purpose. Sherry ran the house and the children while Zaya worked twelve and thirteen hour days, seven days a week.

He explained it to me in one sentence. If life is too easy for the children and they do not learn from us, they will never make it the day we are gone.

That is what is sitting inside this box.

Most of us buy a box because we want the cigars. You open this one and you are looking at a marriage that lasted, children who were raised properly, and a name somebody built from nothing.

Put it on a shelf and it does something no cigar is supposed to do. It reminds you to call your father. It reminds you what you are working for. It reminds you that the name you carry is worth more than anything you can buy with it.

There are a thousand of these. Some will be smoked, some will be given to sons, and some will never be opened at all. Whichever you intend, you cannot decide later. Once these thousand are placed, that is the end of it.

Queen Sheba Series II: The Conquest Edition

Queen Sheba went from launch to worldwide demand in barely a year. Rather than extend the line, El Septimo built a new one.

Series II Conquest Edition is a completely new blend in a Toro, 6 x 54. El Septimo describes cocoa, roasted coffee, spice and a subtle sweetness, finishing smooth and balanced. Not a sequel. An escalation.

For retailers, this is the easy decision. A brand your customers already ask for by name, a new blend built to bring them back, the most requested format on the shelf, and packaging that sells before anyone reads the band. Early production is expected to move fast, which makes Dortmund the place to secure it rather than after.

Why You Need to Walk Into Hall 7

You cannot get this from a photograph, and you will not get it from me.

You get it standing in front of the box while the people who lived that story tell it to you.

InterTabac 2026, Messe Dortmund. September 15 to 17. El Septimo. Hall 7, Booth 7.B47.

Three days. One thousand boxes on this earth. Then it is finished.

Walk past that booth and you will read about Mi Familia later. Walk into it and you were there when it started.

FAQ

What is El Septimo showing at InterTabac 2026?

Two releases that debuted at PCA and now reach Europe: the Mi Familia collection and the Queen Sheba Series II Conquest Edition.

What is El Septimo Mi Familia?

A box of 20 cigars built from five blends, five vitolas and two wrappers, each cigar dedicated to a member of Zaya Younan’s family. Limited to 1,000 boxes worldwide, produced only once.

What sizes are in the Mi Familia collection?

Lancero 7½ x 40, Churchill 7 x 47, Toro 6 x 54, Grand Robusto 5 x 56 and Robusto 5 x 52.

What size is the Queen Sheba Conquest Edition?

A Toro, 6 x 54, with a completely new blend rather than a continuation of the original Queen Sheba.

Where is the El Septimo booth at InterTabac 2026?

Hall 7, Booth 7.B47, September 15 to 17 at Messe Dortmund.