El Septimo’s Empress of Sheba Heads to Stores

El Septimo’s lone new cigar release of summer 2023 is now shipping.

Last Friday, the company began shipping the El Septimo The Emperor Collection Empress of Sheba. It’s a 6 x 60 gordo that uses tobacco from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Nicaragua, though the company isn’t specifying what is used for the wrapper, binder or filler.

The MSRP is set at $20 per cigar and it comes in boxes of 20 cigars. Interestingly, it will be offered in three different box colors—white, purple and green—part of El Septimo’s new “Choose-Your-Color” packaging program.

“I was asked by a dear friend to design a cigar that reflects on the rich history and culture of African Americans, said Zaya Younan, ceo of El Septimo, in a press release when the cigar was announced in June. “Before we started to design this cigar, we wanted to find a powerful person in African history to be part of our Emperor Collection. The search ended soon when we learned the history of Queen Sheba.”

El Septimo launched the Emperor Collection in 2022 with 10 different cigars honoring notable historical figures like Alexander II, Caesar Augustus, Napoleon and Yao. The Queen of Sheba is a figure in Judaism and Islam as well as Ethiopian and Yemenite cultures. The kingdom of Sheba is believed to have existed in modern-day Egypt and Yemen.