Zaya Younan Brings El Septimo to Little Havana: Inside Tonight's Event at Neptune Cigars

MIAMI, FL. September 25, 2026. Tonight, Neptune Cigars' flagship Little Havana superstore will host one of the more notable brand nights on Miami's cigar calendar this fall: an in person appearance by Zaya Younan, Chairman and CEO of El Septimo Cigars, running from 4 to 8 PM at the store's location on NW 7th Street. The event pairs a rare face to face audience with one of the industry's most polarizing luxury figures with a live jazz set from Miami saxophonist Manny Echazabal, a combination that says as much about where the premium cigar business is headed as it does about tonight's guest list.

Why Zaya Younan's Visits Matter

El Septimo isn't a typical boutique brand working the regional store appearance circuit. Founded in France in 2005, the brand built its early reputation using tobacco grown in Costa Rica, a country largely overlooked by the mainstream cigar industry, producing blends primarily for European and Middle Eastern markets. That changed in 2019, when French cigar distributor Gilles Botquin's Costa Rican made brand, produced at the former D'Crossier factory, was acquired by Younan Collection, a holding company best known for its real estate portfolio.

Since then, Younan, whose company specializes in facilitating the luxury lifestyle through hotels, golf courses, wineries, and resorts, has repositioned El Septimo as a full throttle ultra premium play, aggressively pushing into the U.S. market it had largely skipped for over a decade. At the time of the acquisition, Younan announced the brand offered a collection of some 30 different lines and stated plainly that the company planned to roll El Septimo out to U.S. markets.

The brand has leaned hard into spectacle to make that entrance. At the 2022 PCA Trade Show, El Septimo Geneva grabbed headlines less for its new Emperor Collection of ten blends and more for a set of lighters priced at $5.5 million. It's a strategy consistent with how Younan talks about the business itself: "We do things for our passion and not profitability," he told TobaccoBusiness.com. "When you do things for the passion, profitability always arrives later."

That philosophy extends to accessibility efforts too. In 2022, El Septimo partnered with Privada Cigar Club's Limited Cigar Association to release the Zaya Nueva Reserva, a cigar Younan said was created because everyone, regardless of financial status, should be able to try an El Septimo at least once. That 5 inch by 54 vitola was aged seven years before assembly at El Septimo's high altitude Costa Rican factory, built with a Costa Rican wrapper and Dominican and Nicaraguan binder and filler.

Younan has also positioned El Septimo publicly around social causes within the cigar trade. The brand's Emperor Collection includes a line called Empress Sheba, named for the first queen of Africa as part of a release the company says was designed to celebrate Black history and culture, and Younan has spoken about the brand's work supporting Black owned lounges entering the U.S. market. Whatever one makes of the marketing, it's clear El Septimo treats in store appearances like tonight's as core to the brand's identity, not an afterthought, which is precisely why an evening like this is worth covering rather than skipping.

The Venue: Neptune Cigars' Little Havana Superstore

Tonight's event unfolds at one of South Florida's most significant retail cigar addresses. Neptune's Little Havana location occupies 5,000 square feet at 3050 NW 7th Street in Miami, a short distance from Miami International Airport, and stands as the largest cigar shop in Miami Dade County. The company has operated in online cigar retail since 1999, and its brick and mortar stores are known within the trade for pairing deep inventory with detailed shelf information: origin, pricing, and tasting notes posted alongside nearly every box.

Store nights like this one are part of a broader pattern for the Neptune brand. At its sister Pinecrest location, the company hosts a monthly event on the first Friday featuring a cigar maker in person, giving customers a chance to meet the people behind the tobacco they smoke, complete with live music, food, drinks, and specials on the featured brand. Tonight's Younan appearance follows that same format, elevated by the scale of the guest and the setting: Little Havana itself, the Calle Ocho corridor that has served as the cultural and, historically, industrial heart of Miami's cigar trade since Cuban exiles rebuilt their livelihoods there after 1959.

The Soundtrack: Manny Echazabal

Providing the evening's live music is Manny Echazabal, a Miami based saxophonist, woodwinds player, and composer, and someone I spoke with directly ahead of tonight's event. A graduate of the University of Miami's Studio Music and Jazz Performance program, Echazabal came up playing in the Frost Concert Jazz Band under director John Daversa, sharing stages during his student years with the likes of Arturo Sandoval, Terence Blanchard, and Dave Liebman.

His 2017 debut album, Short Notice, recorded with pianist Tal Cohen, bassist Dion Kerr IV, and drummer David Chiverton, drew praise from Jazz Weekly, Jazz Trail, and All About Jazz, and two of his original compositions, "Unknown Identity" and "Spt," earned him a DownBeat award for Outstanding Small Group Performance. Since then, he's played major festival stages including Monterey Jazz Festival, Festival Miami, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, and Montreux Jazz Festival Miami.

What stood out most in talking with him is how he frames his own music: not as background ambiance, but as a vehicle for resilience and shared hope, drawing on influences like John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Henderson. It's a fitting pairing for tonight, a live set built around connection and community set against a room built around ritual and craftsmanship, two things the cigar world prizes as much as the tobacco itself. Check out Manny’s music here.

What to Expect Tonight

When: September 25, 4 to 8 PM Where: Neptune Cigars, Little Havana, 3050 NW 7th Street, Miami, FL 33125 Featured brand: El Septimo, with Zaya Younan appearing in person Live music: Manny Echazabal On offer: Exclusive event only deals on El Septimo cigars and prizes throughout the evening

For El Septimo fans, tonight is a rare chance to put a face, and a philosophy, to a brand that has spent the last several years trying to redefine what luxury means in the American cigar market. I'll be on the ground tonight documenting the event, the crowd, and the cigars themselves, with photos to follow.