Eladio Diaz 71 Aniversario Made With Unusual Tobacco
Tobacco veteran Eladio Diaz has been making a non-commercial blend to celebrate his birthday ever since he was 50 years old. He’s best known for his tenure as head of production and quality control for Davidoff of Geneva before going out on his own in 2022. This year, he turned 71 and to celebrate, he’s making his birthday blend available to the public—but it contains tobacco from a region you’ve probably never heard of before.
Made in the Dominican Republic at Diaz’s Tabacalera Diaz Cabrera (TDC) factory, the anniversary cigar consists of an Ecuadoran Corojo ’99 wrapper, Mexican San Andrés binder and a somewhat complicated filler blend. There’s Dominican Corojo, Dominican Habano ’92, and some barrel-aged Havana Vuelta Arriba (HVA). But the filler blend also includes a leaf from an area in the Dominican Republic not commonly used by cigarmakers.
Diaz has turned to San Juan de la Maguana and Las Matas de Farfán for an alternative tobacco appellation. It’s an area southwest of Santiago and Mao (where much of the tobacco for premium cigars is grown) and it’s located closer to the Haitian border in the center of the island. According to Diaz, the fields are 450 meters above sea level causing the pH levels of the soil to be higher than the tobacco farms in the northern part of the country. He believes the higher altitude results in stronger tobacco that produces a creamier smoke. Tobacco, Diaz says, used to be grown here in the 1970s, but farmers changed to other crops due to the high cost and lack of government funding. Support from the government returned in 2020.
The Eladio Diaz 71 Aniversario cigars are made in only one size, a Toro measuring 6 inches by 54 ring gauge. They come in 10-count boxes (only 2,000 boxes are being released) and retail for $250 per box, or $25 per cigar. Distributed by Arango Cigar Co., the new smokes are expected ship to retailers the first week of October.
