Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper on the Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria is light brown with a bunch of darker splotches throughout and some decently raised veins. The seams are smooth and the caps have some wrinkled edges. The band is green, silver and cream and denotes the company name, line, as well as Don Pancho. The aroma from the wrapper is a musty mix of cedar and earth, while the foot brings cedar, earth and stone fruit sweetness. The pre-light draw is a mirror image of the foot aromas, with cedar, earth and stone fruit sweetness, but there is a mid-level spiciness on my lips.
Seth: The Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria is average to nice in appearance. The cigar is finished with a marbled Colorado wrapper, and it has a light faded leather coloring. Small veins are present throughout, and the cigar has a fine gritty texture with some tooth. It is firm throughout, and rolled well. It has a nice aroma of seasoned wood, spices and barnyard. Some earthy aspects with herbal qualities.
John: The Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria comes in cellophane and includes a UPC sticker with the cigar information and an integrated tear space so it remains intact when opened. The cigar features a single band designed to appear as a double band, with the Eladio Diaz signature on the top portion and La Diana on the bottom. I weighed the cigar at 14.4 grams and measured the humidity with the Humidimeter Pro at 64.9%. Aromas from the wrapper included sweet tobacco, bread, mild mustiness, mild earth and barnyard. From the foot, I was able to pick out chocolate, hay, wood and some musty tobacco underneath.
Jiunn: The Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria doesn’t have the best looking wrapper. The background color is Colorado with highlights of Colorado Maduro throughout the entire wrapper. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and the head is well wrapped and capped. Pre-light aroma gives funky barnyard and layered dried red pepper spice.

Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with toasted cedar, baking spice and some earth. At a quarter inch in, mustiness joins the profile. At a half inch in, the baking spice transitions to black pepper. The retrohale is toasted cedar, earth, black pepper and mustiness. At an inch in, the fullness of the toasted cedar increases and some leather joins the profile. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is up front, with earth and black pepper in the middle of the profile and mustiness and leather in the back half. The strength was right at medium.
Seth: The first third delivers a flavor profile of seasoned wood and herbal spices. It is not a strong flavor profile, but subtle. The cigar is balanced, but also lacking complexity and depth. There needs to be more with this blend. Some faint tobacco notes are present with earth as well. Medium in strength and body.
John: The first third gets things going with creamy tobacco and mild dryness, as tannic wood combines on the finish. After a few puffs, light-plus earth joins the finish along with medium-strength baking spices that build in intensity through the retrohale. An herbal note sits just below the main profile, breaking through intermittently. As the cigar progresses toward the halfway point of the first third, the post draw becomes increasingly defined by earth and spices.
Jiunn: The first third’s flavor profile is layered and nuanced with black coffee, cocoa, tapered dried red pepper spice, cedar and mild tannins covering the entire palate. Retrohaling gives intensified dried red pepper spice and subtle sweetness of dried nuts. The finish is clean with roasted nuts. Strength and body is medium.

Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, the leather increases a bit. At a half inch in, the mustiness increases to become even with the leather again. The retrohale is now toasted cedar, leather, earth and light mustiness and black pepper. At an inch in, the leather increases some more. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is up front, with leather just ahead of the middle of the profile, earth and black pepper in the middle and mustiness just behind. The strength bumped up to slightly above medium.
Seth: The second third is in line with the first. There is not a lot of change in this cigar. It is still balanced, and delivering this seasoned wood with herbal spice notes. There are some leather qualities in the background, some tobacco as well, but they are faint. Like before, this cigar is lacking depth. Medium in strength and body.
John: The second third begins with a combination of earth, tobacco and lingering baking spices, which settle at light-plus strength on the palate. Dry wood moves into the finish and begins to define the post draw as the second third continues. The herbal notes from the first third return and settle into the center of the profile. Baking spices join the post draw through the bottom half, bringing along some dryness on the palate.
Jiunn: The second third is similar to the first third. The same set of flavors exist but there’s a shift to more black coffee and fuller tannins. Strength and body is unchanged at medium.

Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the earth increases a bit to become even with the leather. At a half inch in, the black pepper increases to become even with the leather and earth. The retrohale remains toasted cedar, leather, earth and light mustiness and black pepper. As the cigar wraps up, the toasted cedar is up front, with leather, earth and black pepper ahead of the middle of the profile and some mustiness just behind the middle. The strength remained at slightly above medium.
Seth: The final third is in line with the first and second. There’s no change or growth to the cigar. Seasoned wood with herbal spice and tobacco notes. Medium in strength and body.
John: Earth and dry wood take the cigar into the final third, with dry tannic wood making up the finish. As the cigar moves toward the halfway point, the dryness on the finish continues to build, and bitterness joins and increases in intensity through the remainder of the bottom half.
Jiunn: The final third reduces the amount and intensity of flavors. It’s now mainly dried red pepper spice and charred/over-roasted coffee. Strength and body finishes the same medium.

Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria

Burn

Aaron: The burn line was pretty wavy at times and I needed to do one touch-up to keep things in line. The wrapper cracked in the final third which may have led to another offset. The ash held on in inch and a half increments.
Seth: La Diana had a great burn from start to finish.
John: The burn had some waviness to start but became razor straight through the rest of the first third and all of the second third. The burn threatened to stall in the final third but never required intervention.
Jiunn: Great burn performance providing an even burn, tight ashes and cool burning temperatures.

Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria

Draw

Aaron: The draw was a bit tighter than I prefer, but didn’t cause any issues with the smoking experience.
Seth: The draw was perfect throughout the cigar. Well constructed.
John: I measured the draw at 50 inches of water with the CigarMedics Draw Machine. Subjectively, the draw was at most one notch toward the resistant spectrum, placing it squarely within the ideal zone.
Jiunn: Great draw performance as well having ideal balance of air flow and resistance.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with toasted cedar, baking spice and some earth. Some mustiness joined in fairly quickly and then the baking spice transitioned to black pepper. Later, some leather joined the profile. The second third saw the leather and mustiness increase and later the leather increased some more. The final third saw the leather and pepper increase to both become even with the leather. The Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria had an average flavor profile throughout focused around the toasted cedar, leather, earth and black pepper. The Dominican mustiness was a supporting note, but didn’t really elevate the profile. Overall, a fairly average experience that didn’t provide a profile to make me want to return.
Seth: I did not care for the Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria, and I am curious as to what others have to say for reasons regarding the tobacco. I did not look at the blend on this cigar before smoking, but after smoking and looking it over I can see why this cigar did not perform. At least perform for me. I don’t care for the wrapper, binder and probably half of the tobacco used in the filler. Peruvian tobacco does not do it for me, Mexican has been underwhelming of late, and Ecuadorian Habano 2000 is always a no. The cigar may be average, but it’s a failure when you look at the giant picture. I also hate it when I am critical of a cigar with a great back story. I feel like an asshole, when it’s really the tobacco and/or blend. I’m a broken record on this subject, but Eladio needs Davidoff and Davidoff needs Eladio.
John: The Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria was a cigar that opened with a great deal of promise, weaving together creaminess, earthiness, herbal complexity and a restrained sweetness in a way that felt balanced and thoughtful. The first third in particular hinted at something refined, suggesting deeper layers that would appear in the second third. But as the cigar progressed, the dryness and tannic wood began to take on more space than the blend could comfortably manage. While the earth and baking spices carried nice presence at times, the increasing dryness on the palate pushed the cigar away from the harmony it established early on. The final third, marked by a rising bitterness, ultimately pulled the experience down. Still, the quality of construction shone through in the burn and draw, and the early complexity showed what the blend could be capable of. In the end, La Diana delivered an “Average” experience overall, with flashes of sophistication tempered by an overly dry and tannic turn that narrowed the profile more than I would have liked. The total smoking time was 1 hour and 52 minutes.
Jiunn: This Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria is a winner. Layered, nuanced, just a good cigar. And it’s eleven bucks?! Unbelievably superb! I recommend everyone to try this and taste the modern “budget” cigar that slaps (as the kids would say).

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.40

Cost/Point

$2.04

Scoring System

Seth Geise

SCORE

5.28

Cost/Point

$2.08

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.75

Cost/Point

$1.91

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

6.82

Cost/Point

$1.61

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Eladio Diaz La Diana Biloria