WARNING: Cigar smoking can cause cancers of the mouth and throat, even if you do not inhale.
Black & Mild is a machine-made, plastic-tipped cigar introduced by John Middleton Co. in 1980 and owned by Altria since December 2007, when it paid $2.9 billion for the company. It is made from a blend of air-cured and pipe tobaccos, which is why the trade calls it a “pipe-tobacco cigar,” and it is sold mostly as single sticks: Nielsen data has 96% of Black & Milds leaving convenience stores one at a time. Middleton calls it the second-best-selling large machine-made cigar in the US by volume; in convenience-store scanner data it is first, at 33.9% of cigar units in 2025. The line is ten variants on Middleton’s official list, each in one to three tip options. This guide lists them, explains the tips, and covers the brand’s history and the rules that apply.
Last verified September 11, 2026 against John Middleton Co.’s brand list (updated December 12, 2024), Altria’s 2025 annual report and second-quarter 2026 results, FDA marketing orders and retailer listings for pack counts. Flavor names are product identifiers only. Sources at the end.
The brand
| Fact | Black & Mild |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | John Middleton Co., King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, a subsidiary of Philip Morris USA |
| Parent | Altria Group; acquisition announced November 1, 2007 for $2.9 billion cash, closed December 2007 |
| Launched | 1980, as Middleton’s second cigar brand; its top seller by 1996 |
| Made in | Middleton names Richmond, Virginia and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Altria’s 2024 and 2025 annual reports say Middleton “contracts with a third-party importer to supply substantially all of its cigars.” The Limerick, Pennsylvania plant closed in 2018 |
| Product type | Machine-made large cigar with a plastic tip (wood and filter tips on some variants); “a unique blend of both air-cured and pipe tobaccos” (Middleton); homogenized tobacco leaf wrapper |
| Market position | “The second-best selling large machine-made cigar in the U.S.” (Middleton, by volume); No. 1 in convenience-store units at 33.9% in 2025, up from 30.4% in 2021 (Nielsen data, Rutgers analysis); about 23% of machine-made large cigars at the 2007 acquisition |
| Volume | About 1.8 billion sticks in 2025 (Altria); 503 million in Q2 2026, up 5.2% on the year |
| Menthol | None |
| Federal tax class | Large cigar: 52.75% of price up to 40.26 cents each |
Tips
The tip is the mouthpiece, and it is the format difference within the line. The standard Black & Mild has a plastic tip. Wood Tip versions, on Original, Casino, Jazz, Sweets and Wine, have a wooden mouthpiece. Filter Tip versions, on Original and Sweets, have a filter in the tip; the FDA’s marketing orders abbreviate them “FT.” Tip type has no bearing on the tobacco inside and no health meaning. The premium-cigar exemption from FDA rules excludes any tipped cigar.
The lineup
Names and tip options are from Middleton’s official brand list; pack counts are from retailer listings.
| Product (official) | Tip options (official) | Packs (retailer listings) |
|---|---|---|
| Black & Mild Original | Plastic, Wood, Filter Tip | Singles (box of 25); 5-packs (10 per box); pre-priced singles |
| Black & Mild Apple | Plastic | Not confirmed |
| Black & Mild Casino | Plastic, Wood | Singles (box of 25); 5-packs |
| Black & Mild Cream | Plastic | Singles (box of 25) |
| Black & Mild Jazz | Plastic, Wood | Singles (box of 25); 5-packs |
| Black & Mild Lyric | Plastic | Not confirmed |
| Black & Mild Royale | Plastic | Not confirmed |
| Black & Mild Select | Plastic | 5-packs |
| Black & Mild Sweets | Plastic, Wood, Filter Tip | Singles (box of 25, Wood Tip); 5-packs (Filter Tip) |
| Black & Mild Wine | Plastic, Wood | Singles (box of 25); 5-packs |
“Wine,” “Casino,” “Jazz” and “Royale” are pack names; Wine contains no alcohol and Casino has nothing to do with gambling. Black & Mild Red Label, in plastic, filter-tip and wood-tip versions, received FDA marketing orders in January 2022 but is not on Middleton’s 2024 list. Black & Mild Cigarillos, a smaller format Middleton describes on its site, and Black & Mild Shorts, a half-length version, are not on the list either, and their current status is not confirmed. Middleton’s Cherry Blend is a sister brand from the same company. The word “mild” survives in the name because it is a registered product name; “mild” has been barred as a descriptor on cigarette packs since 2010, and it says nothing about this product.
History
John Middleton opened a tobacco shop in Philadelphia in 1856, and for a century the company’s business was pipe tobacco. It moved to King of Prussia in 1960 and introduced Black & Mild in 1980 as its second cigar brand, a machine-made cigar filled with pipe tobacco rather than cigar filler; by 1996 it was the company’s top seller. Middleton bought a plant in Limerick, Pennsylvania in 1997 and made it the main factory from 1998. On November 1, 2007 Altria announced it would buy the company for $2.9 billion in cash, $2.2 billion after tax benefits, describing Middleton as holding about 23% of the machine-made large cigar market with 2007 volume of about 1.2 billion units and the Black & Mild five-pack as the best-selling large machine-made cigar package in the country; the deal closed in December 2007 and Middleton became a subsidiary of Philip Morris USA. Altria announced in October 2016 that it would consolidate Limerick’s operations into Richmond, Virginia, with about 280 jobs affected, and the plant closed in 2018. Altria’s last two annual reports state that Middleton now buys substantially all of its cigars from a third-party importer; the importer and country are not disclosed. Volume has grown since: about 1.8 billion sticks in 2025, and 906 million in the first half of 2026, up 2.6% on the year.
Regulation
Cigars came under FDA authority on August 8, 2016 through the deeming rule, and every cigar on the market that day needed a substantial-equivalence report or premarket application filed by September 9, 2020. Black & Mild is one of the few machine-made cigar brands with orders in hand: on January 19, 2022 the FDA issued substantial-equivalence orders to John Middleton for Black & Mild Red Label, Red Label FT and Red Label Wood Tip, and for Casino and Casino Wood Tip. The status of the other variants’ filings is not public. The premium-cigar exemption from the deeming rule, in place since August 2023 and defined in April 2026, excludes tipped, machine-made and flavored cigars, so it does not reach Black & Mild. The FDA’s proposed federal ban on characterizing flavors in cigars (May 4, 2022) was withdrawn on January 21, 2025.
The cigar warning rule was vacated on September 11, 2020, so cigar warnings are voluntary. Massachusetts banned flavored cigar sales outside licensed smoking bars from June 1, 2020. California banned flavored cigars from December 21, 2022, with an exemption only for hand-made premium cigars, and since January 1, 2025 a cigar may be sold there only if it is on the state’s Unflavored Tobacco List; Black & Mild’s entries on that list were not located for this page. Federal excise on large cigars has been 52.75% of price, capped at 40.26 cents each, since April 2009; the same law raised the small-cigar rate from $1.83 to $50.33 per thousand and pushed most of the market into the large-cigar class. The federal minimum age is 21. Texas, where Saucey delivers tobacco, has no flavored-cigar restriction.
FAQs
Who makes Black & Mild? John Middleton Co., owned by Altria through Philip Morris USA, the maker of Marlboro.
What is a pipe-tobacco cigar? A cigar filled with a blend of air-cured and pipe tobaccos instead of conventional cigar filler. It is Middleton’s own description of what makes Black & Mild different from a Swisher Sweet or a Backwoods.
Wood tip or plastic tip? The mouthpiece. Wood Tip versions exist for Original, Casino, Jazz, Sweets and Wine; everything else is plastic. Filter Tip versions exist for Original and Sweets.
Are Black & Milds flavored cigars? The variants with flavor names (Apple, Cream, Wine, Jazz and so on) are treated as flavored cigars under Massachusetts and California law. We did not locate any Black & Mild entry on California’s Unflavored Tobacco List, so Original’s status there is not confirmed.
Does Black & Mild come in menthol? No.
How does Black & Mild compare with Swisher Sweets and Backwoods? Different companies and constructions: Swisher Sweets are homogenized-wrapper cigarillos from a private Florida company, Backwoods are natural-leaf cigars from ITG. See the Swisher Sweets guide and the Backwoods guide.
Sources
- John Middleton Co., company site and brand list, updated December 12, 2024; Altria Form 10-K for 2024 and 2025 (SEC EDGAR); Altria 2026 second-quarter results, July 30, 2026; Altria press release on the Middleton acquisition, November 1, 2007 (SEC EDGAR)
- Patch, Limerick tobacco plant closing, October 27, 2016; Montco.Today, closing of John Middleton plant nearing completion, January 26, 2018; Convenience Store News, Philip Morris parent completes John Middleton purchase
- Ganz et al., Rutgers, cigar brand sales in US convenience stores, 2021 to 2025 (Nielsen data), preprint April 2026; Nicotine & Tobacco Research, cigar sales in convenience stores, 2018
- FDA, SE marketing orders (John Middleton Co., January 19, 2022), Cigars, cigarillos, little filtered cigars and cigar labeling and warning statement requirements; Public Health Law Center, flavored cigar standard tracker
- TTB, federal excise tax increase (CHIPRA); GAO, GAO-14-811T; Mass.gov, 2019 Tobacco Control Law; California Attorney General, Unflavored Tobacco List, December 31, 2025; National Cancer Institute, “Light” Cigarettes and Cancer Risk
- Retailer listings (Tobacco General, Cigar Depot) for pack counts, checked September 11, 2026
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The fine print
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