WARNING: Cigar smoking can cause cancers of the mouth and throat, even if you do not inhale.
Swisher Sweets is a machine-made cigar brand from Swisher, a privately held company in Jacksonville, Florida, that has been making cigars there since 1924 and shipped the first Swisher Sweets in 1958. The company calls it the No. 1 cigar in the US by volume; convenience-store scanner data puts it second to Black & Mild, at 21.4% of units in 2025. The line is organized into families that differ by wrapper, size and tip: Classic cigarillos, Mini, Leaf, Legend, BLK, the traditional shapes, and little cigars. Within each, variants are sold under flavor names printed on the pack. This guide lists the current families and variants by those names, then covers the company’s history and the rules that apply to flavored cigars.
Last verified September 11, 2026 against swishersweets.com’s product index, Swisher company statements, FDA documents, California’s Unflavored Tobacco List, and retailer listings for pack counts. Flavor names are product identifiers only. Sources at the end.
The brand
| Fact | Swisher Sweets |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Swisher (Swisher International, Inc. until a 2020 rebrand); cigar unit Swisher Sweets Cigar Company |
| Ownership | Privately held by the Ziegler family; public from 1996 to 1999 |
| Headquarters and plant | Jacksonville, Florida, since 1924; about 700,000 square feet; additional plants in Santiago, Dominican Republic and Esteli, Nicaragua |
| Launched | 1958 |
| Product type | Machine-made cigars and cigarillos, most with a homogenized tobacco leaf (HTL) wrapper; the Leaf line uses a natural broadleaf wrapper; BLK is tipped; Little Cigars are filtered 100 mm cigars in cigarette-style packs |
| Market position | “#1 cigar in the U.S. by volume and market share” (company); 21.4% of convenience-store cigar units in 2025, second to Black & Mild’s 33.9% (Nielsen data, Rutgers analysis) |
| Company volume | About 2 billion cigars a year (2024) |
| Federal tax class | Cigarillos are “large cigars” for tax purposes (over 3 pounds per 1,000), taxed at 52.75% of price up to 40.26 cents each; Little Cigars are “small cigars” at $50.33 per 1,000 |
The lineup
Families and variants are as listed on swishersweets.com in September 2026; pack counts are from retailer listings. Limited editions rotate in and out, so treat any list as a snapshot.
| Family | Variants as listed | Format | Packs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic | Original, Diamonds, Gold, Black, Green, Banana Smash, Blueberry, Cream, Grape, White Grape, Peach, Strawberry, Tropical Fusion, Wild Rush, Cookies N Cream | Cigarillo, HTL wrapper, about 4 inches | 2-packs (30 per box), 5-packs (10 per box); 10-pack for Original |
| Mini | Original, Diamonds, Green, Gold, Blueberry, Grape, Island Bash, Sticky Sweets | Mini cigarillo, about 3.5 inches | 3-packs (15 per box); Twin Pack 6-packs |
| Legend | Original, Diamonds, Irish Cream, Maui Mango, Emerald, Silver, Cognac | Natural leaf | Not confirmed |
| Leaf | Original, Honey, Cognac, Dark Stout, Peach Brandy, Aromatic, Dark Leaf, Green Leaf, Irish Cream, Dark Aromatic, Neon Nights | Natural American broadleaf wrapper | 3-count and 8-count foil packs; 2-packs |
| Leaf Wraps | Original, Peach Brandy, Irish Cream, Dark, Smooth | Natural leaf wraps (not a cigar) | Not confirmed |
| BLK | Smooth, Cherry, Wine, Berry, Grape, Cocoa, Cream; Single Smooth Tip, Single Cherry Tip | Tipped cigarillo, plastic tip | 2-packs (15 per box); singles |
| Traditional shapes | Perfecto, Perfecto Silver, Coronella, Slims, Giants, Kings, Wood Tip, Tip Cigarillo, Tip Cigarillo Cherry, Blunts | Large machine-made cigars, HTL; wood or plastic tips on the tipped shapes | 5-packs, 10 per box |
| Little Cigars (100 mm) | Mild, Peach, Menthol, Grape, Cherry, Smooth, Full Blend, Natural | Filtered little cigar | 20-packs, 10 per carton |
| Filtered Cigars (100 mm) | Regular, Menthol | Filtered cigar | 40-packs, 5 per carton |
“Diamonds” is the variant most retailers list as the unflavored option; older packs called it Unsweet Diamond. “Green” was sold as Green Sweets and contains mint, which puts it under menthol and mint rules in states that have them. Variants from the 2023 line that no longer appear on the company’s index include Purple Swish, Coco Blue, Swerve, Boozy Watermelon, Coastal Cocktail, Maui Pineapple, Chocolate, Mango and Silver (Classic), most of which were limited editions; the Outlaws, Fusion and Encore sub-brands are also gone from the 2026 index. Whether any still ship is not confirmed.
History
David Swisher took over a small cigar business in Newark, Ohio in 1861 in settlement of a debt; his sons formed Swisher Brothers in 1888 and moved the company to Jacksonville in 1923 and 1924, installing rolling machines that year. By 1941 the Jacksonville plant was described as the largest cigar factory in the world. Swisher Sweets, a machine-made cigar with a sweetened wrapper, shipped for the first time in 1958. American Maize-Products, controlled by William Ziegler III, bought Swisher in 1966; the company acquired Universal Cigar (Optimo) in 1986, was renamed Swisher International in 1992, went public in December 1996 and was taken private again by the Ziegler family in 1999. It bought the premium maker Drew Estate in October 2014, rebranded the corporate parent as Swisher in August 2020, and marked 100 years in Jacksonville in June 2024, with about 400 employees there and more than 1,000 in the US. The Little Cigars and Filtered Cigars lines are the brand’s cigarette-format products; the Leaf line, with a natural broadleaf wrapper, is its answer to Backwoods and the natural-leaf segment.
Regulation
Cigars came under FDA authority on August 8, 2016 through the deeming rule, and every cigar on the market that day had to be the subject of a substantial-equivalence report or premarket application by September 9, 2020. Swisher filed 171 SE reports covering 267 products, and its products remain on the market while those reports are reviewed.
The flavor question has a federal chapter and several state ones. On May 4, 2022 the FDA proposed a product standard banning characterizing flavors in all cigars; Swisher opposed it, and the proposal was withdrawn on January 21, 2025 with the menthol cigarette rule. The premium-cigar exemption from the deeming rule, in place since August 2023 and defined in April 2026, covers only hand-rolled, whole-leaf, unflavored, untipped cigars and does not reach any Swisher Sweets product.
The cigar warning rule (21 CFR 1143.5) was vacated on September 11, 2020; cigar warnings are voluntary, and Swisher packs still carry “WARNING: Cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes.” Massachusetts banned flavored cigar sales outside licensed smoking bars from June 1, 2020. California banned flavored cigars from December 21, 2022, exempting only premium cigars, and since January 1, 2025 a cigar may be sold there only if it is on the state’s Unflavored Tobacco List; Swisher Sweets Leaf Original, Green and Dark are on it. Federal excise on large cigars rose in April 2009 from 20.72% of price capped at 5 cents to 52.75% capped at 40.26 cents, and on small cigars from $1.83 to $50.33 per thousand, after which manufacturers added weight to move products into the large-cigar class. The federal minimum age is 21. Texas, where Saucey delivers tobacco, has no flavored-cigar restriction.
FAQs
Who makes Swisher Sweets? Swisher, a private company owned by the Ziegler family, in Jacksonville, Florida. It also owns Drew Estate.
Are Swisher Sweets cigars or cigarettes? Cigars, mostly cigarillos, with a wrapper made of tobacco or reconstituted tobacco leaf.
Is there an unflavored Swisher Sweets? Diamonds, in the Classic and Mini lines, is the variant sold as unflavored; the Leaf line’s Original is on California’s Unflavored Tobacco List.
How many variants are there? About 70 across nine families on the company’s 2026 index, not counting limited editions that come and go.
Are Swisher Sweets banned? Not federally. Flavored variants cannot be sold in Massachusetts or California, or in cities and counties with local flavor bans. The FDA’s proposed federal flavored-cigar ban was withdrawn in January 2025.
What is the difference between Swisher Sweets and Black & Mild? Different companies and different products: Black & Mild is a pipe-tobacco cigar from John Middleton (Altria). The Black & Mild line is in the Black & Mild guide; the natural-leaf competitor is in the Backwoods guide.
Sources
- Swisher, About Us; swishersweets.com product index (Classic, Mini, Legend, Leaf, BLK), September 2026; Jacksonville Daily Record, Swisher marks 100 years of operation in Jacksonville, June 20, 2024; Encyclopedia.com, Swisher International Group history; SEC filing on the 1999 going-private merger (EDGAR)
- Ganz et al., Rutgers, cigar brand sales in US convenience stores, 2021 to 2025 (Nielsen data), preprint April 2026
- FDA, 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; Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, states and localities restricting flavored tobacco, May 13, 2026
- Retailer listings (JR Cigars, Tobacco General, Thompson Cigar) for pack counts, checked September 11, 2026
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The fine print
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