Search this question and you will see figures of 100 to 200 mg per cigar. Lab tests that purchased Backwoods from regular stores and measured them found far less: closer to the nicotine in two or three cigarettes.
The more useful question is where that nicotine sits. A Backwood has a broadleaf wrapper, a binder and a filler, and they do not carry equal shares. Below are the measured totals, the leaf vs filler split, and what changes with flavor and pack size.
The Short Answer: How Much Nicotine Is in a Backwoods
A Backwoods Original contains about 28 mg of nicotine, and a Honey Berry about 50 mg. Both are lab measurements of the whole stick, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2022.
| Backwood (as tested) | Weight | Nicotine concentration | Total nicotine |
| Original | 2.1 g | 13.30 mg/g | 27.9 mg |
| Honey Berry | 2.7 g | 18.68 mg/g | 50.4 mg |
Source: National Academies, Premium Cigars: Patterns of Use, Marketing, and Health Effects, Appendix F: Cigar Physical Characteristics (2022). Cigars purchased in August 2021; nicotine measured at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
That is the nicotine stored in the tobacco, not the amount you absorb. Part of it burns off between puffs, and how much reaches your bloodstream depends on whether you inhale.
Our guide to how much nicotine is in a cigar covers that difference across 58 lab-tested cigars, from cigarillos to Churchills.
What Is Inside a Backwood: Three Layers, Not Two
A Backwood is usually described as leaf plus filler. Retailer spec sheets list three components.
| Layer | Material | Role |
| Wrapper | Natural Connecticut Broadleaf, dark maduro-style | The rustic outer leaf with the frayed end |
| Binder | Homogenized tobacco leaf (HTL), a sheet made from processed tobacco | Holds the filler in shape under the wrapper |
| Filler | Caribbean Basin Cuban-seed tobacco | Most of the stick's weight |
The binder is the detail most pages skip. The leaf you see is real broadleaf, but a processed tobacco sheet sits underneath it. Our cigar anatomy guide explains how the three layers work in any cigar.
Weight is the other detail. The tested Original weighed 2.1 g, about 4.6 pounds per thousand sticks. That clears the 3-pound weight line that separates small cigars from large cigars for federal tax, so a Backwood is legally a large cigar despite its size.
The build is the same across the range. That is why choosing the best Backwoods cigars for you comes down to flavor and pack format rather than strength. The brand has used this rustic broadleaf construction since 1973, and our Backwoods brand history covers how it got there.
Leaf vs Filler: Where the Nicotine Actually Sits
Most of the nicotine in a Backwood is inside the stick, not in the leaf. Our estimate puts between 78% and 96% of it in the filler and binder.
No study has split a Backwood into layers and tested each one separately. Two studies come close, and together they bracket the answer.
The Leaf
A 2016 study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence (Peters and colleagues) tested the wrappers of five cigars that people commonly empty and refill. The wrapper made up 8 to 18% of each cigar's weight and held 1.2 to 6.0 mg of nicotine.
Applied to a 2.1 g Backwood, the wrapper weighs roughly 0.17 to 0.38 g. At the measured range, it carries about 1.2 to 6 mg of the stick's 27.9 mg.
The Filler
A CDC study measured the filler of 75 cigar products on its own, with no wrapper or binder. Backwoods Wild Rum filler tested at 19.5 mg of nicotine per gram. That is above the study's 15.4 mg/g average for large cigars and level with the 19.2 mg/g average for cigarette tobacco.
Wild Rum is a different flavor, tested in a different year by a different lab, so it cannot be subtracted directly from the Original's total. What it shows is that Backwoods filler is not a weak tobacco. It is dense in nicotine, and it makes up most of the stick.
| Part of a Backwoods Original | Approx. weight | Approx. nicotine | Share of total |
| Wrapper leaf | 0.17 to 0.38 g | 1.2 to 6 mg | 4 to 22% |
| Binder + filler | 1.72 to 1.93 g | 22 to 27 mg | 78 to 96% |
| Whole stick (measured) | 2.1 g | 27.9 mg | 100% |
Estimate. Whole-stick figure from the National Academies (2022). Wrapper range from Peters et al. (2016), applied to the Original's weight.
So the practical answer to how much nicotine is in a backwood depends on what you actually smoke. The whole stick carries about 28 mg. The leaf on its own carries a single-digit figure.
Backwoods Wraps: Nicotine in the Leaf Alone
Backwoods True Wraps are the same broadleaf sold without filler, in Original and Vanilla. Removing the filler removes most of the nicotine, but not all of it.
No lab has published a nicotine figure for True Wraps. The closest data is the wrapper study above: 1.2 to 6.0 mg per cigar wrapper.
A True Wrap is a full sheet of leaf rather than a strip trimmed to fit a 4.5-inch cigar, so it may sit at or above the top of that range. Treat it as a few milligrams, not zero. Only tobacco-free wraps, such as hemp or palm, carry no nicotine.
Our Backwoods wraps guide covers storage and rolling, and the full wraps collection lists the other leaf options.
Does Flavor Change How Much Nicotine Is in a Backwood?
Flavoring adds no nicotine, yet the two tested flavors differed by almost double. The tested Honey Berry held 50.4 mg against 27.9 mg for the Original.
Two things drove that gap:
- Weight. The Honey Berry sticks weighed 2.6 to 2.7 g. The Original weighed 2.1 g. More tobacco means more nicotine.
- Concentration. The Honey Berry tobacco tested at 18.68 mg/g, against 13.30 mg/g for the Original.
Each figure comes from a single stick. Read the gap as a sign of how much Backwoods vary, not as proof that Honey Berry is always stronger. The National Academies team noted wide inconsistency in weight among cigarillo-style products sold in the same pack.
The rest of the Backwoods flavor lineup, including Sweet Aromatic, Dark Stout and Russian Cream, has not been lab-tested. They share the same construction and size, so the 28 to 50 mg measured for Original and Honey Berry is the sensible expectation.
Sweet Aromatic and Dark Stout taste heavier, but that comes from the darker leaf and the flavoring, not extra nicotine. Our notes on what Sweet Aromatic tastes like and the Russian Cream taste notes cover the flavor side.
Pack size is where the larger numbers come from:
| Format | Sticks | Approx. nicotine stored |
| Backwoods singles | 1 | 28 to 50 mg |
| Honey Berry 3-packs | 3 | 84 to 151 mg |
| 5-pack pouch | 5 | 140 to 252 mg |
Calculated from the two measured sticks: 27.9 mg (Original) and 50.4 mg (Honey Berry).
The 100 to 200 mg figure that circulates online is close to a full 5-pack pouch, not one stick. Backwoods are no exception among flavored cigars: the flavor tells you nothing about the nicotine.
Backwood vs Black & Mild vs Swisher vs a Cigarette
Per stick, a Backwoods Original holds about as much nicotine as a Black & Mild or a Swisher Sweets cigarillo. A typical cigarette holds roughly 10 to 12 mg, so one Original stores two to three cigarettes' worth.
| Product (as tested) | Weight | Total nicotine |
| Black & Mild Original, wood tip | 2.5 g | 26.2 mg |
| Backwoods Original | 2.1 g | 27.9 mg |
| Swisher Sweets Blueberry cigarillo | 2.8 g | 29.5 mg |
| Dutch Masters Palma | 3.2 g | 36.0 mg |
| Backwoods Honey Berry | 2.7 g | 50.4 mg |
| Swisher Sweets Leaf Original | 2.8 g | 85.8 mg |
Source: National Academies (2022), Appendix F.
The last row is worth a look. Swisher Sweets Leaf is another natural broadleaf cigar, and it tested at 30.64 mg/g, the most concentrated tobacco in this group. A natural leaf wrapper does not mean a mild smoke.
The filler-only data from the CDC study shows how differently these products reach similar totals:
| Filler type (CDC, 2017) | Nicotine | Filler pH |
| Pipe tobacco cigars (Black & Mild style) | 8.79 mg/g | 5.05 |
| Cigarillos | 13.0 mg/g | 5.72 |
| Large cigars | 15.4 mg/g | 6.10 |
| Cigarette tobacco | 19.2 mg/g | 5.46 |
| Backwoods Wild Rum | 19.5 mg/g | 5.44 |
Black & Mild uses mild pipe tobacco in a heavier stick. Backwoods use dense tobacco in a lighter one. They land near the same total from opposite directions. Our breakdown of Black & Mild nicotine content and the cigar vs cigarette comparison go further on each.
Content Is Not Delivery
Nicotine stored and nicotine absorbed are separate numbers. Three factors set the gap.
pH. Premium cigar tobacco tends toward alkaline, which lets nicotine absorb through the lining of the mouth. The Backwoods filler tested at pH 5.44, almost identical to cigarette tobacco and well below the 6.10 large-cigar average. At lower pH, more nicotine is in a form the mouth absorbs poorly. The CDC team measured filler extract pH, not smoke pH, so read this as a direction rather than a precise figure.
Inhaling. Inhaling moves absorption to the lungs, which is faster and more complete. Given the pH above, a Backwood that is not inhaled likely delivers less of its stored nicotine than a premium cigar would. One that is inhaled behaves much more like a cigarette.
How much you smoke. Setting a stick down halfway roughly halves what you take in.
Retailers describe Backwoods as mellow in body. That label describes taste, not nicotine. Our guide to cigar strength explains why body, flavor and nicotine are three different scales.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much nicotine is in a Backwood compared to a cigarette?
A Backwoods Original holds about 28 mg, against roughly 10 to 12 mg in a cigarette, so two to three cigarettes' worth. A Honey Berry at 50 mg is closer to four or five. The amount you absorb depends on inhaling and on how much of the stick you smoke.
How much nicotine is in a Backwood wrap?
No published test exists for Backwood True Wraps. Cigar wrappers tested in 2016 held 1.2 to 6.0 mg each, and a full True Wrap leaf is likely at or above the top of that range.
Is a Backwood stronger than a Black & Mild?
Per stick they are close: 27.9 mg for a Backwoods Original and 26.2 mg for a Black & Mild Original. Backwoods tobacco is denser in nicotine, while Black & Mild makes up the difference with a heavier stick of milder pipe tobacco.
Does Honey Berry have more nicotine than Original?
In the one lab test available, yes: 50.4 mg against 27.9 mg. The tested Honey Berry was both heavier and more concentrated. With a single stick tested of each, part of that gap may be batch variation.
Does taking out the filler remove the nicotine?
It removes most of it. Based on wrapper research, the leaf alone holds roughly 1.2 to 6 mg, against about 28 mg in a whole Original.
Are Backwoods cigarillos or cigars?
They are often called cigarillos, but at 2.1 to 2.7 g they count as large cigars under federal tax rules. They sit alongside other machine-made smokes in our cigar collection and next to the cigarillos range.
A Note on Health
Nicotine is addictive in every form, and Backwoods are no exception. Cigar smoke exposes the mouth and throat to the same combustion products as cigarette smoke, and not inhaling does not remove the risk of mouth, throat and oesophageal cancers.
Nothing in this article suggests Backwoods are a safer choice than any other tobacco product. Sale is for adults 21 and over.
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