What Are Backwoods Cigars? A Beginner's Guide

WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

If you've seen someone smoking a slim, sweet-smelling little cigar with a plastic or wood tip, there's a good chance it was a Black and Mild. They're one of the best-selling cigar products in the U.S., but a lot of people who buy their first pack still have basic questions, starting with whether you're even supposed to inhale them. This guide answers the most common Black and Mild questions in one place.

What Is a Black and Mild?

Black & Mild is a brand of machine-made cigar produced by John Middleton Co., now owned by Altria. Unlike a cigarette, which is rolled in paper and filled with cut cigarette tobacco, a Black and Mild uses a wrapper made from homogenized tobacco leaf and is filled with pipe tobacco. That pipe tobacco filler is what gives Black and Milds their smooth, sweet, aromatic character closer to a mild pipe blend than to a cigarette.

So is a Black and Mild a cigar or a cigarette? Technically, it's a cigar (specifically a cigarillo, a small cigar). It's not a cigarette, even though its size and the way many people handle it can make it feel cigarette-like.

Do You Inhale a Black and Mild?

This is the single most-asked question about Black and Milds, so let's be direct: no, Black and Milds are not designed to be inhaled. Like traditional cigars, the smoke is meant to be drawn into the mouth, held briefly to enjoy the flavor and aroma, and then exhaled, not pulled down into the lungs the way cigarette smoke is.

That said, plenty of people, especially former cigarette smokers, do inhale them out of habit. It's worth knowing that inhaling a cigarillo's smoke exposes your lungs to more smoke and combustion byproducts than the product is designed for, since cigar smoke tends to be more alkaline and harsher on the lungs when inhaled deeply. If you're new to Black and Milds, the standard approach puff, taste, exhale without inhaling is both the traditional way to smoke one and the gentler way to do it.

How to Smoke a Black and Mild (Step by Step)

1. Remove the tip's plastic wrap (if your variety has one) and give the tip a light twist to loosen the draw.
2. Toast the foot; hold the lighter flame just below the tip end and rotate the cigar for a few seconds until it's evenly lit.
3. Draw slowly. Take a gentle puff, let the smoke sit in your mouth for a second to pick up the flavor, then exhale.
4. Pace yourself. Black and Milds burn hot if you puff too fast; slow, even draws keep the flavor smooth and prevent a harsh, bitter taste.
5. It's okay to put it out and relight later. Many smokers only go through part of one in a sitting; the tip can be pinched out and relit.

What's in a Black and Mild?

1. Wrapper/binder: homogenized tobacco leaf (reconstituted tobacco, not a whole natural leaf like a premium cigar)
2. Filler: pipe tobacco, which is what produces the sweeter, more aromatic smoke compared to a traditional cigar's whole-leaf filler
3. Tip: plastic or wood, depending on the variety
4. Flavored versions add flavoring to the tobacco itself (see flavors below); unflavored "Original" relies on the pipe tobacco blend alone

Nicotine Content: Black and Milds vs. Cigarettes

This is where a lot of the confusion (and some of the internet's worse misinformation) comes from, so here are the actual numbers:

1. A typical cigarette contains roughly 8–9 mg of nicotine in its tobacco.
2. A single Black and Mild's tobacco can contain roughly 100–200 mg of nicotine, figures that trace back to a 2007 Baltimore City Health Department analysis and are still widely cited today.

That sounds alarming, and the total tobacco content genuinely is higher but total nicotine in the tobacco isn't the same as nicotine absorbed into your bloodstream. How much actually reaches you depends heavily on whether you inhale, how much of the cigar you smoke in one sitting, and how fast you puff. A clinical study measuring actual blood nicotine levels found that smoking one cigarette produced a bigger nicotine spike than smoking a portion of a Black and Mild without inhaling because inhaling delivers nicotine to the bloodstream far more efficiently than mouth absorption does.

Bottom line: Black and Milds contain more total nicotine than a single cigarette and can deliver meaningful nicotine even without inhaling (nicotine absorbs through the mouth's mucous membranes too), but a single Black and Mild is not automatically equivalent to smoking "a whole pack"; that comparison oversimplifies how nicotine absorption actually works. Nicotine is addictive regardless of the delivery method, so treat any comparison as a reason for caution, not reassurance.

Do Black and Milds Get You High?

Nicotine is a stimulant, not an intoxicant; it doesn't produce a "high" the way alcohol or THC does. What people often describe as a buzz or light-headed feeling from a Black and Mild (especially for new or infrequent smokers) is the nicotine rush: a temporary increase in heart rate and alertness. It's more pronounced if you inhale or smoke on an empty stomach, and it fades as your body builds tolerance.

Black and Mild Flavors Explained

Black & Mild comes in a range of profiles, including:

1. Original — the classic pipe-tobacco flavor, no added flavoring
2. Wine — a mellow, aromatic profile with a sweet wine-style note
3. Jazz — a blend with subtle vanilla and hickory notes
4. Cream — a smoother, dessert-leaning profile
5. Cherry / Cherry Blend — fruit-forward and sweet
6. Select — a lighter-bodied take on the original blend

Most flavors are available with either a wood or plastic tip, and some come in "shorts" (about half the length of the original) for a quicker smoke.

Shop the full Black & Mild lineup at Smokenza

Black and Mild vs. Traditional Cigars

Who Makes Black and Milds?

Black & Mild is made by John Middleton Co., a tobacco company founded in Philadelphia in 1856. Altria (the parent company of Philip Morris USA) acquired John Middleton Co. in 2007. Black & Mild has been one of the top-selling cigar brands in the U.S. for years, particularly in the five-pack category.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Is a Black and Mild a cigarette?

No. It's a small cigar (cigarillo) made with pipe tobacco and a tobacco-leaf wrapper, not cigarette paper and cigarette tobacco.

Are Black and Milds worse than cigarettes?

They contain more total nicotine and produce more smoke per stick, but they're generally not inhaled the way cigarettes are, which changes how much nicotine and smoke actually reaches your lungs. Neither product is "safe"; both carry real health risks.

Do Black and Milds have nicotine?

Yes, significantly more nicotine in the tobacco itself than a cigarette, though how much you actually absorb depends on whether you inhale.

How many cigarettes equal one Black and Mild?

There's no exact 1-to-1 conversion. Based on total tobacco nicotine content, one Black and Mild can be roughly comparable to half a pack to a full pack of cigarettes, but because Black and Milds aren't typically inhaled, the nicotine you actually absorb can be lower than that number suggests.

Can you get addicted to Black and Milds?

Yes. They contain nicotine, which is addictive regardless of whether the product is a cigarette, cigar, or cigarillo.