They may taste like strawberries or grapes, but that’s just one of the reasons to love Swisher cigarillos. While most people know them for their sweet flavors and small size, there is much more to be said about these cigars. We won’t just go over some of the ingredients that make up this iconic brand so popular, but we’ll also touch upon the company’s history and their engagement with the community. Ready to dive in? Keep reading then!
1) How it all started
If you are a history geek like us, you are going to love this one. Few people know that the cigar industry is very old. Its birth dates back to 1670s. Much later, though, in 1861, David Swisher became the owner of a cigar company. It was part of a debt settlement that coincided with the take-off of the tobacco industry. The company grew tremendously under the reins of David and he decided to leave his legacy to his two sons, who had worked alongside their dad since they were little.
After taking over the business, the two brothers continued the commercial success of the company while also keeping it a family-owned business. The ‘sweets’ were introduced on the market in 1958 and it became one of the most popular brands. All of this leads us to their place on the market today, where they reach impressive share and outstanding popularity with young people.
2) The flavors
One of their most attractive features is the different sweet tastes that come in a great variety – fruits, ice cream, chocolate, tropical fusion, tequila, you name it, it’s probably already a flavor. While we can’t say for certain which one of the flavors is the most popular one, millions of those cigarillos are consumed daily. If we talk about the Swisher Sweets flavors, we need to talk about the wrappers too, as the sweet taste comes from the paper used for the wrap. There are both artificial and natural flavors inside the paper and the machine-rolled cigars come in different sizes and shades.
You can try their premium option too, the Outlaws. Their sun-grown tobacco leaves and natural binders and fillers are hand-rolled in Honduras. Some other varieties of the brand include Slim Panetela Natural and Long Corona Natural and they consist of whole-leaf long fillers instead of cheaper alternatives. Many people believe that the darker the colors of the leaf, the stronger the tobacco is, but don’t fall prey to this misconception. The cigar’s strength does not depend on that.
3) The tobacco
The cigarillos are filled with quality cigar tobacco, which has a very different taste than cigarettes. It is due to the different fermentation process. It happens in a barn where the tobacco gets packed in palm leaves and allowed to “sweat”. Cigarette tobacco gets cured with heat and then it is send for shredding. While this may be a fact well-known by cigar aficionados, many of them don’t know much more about the tobacco in their favorite cigarillos. All Swisher sweets are made out of tobacco sourced from family-owned farms. This not only ensures the high-quality of the main ingredient of the cigars, but it’s also a lesson in doing business sustainably.
4) The artists
In 2014, the brand behind the sweet-flavoured cigarillos decided to give back to the community that made it so popular and started the Swisher Sweets Artist Project. It became an on-going initiative, which provided hip hop artists with opportunities to create and share their music, art, and entertainment passions. By giving those up-and-coming creators a chance to gain more popularity, they don’t just invest in these young people, but keep a large community of performers united.
The brand also throws a series of events and helps emerging artist be discovered by fans on a local and national level. While that is definitely a great marketing opportunity for the company, they have truly found a way to give something back and it’s something many companies can learn from.
Swisher International is a company with a long history and it remains among the largest cigar manufacturers in the world. While many cigar lovers know the brand pretty well, we hope that if you are one of them, you were able to learn something new now that you’ve read this page.
