Size: 6.5″ x 52 – Fierce
Wrapper: Dominican
Binder and Filler: Dominican Ligero Habano
Strength: High Medium to Full
Price: ~ $6.00 USD each

Behind The Stick:

The Swag line of cigars seems to be another one of those cigars that has not quite made it to the point where forums, bloggers and mild chats within B&M’s are dropping the name on a regular basis. If you do happen to take the extra time out of your day and look up the Swag line you will see some short mentions of brand owner – Raphael Nodal of Oliveros Cigars – had partnered with Jochi Blanco in the Dominican Republic ( a veteran tobacco master who co-owns a 120 acre tobacco farm with Litto Gomez ) to create a 100% Dominican Ligero Habano blend ( filler, binder and wrapper ) all produced from a single farm. The Swag is available in six sizes – the 5.5″ x 42 ring gauge Quickie, the 7″ x 38 Elite, the 6.5″ x 52 ring gaguge Fierce belicoso, a 6″ x 60 Ego, a 5″ x 54 Lavish, and the 6″ x 54 Infamous, named for Rafael’s stepson, who is a Grammy winning producer for hip-hop artist Lil’ Wayne.

I have seen a few other cigar makers produce the same type of cigar ( single farm selection ) and they have received mixed emotions, mainly the comments that they taste good but lack the complexity that has started to become the norm with premium cigars today. The Swag site states the Swag Puro Dominicano is “A new kind of Dominican, with the aroma, flavor, and burn of typical Dominicans, but also the complexity and character of a Nicaraguan cigar.” Let us see if they are telling the truth or just another company full of hype, blowing smoke up our – you know what.

Construction:

The packaging on this cigar leaves little to the imagination as to what they are – a bright red band with gold and red accents surrounding the bold white letters spelling out “SWAG” while the majority of the cigar is covered with a white tissue paper that has SWAG, Puro Dominicano in gold across the length of the paper. Once you get past the fancy paper and foot band, you are left with a good looking, albeit brittle, medium brown wrapper. The cigar feels well filled, perhaps a few ‘not so dense’ spots but not quite a ‘oh shit, this might not burn right’ moment during pre-light inspection. My pet peeve was
also adverted – even with the layering upon layering of bands – all removed without issue or damage to the wrapper.

Flavor:

The starting portions of this cigar were not in your face – I was more taken away by the room aroma which was that of light earth and leather heavily laden with a familiar sweetness. A half inch or so into the cigar ( about the time I got tired of smelling the cigar and wanting to actually taste it ) the draw broke free and rich white pepper, light earth and a dash or two of leather and coffee hidden within the thick plumes of smoke covered my taste buds, the spice hitting the back of my throat in just the right spots.

These flavors were not as dynamic as I was expecting from reading the companies description that it carried the character and complexity of Nicaraguan tobacco – but dynamic none the less. These flavors changed in intensity and the overall body of the cigar slowly but steadily picked up, by the half way mark it was easy to tell this was a full body cigar. The white pepper changed out for spicy black pepper, the earth picked up and turned into a more wet, mud like flavor and the sweet leather seemed to have been kicked in the balls by the devil – a spicy, bitter leather now in the foreground while the sweetness from before was nothing more than a memory on my lips. Even till the very end, the smoke remained very smooth even with the mildly bitter and dark flavors it is producing.

Overall:

To me, this was one hell of a cigar. The beginning had me worried this ‘medium to full body’ smoke may sit in the direct middle ground of medium but once a handful of puffs into the cigar passed, I was quickly delighted to my error in prior-judgement. A little light headed and mutterings to myself of making the decision to smoke this before a meal, I can defiantly suggest this to be an after meal smoke. If your ‘one of those’ people, CA even reported this as ‘cigar of the week’ back in June of 2011. Well balanced yet still full of body and flavor, the smoothness of the cigar is what I have to draw your attention to – this is not an attempt at a ‘poor mans Opus’ but if the concerns about harshness and ‘lost flavor’ within a full body cigar have shied you away in the past, use the Swag Infamous as your baby step into the full body cigar world. If you have had the chance to give these a shot, let me know what you thought, if not I would suggest running out and grabbing a pair before you jump right into a box purchase but for those full body lovers – I think this might just be a perfect box purchase if your debating on that next box purchase.

Every Cigar Has A Story, Every Smoke A Memory