SWAG Black Lavishes Big Flavor on a Robusto

Boutique Blends has 3 well-known brands – Aging Room, SWAG and Oliveros. I have enjoyed a number of Aging Room offerings and, at the 2014 IPCPR, Boutique Blends president Rafael Nodal provided me with one of their new creations, a SWAG Black. The Black comes in 4 sizes and the 5 X 54 robusto is called “Lavish”. The Lavish is promoted as a full bodied Dominican puro using tobacco aged for 8 years that has traditional strong Nicaraguan flavors. I happen to like cigars from both countries.

The Lavish has an average appearance with above average construction. It was firm with no hard spots. The draw was good and the smoke volume was above average. The flavor hits early and a little hard with pepper and leather. The after taste has hints of cedar and cinnamon. Further into the cigar the flavors intensified and the leather component was replaced by coffee. The ash was beautiful and confirmed the good construction.

This is a full bodied cigar with strong flavors so it is not for the faint of heart. The SRP is $7.90, about right for the product delivered and it could be found for a little less on the internet. I spent 50 minutes smoking the Lavish and I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.