Corto Maduro X46 | halfwheel

In 2016, Warped Cigars added a second size to its Corto line: a small 4 1/2 x 46 petite corona called the X46. A decade later, the company released a second X46, this time with a darker wrapper and a stronger blend.

The Corto Maduro X46 keeps the 4 1/2 x 46 box-pressed Rothschild shape, but the tobaccos are not identical. When Warped introduced Corto, it said it was the company’s first full-bodied blend, one made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco. For Corto Maduro, the most notable change is that it uses a Mexican San Andrés wrapper. While the filler blend is all-Nicaraguan, the Corto Maduro gets some added medio tiempo tobacco, designed to make the cigar stronger.

Medio tiempo is a priming, not a seed. In the field, tobacco plants used for handmade cigars are typically divided into four sections, from bottom to top: volado, seco, viso and ligero. As you move up the plant, the leaves get physically smaller and, in theory, stronger as they receive more sunlight than the lower leaves. For most plants, ligero is the top section of the plant and considered the strongest leaves of an individual plant. That said, some plants—I typically am told less than 10 percent of them—grow extra leaves up top, something referred to as medio tiempo.

While tobacco growers have known about medio tiempo for a while, the rest of the cigar world was largely in the dark until 2010. That year, Habanos S.A.—the company that sells Cuban cigars—introduced the Cohiba Behike BHK, which uses medio tiempo leaves, the first Cuban cigar to be explicitly marketed that way. Since then, some non-Cuban companies have marketed their own use of medio tiempo leaves, perhaps none more so than Warped.

• Cigar Reviewed: Corto Maduro X46
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Nicaragua American Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Mexico (San Andrés)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 4 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 46
• Shape: Pressed
• MSRP: $12.95 (Box of 20, $259)
• Release Date: April 2025
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Despite being some of the smallest cigars I’ve reviewed lately, there is a lot going on with the Corto Maduro X46. This is sharp press, or at least that would appear to be the intent, but the crisp edges have softened on the third cigar. The color of the wrapper is darker than average, though the color is perhaps the least notable feature. There are a lot of veins, a good amount of oil, and more discoloration than normal. Recently, I’ve noticed a lot more frequent instances of cigars having the texture of the binder showing through the wrapper, and there are some panels where that happens with the Cortos. The aromas have a combination of a very stale, powdered gravy—what I imagine space food gravy would smell like—along with a lively, sweet cocoa. The contrast between the staleness and the vibrance is very interesting; the overall combination is medium-full. The aromas from the feet of the first two cigars have lots of chocolate, like a cake batter, with some mild red pepper, wood and fruit, whereas the third cigar has some of the stale gravy. Cold draws of the cigars are similar in that they are sweet and medium-full, though the details vary. The first cigar is led by the flavor of Life cereal with some sweet tobacco and black pepper behind it, the second cigar has a more classic milk chocolate over citrus, leather and barnyard, then there’s the third cigar, which has a much more intertwined mixture of cocoa, melon and leather.

While there are some similarities between the starts of the cigars, there are also some remarkable differences. For example, I find the first cigar—which has flavors of sweet fruitiness before a mixture of sweet tobaccos, minerals, woodiness and spices—starts rather amped up. In contrast to that, the third cigar starts with woodiness and saltiness before some vegetal flavors emerge, but it takes multiple seconds for each flavor to come forth. The second cigar is dominated by woodiness before toastiness takes over, accented by some tartness. About a third of the puffs of the Corto Maduro X46 are very enjoyable, typically ones when the sweet tobacco leads alongside tree bark and coffee beans. As for the other puffs, they are, to varying degrees, drier or sharper than I’d like. I can’t figure out what’s causing the issues, as each puff seems to be its own adventure, though the third cigar is much better than the other two. Nothing really captures the oddity quite like the second cigar, which can go from a puff that has this dry newspaper-like flavor that reminds me of smoking cigars with more than a decade of age, only to be followed up by the next puff when toasty red pepper overwhelms the palate. Retrohales are more consistent as a combination of nuttiness and flour tortillas lead leather, tartness, lime and strawberries. The finish gets a lot drier and some of the dryness and sharpness reemerge. Flavor is mostly medium-full—some puffs reach full—while the body is more medium-plus and strength is mild-medium or medium. Construction is very good, though there are some moments when the smoke production really dips.

Midway through both the first and second cigars and the ratio between good puffs and not good puffs is getting further away from what I’d like it to be. I’d still say that around a third of the puffs are enjoyable—now led by a distinct plain Cheerios note—but most of the other puffs are either too sour, too sharp or too dry. Unlike the first third, there’s just not a middle ground. The third Corto Maduro X46 has separated itself and is behaving much more like a normal cigar in that the puffs are less variable. It’s got a toastier profile with some burnt flour tortilla flavors, creaminess and saltiness, though some puffs will add a tartness. Every once in a while, I’ll taste a more exotic flavor like berries or aloe, but there’s no consistency to those types of flavors. Retrohales show an even greater contrast: some puffs will be as if I’m eating butter with a dash of salt, only to be followed by the next puff where tree bark and toasted chilis are lighting up my nostrils. Flavor varies between medium-full and full, body is medium-plus or medium-full, and strength is medium. The burn lines were incredibly even in the first third, but start to waver during this middle section. The first cigar ends up needing a correction, though the second and third cigars avoid any of those issues. My largest construction complaint is that I will occasionally look over at the ashtray and see no smoke coming from the cigar, which causes some concern. Fortunately, each time that happens, I take a quick puff and smoke emerges as if nothing was wrong.

While the first cigar seems to be a carbon copy of the second third, the second cigar has a lot more sweetness. The Cheerios flavor is still the strongest taste and there’s an underlying sweetness that is joined by some oiliness and creaminess. At least until the one-inch mark, when the cigar gets toastier and then stalls and turns pretty lifeless. The third cigar continues to have more of a flour tortilla flavor than the Cheerios, now joined by some unsweet floral flavors and a harsh red pepper flavor. Right around the one-inch mark of that cigar, the temperature of the smoke gets a lot hotter and it seems to make the profile more compact, bringing in some woody flavors and a bit of earthiness, though the larger change is added starchiness on the finish. Retrohales follow similar trajectories: in the first two cigars, the Cheerios flavor is joined by some creaminess, before stalling as the cigar nears the end. The third cigar has woodiness and some spicy earth, but it, too, gets hollow as the end nears. Each cigar has quite a bit of creaminess on the finish of the retrohale, a pretty surprising development given how the rest of the cigar has progressed. Flavor varies between medium-full and full, body is medium-full and strength is medium or medium-plus. Construction is pretty similar to the second third: there’s nothing going wrong, though the burn lines are far less even than they were in the first third. At times, the smoke production seems anemic, but then a puff unleashes a cloud of smoke.

Final Notes

• There are many confusing parts of primings, i.e., categorizing the leaves of a tobacco plant. First, there are no rules for classification. One grower might consider a particular leaf to be a seco, another a viso. Second, the plants don’t produce the same number or size of leaves, meaning it would be difficult to make universal rules such as the top six leaves are ligero or leaves of a certain width are seco. Finally, the leaves get sorted and reclassified multiple times from when they are picked to when the cigars are made. It’s entirely possible that a leaf that was grown at the top of a plant ends up getting classified as a viso at pre-industry or the factory.
• The original Corto was Warped’s fullest blend in 2016, and this is supposed to be an amped up version of that, but I never would have guessed it. Even in the last decade, the definition of “full” keeps getting stronger. Given that each crop of tobacco is different and that rolled cigars will change as they age, there’s no scientific way to declare this as infallible but there was a time when a cigar like OpusX was considered to be “too strong” for most. Now, it’s probably a solid medium-full in terms of body and nicotine.

• The caps were pretty tapered and not the prettiest-looking. One had a small piece missing on the side. It was located high enough up that it was in the area that would be removed, so no harm, no foul.
• The original Corto blend is also offered in the X52, a 4 3/4 x 52 short robusto. Warped has said additional Corto Maduro vitolas would be added later this year.

• The two blends use different bands. The original blend, pictured above, has a cream-colored circle with blue throughout the other parts, the Corto Maduro uses a black circle with red on the outside.
• The third cigar I smoked was slightly bent, meaning it wouldn’t lie flush on a flat surface. Give my experience smoking culebras, I don’t think this slight bend is a huge concern, though every little thing is likely to impact how a cigar smokes.
• While this cigar had flawless construction—meaning none of the three cigars received a deduction for a noted issue—I rarely felt confident about its ability to stay lit. During each cigar, there were multiple times when I would look at the cigar in the ashtray and have concerns about whether it was still lit. I’d pick it up, take a puff and it would come alive.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.

• Warped lists the cigars at 4 1/2 x 46, above are the measurements I found for the three cigars I smoked. These are incredibly consistent numbers, especially given the petite size.
• I am a slow smoker, especially for reviews. It took me just over an hour to smoke each one of these cigars and I wonder how different this cigar would taste if I tried smoking in 30-40 minutes.
• Site sponsor Atlantic Cigar Co. carries the Corto Maduro X46.

Update — The original version of this review inidicated the cigars are made at Aganorsa, they are made at NACSA.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.