El Oso Petit Robusto

For the newest size of its El Oso line, Warped Cigars went small and it went limited.

The El Oso Petit Robusto is a 4 x 50 vitola that was released at the end of August. Like the rest of the line, it uses an Ecuadorian habano oscuro wrapper, Ecuadorian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The company has not disclosed where the El Oso Petit Robusto was made, though El Titan de Bronze in Miami has made the other sizes in the line and the band still says Miami on one side.

It is priced at $15 per cigar, with production limited to 160 bundles of 10 cigars. Those 1,600 cigars were distributed to just 10 retailers across the country.

Warped released the El Oso line in 2014 in two sizes, Cub, a 4 x 44 vitola, and PaPa, a 6 x 48 belicoso. In 2016, a third vitola called Ursus, a 5 5/8 x 46 corona gorda, was released as an exclusive to Atlantic Cigar Co.

• Cigar Reviewed: El Oso Petit Robusto
• Country of Origin: Undisclosed
• Factory: Undisclosed
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano Oscuro)
• Binder: Ecuador
• Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua
• Length: 4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 50
• Vitola: Petit Robusto
• MSRP: $15 (Bundle of 10, $150)
• Release Date: August 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: 160 Bundles of 10 Cigars (1,600 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Having just reviewed a 7-inch-long cigar, the El Oso Petit Robusto is a welcomed change, and I’m immediately hopeful that the smoking time will be a bit more manageable. The wrapper is a darker-than-medium shade of brown that has a bit of a fine grit feel to it thanks to some tooth on the leaf. The veins are generally small, though one that runs underneath the band causes a wrinkle in the paper. The three cigars all look good with flat, clean seams, though one has a cap that isn’t completely flat. They are also each rolled quite firmly with a few spots here and there that allow for a slight bit of give. The foot offers an initial aroma of thick wheat bread, then pepper comes along to tingle my nostrils while the flavor shifts to a point where I’m reminded of coffee beans. One cigar also has a cola syrup sweetness, which I appreciate for its addition of sweetness. The cold draw is smooth with some resistance and reminds me of a cooled espresso, particularly on the finish where there is a slightly charred coffee bean flavor combining with some creaminess. There’s not much pepper here, but the more cold draws I take, the more I get a dry wood flavor that tingles the taste buds, while the same cigar that had the cola flavor in the aroma also has it on the flavor, though it doesn’t appear in the other two cigars.

The first puffs are subtle in terms of their initial intensity, but the exhale and finish reveals a vibrant black pepper that also imparts a bit of chili pepper heat. Retrohales need no time to show their punchiness, as a very vibrant pepper pops in the nostrils and leaves a lingering tingle once the smoked has been exhaled. That chili pepper heat comes with the occasional taste of the flesh of said pepper, a subtle vegetal note that appears only in the most subtle of the three cigars. The initial puffs have good body to them and put out a decent amount of smoke, though that production shuts down when the cigar touches the ashtray. While smoke production might diminish, the finish of the cigar carries on, as a normal breath through my nose taken a few seconds after my last puff delivers a good bit of tingle. It’s this sensation that shows the smoke can be a touch sharp in the early going, but generally stays manageable and agreeable. A combination of a touch of a very light chalk and mineral comes in at the end of this section, which has the effect of giving the flavor a slightly lighter profile while also minimizing the more assertive pepper aspects. Flavor is medium-full, largely driven by the finish of each puff and if a few retrohales are taken. Body is medium and strength is medium-minus, with the fairly strong start leading me to think the latter will increase. Construction is very good, while combustion struggles at times, as the first cigar goes out during the period when I put it in the ashtray so I get write down some thoughts.

There are damp wood flavors emerging as the burn line gets into the second third, a fairly rich flavor but one that also feels like it subdues the profile’s overall vibrance, particularly in comparison to the first third. One cigar begins to suggest some creaminess, though what it manages to achieve is more a change in texture than the addition of a flavor.  There is still some pepper, though it is less vibrant than it was in the first third and less vibrant than most expressions of pepper I tend to find in cigars. Retrohales make up for that, as they are much brighter and potent. There isn’t much change after the start of this section, other than that the rich, damp wood note continues to develop and become the focal point of the profile. Both black pepper and red chili pepper return at the end of this section, a change that is immediately noticeable by way of my taste buds getting a lot more tingle. Flavor is now a rich medium, body is medium, and strength has held steady at medium-minus, though it still feels poised to make a move. The combustion has occasional issues that require a touch-up or all-out relight.

The damp wood flavor has me thinking of oak as the final third gets underway. While the wood flavor provides a fairly deep base of flavor, it increasingly has to compete with the return of the brighter pepper, and in particular the finish of the chili pepper that really works the front half of my tongue. The final inches—or inch—of this section bring about a sharper flavor, as the pepper becomes crisp and there is a bit of heat coming from the cigar. One cigar develops a particular bite in the back of my throat, as the pepper no longer seems interested in my taste buds. Flavor finishes medium-plus, body is still medium, and strength is medium. Construction and combustion haven’t changed much, as the former is good while the latter hits the occasional bump in the road and needs a touch-up to get going again.

Final Notes

• Warped appears to have launched a new website fairly recently. I bring that up because the company had listed the 10 stores carrying the El Oso Petit Robusto on its blog, but that link now redirects to the homepage and the blog appears to have been removed.
• The post is still accessible via Archive.org, however.
• In 2021, the company launched an extension to the line called El Oso Blanco, a hybrid of the El Oso and La Colmena lines. Specifically, it uses the La Colmena’s Ecuadorian desflorada wrapper, which is lighter in color and strength than the El Oso’s wrapper, and gives the cigar a sweeter profile. The binder and filler for the El Oso Blanco were the same as the ones used on the regular El Oso line.
• Each of the three cigars struggled a bit with combustion, though didn’t seem to have any immediately obvious causes. There were a couple of times when I would put the cigar down to jot down some notes, only to come back to it and find that it needed a full relight.
• I felt a bit of nicotine strength from the El Oso Petit Robusto, though not as much as some of the early puffs had me thinking I would feel.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was one hour and 25 minutes on average.