Nub

Nub is built around a simple idea: most cigars hit their flavor peak, the so-called sweet spot, only after a few inches of burning. Sam Leccia, who worked for Oliva, figured he could skip the wait by packing nearly a full-size cigar’s worth of tobacco into a short, stout shape that opens at that peak and holds it to the end. The signature size, the 460, is just four inches long with a fat 60 ring gauge. Launched in 2008 through Oliva’s Studio Tobac arm and rolled in Estelí, Nicaragua, Nub looked odd enough that the trade was skeptical, until the cigars caught on and set off a wave of imitators. They come in Connecticut, Habano, Maduro, and Cameroon wrappers across a range of strengths. Short, fat, and full of flavor, Nub cigars get to the good part fast.