Sorry you had a bad experience. Hopefully you'll try these again at some point. The main reason I say this is because I have had several of these and love 'em! I thought they had a slight pepper flavor right away that really picked up at the halfway point and turned into a strong full bodied smoke with some real spice. It stayed cool the whole way down and never had a real problem with the ash. It held on for a good inch and had to tap it off because I could tell it would fall at any moment.
As for the nub... if the ash is an issue, the nub stand is true to it's word.
Nubs are okay. I say this every time anyone asks about the nub, but their Connecticut cigar is one of the best tasting connie cigars I've had.
I will punch the nub occasionally since the large rounded cap nub is slightly too big for my Palio, but the smaller rounded cap or the Torp I cut. either way I've never had to correct the burn on a nub that I can recall.
