The Million Dollar Question, please.

F

FriendlyFire

Alpha Silverback
Ok, I'm sorry friends, I know this discussion is mentioned here alot. But t I don't think this should be taken litely. (Search never works for me)I have a very big glass top humidor (That I got hit with From RDG) and a nice cooler. I have most of my loose cigars in the Humidor with the plastics on that they came with. And alot have dates when I put them in. And the boxes are in the cooler. I have a open box of Padron 64's a open box of short stories, and a few others full boxes not to mention here.

It got very hot in the room last summer, alot but the humidy was more less ok, I'm Planning to get a floor A/C for that room to solve the heat issues.
But here is my Big Question, please.

Those closed boxes I was talking about in the cooler I got this past winter, October 07 in Germany Frankfurt Air port. I opened the boxes to look whats in side and some sticks have the white stuff. I'v seen it n some other sticks here and there, Now this is the big question is it from againg or is it mold?? How in the world can I tell the diffrence? Now Do you wipe them off with your fingers right away? or if its not mold you leave it? Obviosly I'm not going to smoe all the sticks now becase they have the white stuff. Can you kep sticks that have ploom or not? I'm seen sticks here and there have them. And even once in a while even when I buy local. Now the truth is I might of kept the cooler to humid all winter because I didnt want them to dry out. Now what is to humid? especily if they are in wodden boxes? I do find my sticks that are not in boxes but in the cooler to be soft, is soft no good? Do you let them lay for a few hourd to dry out before smoking?

I'm sorry if this is boring.
Thanks,
Jack
 
FriendlyFire said:
Those closed boxes I was talking about in the cooler I got this past winter, October 07 in Germany Frankfurt Air port. I opened the boxes to look whats in side and some sticks have the white stuff. I'v seen it n some other sticks here and there, Now this is the big question is it from againg or is it mold?? How in the world can I tell the diffrence? Now Do you wipe them off with your fingers right away? or if its not mold you leave it? Obviosly I'm not going to smoe all the sticks now becase they have the white stuff. Can you kep sticks that have ploom or not? I'm seen sticks here and there have them. And even once in a while even when I buy local. Now the truth is I might of kept the cooler to humid all winter because I didnt want them to dry out. Now what is to humid? especily if they are in wodden boxes? I do find my sticks that are not in boxes but in the cooler to be soft, is soft no good? Do you let them lay for a few hourd to dry out before smoking?

I'm sorry if this is boring.
Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...

A box from 07 is absolutely not going to have plume, so it looks like you have a case of the moldies. Look at the sticks individually - if it just has mold on the wrapper, go ahead and wipe it off and put it back. If it has mold on the foot, trash it. No matter what, keep all the previously-molded sticks in the same box apart from the rest of your stock.

I'm not sure I understand your humidity issue. Winter and boxes don't make a difference for relative humidity. Just because it's drier outside doesn't mean your humidor needs to be more humid. I think we could argue over what "too humid" is, but I'd say 75%+. If you have soft sticks, then you need to lower the RH in your humidor rather than just dryboxing or laying them out before smoking. If you get a reliable, calibrated hygrometer and find out that your humidor is at an acceptable humidity level and your sticks still feel soft, then you can consider letting sticks sit out for a few hours or dryboxing them for a few days before smoking.
 
Bloom/Ploom will be white and have more of a powdery look as opposed to mold which will appear kinda fuzzy. Bloom will rub into the leaf as mold will not. Not the most articulate explanation you will get, but there ya go. :tu

Steve
 
While I can comfortably say that it is not plume, I dont want you to be scared that it is entirely your fault. When buyng boxes of cigars sealed, you are taking a risk.. Why not open them and inspect them first? Im not sure if this optin was offered to you when you bought them, but i would suggest using it next time, or at the very least checking them when they get home..

I'll digress.. Take the cigars out of the box in question.. Wipe them off.. Now take the cigars out of the box, and store them in a cool dry place seperate from your other cigars. You may want to freeze them for a few days.. (i recommend 2 days in the fridge, then 3 days in the freezer, then 2 days in the fridge, then back to the humi..) Not sure if u have to do this for this box, but it cant hurt..

Make sure you check you other cigars.. Mold is one of those things that like to spread.. Maybe the mold was present before you got these home.??

You'll be ok though..
 
I got it in 07 I'm not sure when it was made. Didn't look for the rollers note, if they have one. Can look.

Do you think I should take one stick to a B&M or if there is an Mold/Ploom/Bloom expert in th house maybe its worth sending him a stick to inspect.

FriendlyFire said:
Ok, I'm sorry friends, I know this discussion is mentioned here alot. But t I don't think this should be taken litely. (Search never works for me)I have a very big glass top humidor (That I got hit with From RDG) and a nice cooler. I have most of my loose cigars in the Humidor with the plastics on that they came with. And alot have dates when I put them in. And the boxes are in the cooler. I have a open box of Padron 64's a open box of short stories, and a few others full boxes not to mention here.

It got very hot in the room last summer, alot but the humidy was more less ok, I'm Planning to get a floor A/C for that room to solve the heat issues.
But here is my Big Question, please.

Those closed boxes I was talking about in the cooler I got this past winter, October 07 in Germany Frankfurt Air port. I opened the boxes to look whats in side and some sticks have the white stuff. I'v seen it n some other sticks here and there, Now this is the big question is it from againg or is it mold?? How in the world can I tell the diffrence? Now Do you wipe them off with your fingers right away? or if its not mold you leave it? Obviosly I'm not going to smoe all the sticks now becase they have the white stuff. Can you kep sticks that have ploom or not? I'm seen sticks here and there have them. And even once in a while even when I buy local. Now the truth is I might of kept the cooler to humid all winter because I didnt want them to dry out. Now what is to humid? especily if they are in wodden boxes? I do find my sticks that are not in boxes but in the cooler to be soft, is soft no good? Do you let them lay for a few hourd to dry out before smoking?

I'm sorry if this is boring.
Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...
 
FriendlyFire said:
I got it in 07 I'm not sure when it was made. Didn't look for the rollers note, if they have one. Can look.

Do you think I should take one stick to a B&M or if there is an Mold/Ploom/Bloom expert in th house maybe its worth sending him a stick to inspect.
Click to expand...

no.. chances are, its not plume.. Just handle it "in-house" you have all the resources you need here.
 
Do you mean like fuzy and greenish?
One loose cigar had that.

The boxes look more like a kinda dust white.

telest said:
Bloom/Ploom will be white and have more of a powdery look as opposed to mold which will appear kinda fuzzy. Bloom will rub into the leaf as mold will not. Not the most articulate explanation you will get, but there ya go. :tu

Steve
Click to expand...
 
FriendlyFire said:
Do you mean like fuzy and greenish?
One loose cigar had that.

The boxes look more like a kinda dust white.
Click to expand...

If the mold was green throw the cigar away, don't even bother to try and wipe it off. If the mold is white, and only on the wrapper you can wipe it off and smoke it. If you look at it through a magnifying glass it will be very clear if it is mold or plume. Just Google mold and look at the pictures and compare what you see on the smokes.
 
The greenish stuff was on a thin long don pepin I got from someone.

groogs said:
If the mold was green throw the cigar away, don't even bother to try and wipe it off. If the mold is white, and only on the wrapper you can wipe it off and smoke it. If you look at it through a magnifying glass it will be very clear if it is mold or plume. Just Google mold and look at the pictures and compare what you see on the smokes.
Click to expand...
 
Do you own and operate a camera? Perhaps a nice macro image of the situation would help diagnose your situation. Just a thought.:)
 
Yeah I was thinking about it, and its on my plan. As so as I get home I'll work on that. Sorry for not suppling right away. But the question is Is picture posting ok in this thread?? if you understand my question???

tzaddi said:
Do you own and operate a camera? Perhaps a nice macro image of the situation would help diagnose your situation. Just a thought.:)
Click to expand...
 
FriendlyFire said:
Yeah I was thinking about it, and its on my plan. As so as I get home I'll work on that. Sorry for not suppling right away. But the question is Is picture posting ok in this thread?? if you understand my question???
Click to expand...

It's OK with me, I like pictures. :)
DSC03023_2.jpg
 
FriendlyFire said:
Yeah I was thinking about it, and its on my plan. As so as I get home I'll work on that. Sorry for not suppling right away. But the question is Is picture posting ok in this thread?? if you understand my question???
Click to expand...

Can you post pictures of Cuban cigars? Yes, you can post pictures of Cuban cigars.

As for the mold/plume debate - I think 90% of the time people have the "is this mold or plume" question it's mold. Here's a good page with lots of pictures of mold: http://www.vitolas.net/displayimage.php?album=25&pos=14 . Perhaps you can look at those and see if yours look like any of those? I think some of us are fairly certain it's mold for several reasons:
  • You're unsure of the provenance of the cigars. You got them at the Frankfurt airport but beyond that, who knows.
  • You admitted that you keep your RH too high, even raising it during the winter, and describe your sticks as "soft."
  • You admitted that another cigar in your humi had mold without a doubt.
Plume requires delicate aging at perfect conditions for a long period of time, and the current situation unfortunately points to mold. Like I said in the first post, wipe it off unless it's on the foot and move on.
 
To things that you need to tell if it is plume

A magnifying glass and a flashlight


Simple test

Look in the magnifying glass and shine the flashlight on the stick in quesiton, bloom/plume is crystalline and will refract/reflect light and you can actually see the crystals, they also distribute very evenly on the cigar. as

Mold under magnification looks furry and will clump. Here is a nice little photographic illustration of the difference and a good explanation.

http://home.alltel.net/jbperry/cig.htm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top