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Help. Bloom or Mold?

Seizure

Seizure

Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
287
Location
New York, NY
Hi Guys. Been inactive on CigarPass for a few years as I've moved from Buffalo where I had my nice backyard and green grass perfect for enjoying a nice cigar in the evenings to an apartment in Manhattan where enjoying a nice Robusto is a bit hard to pull off. So my cigar collection has slept peacefully in my coolidor with Humidor Beads keeping the humidity perfect at 65%. Every few months or so I would open the coolidor to let the air out and let my cigars breathe a bit. This has gone on for about...3+ years now (wow time flies) Today I decided to sift through my collection and open up some of the cedar cabinet boxes I have where I store my prized collection and I was a bit shocked to find this White SpiderWEb/Cobweb Dusty growth on a bunch of my cigars. Part of me thought. Bloom/Plume? I have never seen bloom before in my life. This stuff was everywhere, it was even growing on the cedar wood itself. So I thought I check in with you guys to let me know if it's Mold or Bloom and what to do now?
 
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shoot seriously? Argh...this is crazy. All my cubans were all in the same small cedar cabinet, and my more expensive smokes were also grouped together? Why couldn't the mold attack my Consuergas?

what do I do now. Isolate the sticks? Or jus throw them away? I'm doing some more reading on it to find out what to do.
 
Plume looks crystalline... Mold looks like hair. U B the judge... Or not.
Here is an article that I found for you... Also, go to this link "cigars.about.com". It will help you.

There are actually two types of white powdery substances that can potentially develop on your cigars. The first one is bloom/plume and in actuality, it is more of a grey/off-white fuzz and very "dust-like" in appearance. It can easily be mistaken for dust but as you mentioned, it is the crystallization of the natural oils from the wrapper leaf. The other substance is often pure-white in colour and very powdery like flour or cornstarch. Unlike bloom which can form anywhere on a cigar, this substance often forms in mounds in a localized area on your cigars or even on the humidor interior. This substance is called "mineral trace" and it often develops when you're not using 100% distilled water. What happens is that the water you use in your humidor may contain small traces of mineral deposits. In your humidor, the water will evaporate into humidity but the mineral deposits cannot dissolve so they just settle and build up on your cigars or on the interior of the humidor itself.

It’s very likely that what you have is mineral trace. In it’s infancy, mineral trace can look like little spikes, microscopic fibers or lamp posts as you described it. Thankfully, it’s not destructive to your cigars but it can give them a chalky, metallic taste so it’s best to remove the powder from the cigars and humidor and switch to 100% distilled water. Even with bottled water, boiled water or filtered water, mineral trace can still occur. (In fact, with bottled water, it is more likely to develop as commercially bottled drinking water has minerals such as iron and calcium added to it.) Your best option is to make sure you’re using 100% distilled water or bidest water (double distilled water).

Remember, Cigar Mold is blue/green in colour and leaves a stain on the cigar when wiped away. Plume is dust-like and grey/off-white in colour and Mineral Trace is pure white in colour and powdery like flour. Mineral trace also develops faster than plume (plume/bloom can take 3 months to a year to fully develop whereas mineral trace can easily take just 1 month to form.) Mineral trace also appears near or on the humidification device, on the surrounding areas around it (on the interior wood) or on your cigars if they’re close to the humidification device. Plume on the other hand, can form freely
 
can i just brush off the mold (if it even brushes off)and isolate it for smoking later on? Or will I get sick from smoking a moldy cigar?
 
That is most definitely mold my friend, But I would just brush it off and smoke it immediately.

It looks like you have some cubans, and those fellows smoke best in the 60-65% humidity range. If your smokes are developing mold, they are WAYYYYYY too wet IMHO.
 
grateful1 said:
Seizure said:
can i just brush off the mold (if it even brushes off)and isolate it for smoking later on? Or will I get sick from smoking a moldy cigar?
Click to expand...


Brush and smoke!

If only someone had a site showing the difference!
Click to expand...


Grateful1, that is a good link. After doing some more reading I definately have mold. In the same stack of cigars I found some that have mold with a greenish/blue color to it. This definately sucks. I don't have much cubans so I save them and after a while I feel guilty smoking them because once I do, they are gone. It seems a bit ironic at this point as the cubans I'm saving can't be smoked now. I'll probably get together with some buddies tonight and try and smoke the ones that have the least mold on them. Give them a disclaimer saying if they get sick it's not my fault.

I did find one cigar that seems to have real plume on it, it looks just like the Opus X picture in that Vitolas.net link. It is small specks of white salt like appearance all throughout the cigar and it looks shiny. Too bad the other end of it shows the mold on it as well.

2k0y3b.jpg


i'm also slightly confused how this happens. I use 65% humidity beads and I have a well calibrated little Havana Hygrometer (the black cigar shaped one) Looking at the highest RH% reading on the hygrometer shows 71%, although right now it's showing a good 67% RH. The lowest was 64%. I want to say it was maintained well.
 
mold on the foot is baaaaaaaaad! I wouldn't brush that off and smoke it...

And even at the right RH level, you can still get mold with stagnant air... air circulation is pretty critical as well. Even if you just open the door to your humi and admire you smokes (like most of us do!) that will be enough. Some even go so far as to put small battery operated fans in the bigger humis to move air.

Sucks man... every time I see one of these posts I go digging thru my humi's to check mine!
 
Swissy said:
mold on the foot is baaaaaaaaad! I wouldn't brush that off and smoke it...

And even at the right RH level, you can still get mold with stagnant air... air circulation is pretty critical as well. Even if you just open the door to your humi and admire you smokes (like most of us do!) that will be enough. Some even go so far as to put small battery operated fans in the bigger humis to move air.

Sucks man... every time I see one of these posts I go digging thru my humi's to check mine!
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I'm thinking that's what happened. I have a Coolidor so the air is trapped inside. I only open it once a few months to let in fresh air. I guess I'll have to "admire" my smokes more often, or perhaps put my prized sticks in a regular wooden humidor that allows air to pass through.
 
Seizure said:
Hi Guys. Been inactive on CigarPass for a few years as I've moved from Buffalo where I had my nice backyard and green grass perfect for enjoying a nice cigar in the evenings to an apartment in Manhattan where enjoying a nice Robusto is a bit hard to pull off. So my cigar collection has slept peacefully in my coolidor with Humidor Beads keeping the humidity perfect at 65%. Every few months or so I would open the coolidor to let the air out and let my cigars breathe a bit. This has gone on for about...3+ years now (wow time flies) Today I decided to sift through my collection and open up some of the cedar cabinet boxes I have where I store my prized collection and I was a bit shocked to find this White SpiderWEb/Cobweb Dusty growth on a bunch of my cigars. Part of me thought. Bloom/Plume?
Click to expand...

That part of you is called "hope" -- and it's time to let go. That's fuzzier than my belly button lint, and is unquestionably mold. And a very bad mold growth at that. Time to throw everything out, and sterilize the humidor.

hope.jpg
 
Seizure said:
I did find one cigar that seems to have real plume on it, it looks just like the Opus X picture in that Vitolas.net link. It is small specks of white salt like appearance all throughout the cigar and it looks shiny. Too bad the other end of it shows the mold on it as well.

2k0y3b.jpg
Click to expand...

No no no. That is not plume... that is MOLD. Abandon any shred of hope you're attempting to cling to... none of this is plume. It is all mold.
 
moki said:
Seizure said:
Hi Guys. Been inactive on CigarPass for a few years as I've moved from Buffalo where I had my nice backyard and green grass perfect for enjoying a nice cigar in the evenings to an apartment in Manhattan where enjoying a nice Robusto is a bit hard to pull off. So my cigar collection has slept peacefully in my coolidor with Humidor Beads keeping the humidity perfect at 65%. Every few months or so I would open the coolidor to let the air out and let my cigars breathe a bit. This has gone on for about...3+ years now (wow time flies) Today I decided to sift through my collection and open up some of the cedar cabinet boxes I have where I store my prized collection and I was a bit shocked to find this White SpiderWEb/Cobweb Dusty growth on a bunch of my cigars. Part of me thought. Bloom/Plume?
Click to expand...

That part of you is called "hope" -- and it's time to let go. That's fuzzier than my belly button lint, and is unquestionably mold. And a very bad mold growth at that. Time to throw everything out, and sterilize the humidor.

hope.jpg
Click to expand...

You know, i think I should've realized it was mold right from the start when I found that stuff growing on the Cedar Wood itself. I already chucked out those cedar cabinets already. Not sure how to sterilize the humidor though. Wipe it down with alcohol?
 
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