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Problem with Tampa Sweethearts

CigarStone

CigarStone

For once, knowledge is making me poor!
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
12,077
Location
Northeast, Ohio
First Name
Jeff
I really hate to bang on a vendor who has been very good to deal with thus far but I think this was absolute BS :angry:

Shortly after posting this ....... Link ..... I found another Anejo #48 in my humi and checked it and sure enough it had mold under the cedar. I sent this pic
f_Anejo48m_630edfa.jpg

to Darlene, explained that I bought it in October 2007 from them, and asked her what their policy was regarding moldy cigars and just to diffuse the conversation a bit I asked her how she felt about removing the cedar on Anejos.

Here is her response:
If you dont plan to smoke the cigar immediately, then yes, take the cedar off the cigar and let it sit in the humidor to age more...cedar enhances the flavoring of the cigar, but you also have to let the cigar get some moisture underneath to the wrapper...so again, if you're going to let them sit in your humidor for a long time, i would suggest removing the cedar....

Secondly, that's not mold on your cigar..that's white bloom... bloom is very good for the cigar..it means it's aging and will only get better and smoke really awesome!
Trust me it's not mold..you can just wipe it off the cigar... it's still very smokeable...and will be delicious tasting!

darlene


Now Darlene doesn't know me personally but we have spoken many times and she knows I buy a lot of cigars from them. I think for her to automatically assume she can pull the "that's not mold, trust me it's bloom" is unacceptable. Especially since last years Anejos are known to have had a fair share of mold problems. The mold was fuzzy and not crystalline and I don't think a cigar can develop bloom in such a short time can it?

I find it disturbing that a vendor with a reputation as they have would respond this way!
 
That sucks, sorry to hear about that. Hopefully they will get you a refund or something, I'm guessing they can't exchange it since they probably don't have any in stock.

So, is that true though, remove the cedar from your cigars if they're sitting in the humi?
 
Personally, I would of told Darlene she's full of it, and by the way, I have. Not that it did any good. There's too many blind Fuente fans out there who will put up it.

Doc.
 
Why is it that every vendor claims it is blume?

Sorry to hear of your experience with a proven vendor. I would suggest you send them back and tell her you know for a fact that it is mold.
 
tone-ny said:
Why is it that every vendor claims it is blume?

Sorry to hear of your experience with a proven vendor. I would suggest you send them back and tell her you know for a fact that it is mold.
Click to expand...

It's not worth it to send it back as their policy is that I pay to send it back and they will replace it. It would cost $5 to send it back to get another $10 cigar. I just wiped it off (none in the foot) and will smoke it.

I think I will convey my disappointment to Darlene and start looking for another place to buy hard to find Fuentes.
 
Not trying to start a fight here, but did you inspect it in October? ???

I've never gotten anything moldy from there and I do a big order every five or six weeks...
 
Jeez, I hate reading these Mold on Anejo posts. I don't have many, but it seems I need to go through my stock just in case.

Sorry to hear about it.
 
Most vendors would jump through hoops to make good a buy, but only within a few days of purchase. Sorry Jeff, but I can't agree with holding Darlene's feet to the flame 8-10 weeks later, even knowing about recent mold discoveries. Still, this moldy Anejo thing just sticks in my throat.
 
KayakinBoy said:
Not trying to start a fight here, but did you inspect it in October? ???

I've never gotten anything moldy from there and I do a big order every five or six weeks...
Click to expand...

No I didn't, but rest assured that will never happen again :) . I got several Anejos at the same time and the rest are all okay. It is unlikely that this occurred since receiving it as my basement is roughly 62 degrees in the fall & winter and that humi is 67%. My concern is 99% based on Darlene's actions and not that I got one moldy cigar from them........it can happen to anyone when the humipacks are too high in RH, which I am told was the case last year.
 
No dog in this fight but I will say that I have had more than a box of Anejo #46 from 2004 + and left them in the cedar and in the original box (with no humipack in the box) and never had a mold issue on that particular Anejo. The sharks have always had issues for me and I basically stopped smoking Anejo for the mold reasons. Now I keep my humidor at 63-66% but that is just my preference on humidity for most every cigar. It is to bad that most retailers just assume that is bloom and do not really know the difference between bloom and mold.
 
I'm disappointed at her answer as well, but not surprised at the moldy Anejo.
 
UPDATE:

I expressed my disappointment to Darlene in an email and she called me right away. She was a bit defensive saying that the picture looked like bloom to her and others she showed the picture to. I explained that I am not disappointed that I got a moldy cigar from them but that she would take the position she did rather than saying "it's hard for me to tell from that picture" or asking "have you looked at it under magnification to see if it is white and fuzzy or crystalline" etc. She offered to replace it and I told her that was not necessary as there was no mold in the foot and I had wiped it off and would smoke it this weekend.

She did make a couple comments which I felt were odd: She said "if you had only one with mold out of 25 that's pretty good" as if mold on Anejos is expected and accepted. She also told me that "bloom can form on a cigar in one year".............can anyone provide any expertise on this?

Net-net.............I am satisfied but I sure hope she isn't beautiful ;)
 
Moki has a good pic comparison and explanation of plume and mold on vitolas.net. Start there. It seems to be widely held that plume takes several years to form, but I'm no expert.

D
 
KayakinBoy said:
CigarStone said:
She said "if you had only one with mold out of 25 that's pretty good"
Click to expand...

I'm going to stop shopping there if they let you get around the limitations... :whistling: :laugh:
Click to expand...

You can buy every single item on the "rare/hard to find" list every day if you want, or even multiple times in one day, as long as each order is accompanied by $25 worth from their regular stuff and each order is shipped separate. They are very strict about the "rules" though....at least they have been with me, wouldn't even allow me to combine shipping on two separate orders the same day. Damn communists ;) I ordered these over a period of 6-8 months.
 
Crystalline structures can form on your cigars within a year, if conditions are right. As far as the one out of 25 comment, takes me back to the late 90's, early '00s and Havanas... if you only got one plugged cigar out of 25, you hit the lottery.
 
CigarStone said:
She did make a couple comments which I felt were odd: She said "if you had only one with mold out of 25 that's pretty good" as if mold on Anejos is expected and accepted. She also told me that "bloom can form on a cigar in one year".............can anyone provide any expertise on this?

Net-net.............I am satisfied but I sure hope she isn't beautiful ;)
Click to expand...

She doesn't know what bloom is if she claimed that was bloom in that picture.

Therefor if she doesn't know what it is, I don't think we need to listen to her opinion of when it can form... ;)
 
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