Calling for cigars with Mould/plume/bloom

[El Presidente]

Of course this is relation to one of our key projects for 2017. 

Over the next two weeks I will be going through some cigars in the warehouse which I know are likely Mould subjects. The Estuche X is always a good starting point 

Now it is unlikely that you have mould ridden cigars in your humidor. You may however come across a stick or two of which takes you by surprise or that you are not sure of (mould/plume/bloom).  You may come across one in a B&M. Purchase it for us please.

You may have a cracker example of plume. I would love to get one stick from you. 

To make your trouble worthwhile, each stick received will go into the draw for a 5 pack of vintage SLR Lonsdales 5 prizes in total. Hell, I will also send out an FOH travel lighter for each package received + a tubed CORO. 

When we get to the stage of a final report, your name will go on it as a contributor. 

The process. 

• Ship your cigar/s 1st of Feb to 28th of Feb. 
• Ship them to us here.When you are ready, PM me and I will send you the shipping address. 
• Please PM or e-mail me to let me know your package is on the way. 
• Please take a photo of your cigar/cigars before sending. Feel free to post the photo on this thread. 
• We will photograph each cigar here (normal and macro) before batching them (lot 1/2/3/4/5/6/etc) in preparation to deliver to the lab. 

This step is about getting the cigars in. it is a worthy exercise so if you have the opportunity, please take part. a huge thank you from all of us. 

The draw will be 7th of March. 

Many thanks! 

 

 

 

[madandana]

I've had this moldy box of Punch for a while and couldn't get myself to throw them out.I just kept them away from my other stock.

They are all yours my friend. The interesting  thing is last time I looked at them I remember the mold being a lot worse.

So maybe it has retreated to some extent?

 

[ChanceSchmerr]

Rob, I'm happy to send one of my remaining Partagas Lonsdales 50 Cab cigars, which exhibit some significant plume to me.  I'll PM you for the address to send to, and have a look in the humi in case I have other examples of plume or (God I hope not!) mould.

I'll snap a few photos when I get home tonight to post up on this thread.

[polarbear]

Do they have to be CCs only?

[Profmd]

2 hours ago, madandana said:

I've had this moldy box of Punch for a while and couldn't get myself to throw them out.I just kept them away from my other stock.

They are all yours my friend. The interesting  thing is last time I looked at them I remember the mold being a lot worse.

So maybe it has retreated to some extent?

 

Don't see it in pics 

[LGC]

70's RyJ Coronas. Not sending any out
http://s1092.photobucket.com/user/bsthe/media/Cigars/94595818-078F-466A-907E-CA6E5E622928_zpsznqy8ast.mp4.html

[LGC]

Tubo?

Cello. I'm not familiar with any tubo Coronas

[PigFish]

Rob,

Feel free to examine my boxes in the OLH. Some of these are more than a decade old now. While I hate to break any of these, if you see a sample of what you consider mold, please clean it off! If you see what you might consider plume, please let me know and we will discuss you taking the cigar(s) for the test.

Lov'ya mate! -Ray

[El Presidente]

2 hours ago, PigFish said:

Rob,

Feel free to examine my boxes in the OLH. Some of these are more than a decade old now. While I hate to break any of these, if you see a sample of what you consider mold, please clean it off! If you see what you might consider plume, please let me know and we will discuss you taking the cigar(s) for the test.

Lov'ya mate! -Ray

Ray.....your cigars are safe...Di and Lisa don't even allow me into the locker 

[PigFish]

8 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Ray.....your cigars are safe...Di and Lisa don't even allow me into the locker 

... no doubt my friend! Take a look at them for plume! I have been looking though all kinds of stuff for you but have not found a damn thing. I say this to further the cause, you have had the cigars for many years now and they are within reach, they might as well be examined.

If there is any truth to a crystalline nature of plume, and if it is oils, oil crystallization is typically done at a lower temperature. You store cooler than I do... I am finding nothing at home. Open them up and look! I would if I had them at home, and you should look for me. If you find something, lets talk about sampling for the testing. Better yet, I don't even have to ship it... -LOL

Thank Di and Lisa for me, but if I had access to your stash, heaven help the man (or woman) that gets in my way...! -LOL

-R

[mwaller]

I have a dress box of Partagas Shorts with interesting outcroppings of white 'stuff.'  At first glance, it looks like mold spots.  But the material itself seems crystalline between the fingers... I'll try to get a picture up this evening.  

Thanks,

mwaller 

[mwaller]

Here are the Shorts - GEO OCT 14.  They arrived this way a few months ago. Thoughts?

[Lotusguy]

Here are the Shorts - GEO OCT 14.  They arrived this way a few months ago. Thoughts?

Mold

[boopdeep]

Haha.... while I agree completely, isn't the purpose of this experiment to determine whether plume is something different than mold? If that's the case, doesn't Rob need mold samples too?  But yeah, I'm with you... clearly mold.  haha.  

[ChanceSchmerr]

Alright, I've dived into the Party Lonsdale cab I mentioned, here is the cigars.

I picked out the five that showed me some of what I think is plume.  There wasn't as much as I remember, but then I think I smoked some of the "Plumier" ones last year to satisfy my own curiosity, and they were great.  Anyway, I am deciding which to send, either the middle or the middle right one I think.

no flash

With Flash (more obvious)

Closeups, without Flash then with flash.

Happy to hear any thoughts from anyone before I send them.  Now i just have to find a way to pack them up where they won't rub and lose the film/plume.

 

[PigFish]

Chris, I would look very closely and examine if the 'dusting' is predominantly on the high spots of the wrapper.

Occasionally I drop a cigar on the floor! We have hard surface flooring, tile downstairs and that mean if it has not been mopped in some time, it will likely be dusty. I have horses, and they create a lot of dust in the yard and it comes in the house...

If I pick a cigar up off the floor, not generally in our living areas, but in my office which is pretty messy, I get the same type of pattern of dusting. The dust largely resides on the high spots, on the areas that contacted the floor.

When I took out the RyJ cigars the other day for that thread of mine I dropped one! Low and behold the pattern of dust looked just like what you are showing. One dusty cigar, moved around to fit a cab against three or four others, and this is what you can get. My 2cts. -R

[BuzzArd]

Rob, I just need to remember to get you that photo of an Ashton VSG tubo that looks like it was spritzed with sugar water and the sugar crystals remained, covering the stick.  

Have seen one other example in a toro sized Opus X I acquired in 2008, but that fell victim to arson a full year ago now....  Might have an iphone pic of it from back then, but not sure I can find it.  

[ChanceSchmerr]

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

Chris, I would look very closely and examine if the 'dusting' is predominantly on the high spots of the wrapper.

Occasionally I drop a cigar on the floor! We have hard surface flooring, tile downstairs and that mean if it has not been mopped in some time, it will likely be dusty. I have horses, and they create a lot of dust in the yard and it comes in the house...

If I pick a cigar up off the floor, not generally in our living areas, but in my office which is pretty messy, I get the same type of pattern of dusting. The dust largely resides on the high spots, on the areas that contacted the floor.

When I took out the RyJ cigars the other day for that thread of mine I dropped one! Low and behold the pattern of dust looked just like what you are showing. One dusty cigar, moved around to fit a cab against three or four others, and this is what you can get. My 2cts. -R

@PigFish Ray, Thanks for the suggestions mate.  I originally thought this too, that it was some kind of dust - but these cigars have never been removed from the cab, aside from just today for photographing.  The cab is always kept closed in the humidor, and I rarely pull out the cab to look, aside from to pick out a single or two for smoking.  I do notice that there is no "plume" where contact with other cigars is occurred while resting, you can see it pretty clearly on the middle and middle right cigars, there is a distinct vertical section of the wrapper with no "plume" on it. The "plume" like you see above was present on about 20 or so of my Party Lonsdales over the last few years, but I've smoked most of them already over the last two years.  Too bad too, since I'm quite certain I'll never find another cab of these!  They have been just too good to keep my hands off them.

But hey - this could very well be dust that got into the box in some other way.  No cigars were like this when I bought the cab in 2010, I didn't notice this "plume" until about 2013-2014 or so.  I'm keen to find out what the Mycologist finds after examining it.

The only cab or box of cigars that I've ever had hit the floor was my cab of Punch Royals RE Benelux a month or two ago, one of my favorites cigars too .  I smoked the most bungled up one and it still tasted like a dream, so at least the taste wasn't that affected....or I just have clean floors haha!

[Narhcoc]

While not Cuban, I have some Opus X cigars from early 2000,s that absolutely have Plume on them..,not mold.  I would be happy to send one or two of them if you like Rob.

Edited January 20, 2017 by Narhcoc

[BuzzArd]

8 hours ago, Narhcoc said:

While not Cuban, I have some Opus X cigars from early 2000,s that absolutely have Plume on them..,not mold.  I would be happy to send one or two of them if you like Rob.

That's how mine looked!   Exactly.   

Very nice.  

[PigFish]

Interest example (above) thanks for sharing!

You know, since I have been storing the 'PigFish' way, I have never seen any visual changes to my cigars... Not that I fawn all over my cigars anymore! Unless I open a box to take a picture, I just go back to what is smoking well and what I want to smoke.

Interesting indeed! -tP

[ccd1977]

I would say if its white and furry then mold.  Thats all I know.

[BuzzArd]

Here's my contribution:  Stored at 65% for several years (about 8 I think...) in a tube.  Tube remained closed.  Substance does not rub off and imparts a rough texture to the wrapper.  Definitely more/less visible depending on lighting angles.  Files are large!  Open and ZOOM!!

ISO100 F22 1/60sec Canon 6D 24-105L 

[MaxG]

@BuzzArd - Bingo!  While I do not have any that look like this in my inventory now, I have in the past, and that's what I've always called and heard called "plume."  Doesn't look or feel anything like mold, and doesn't wipe off.  Great specimen.

- MG

 

[Narhcoc]

Gotta be careful with distinguishing between plume/mold.  It's hard to tell from the pictures what you've got there, but I've seen brown substance on some cigars that we're in a overly moist environment.  It looks entirely different than your average white or green mold and IME it ruins the appearance and texture of the wrapper if left unchecked.  Almost as if it is decomposing it, leaving it rough to the touch.   I've never had actual plume act this way and I have never seen or heard of Plume damaging a wrapper.  

Im not saying that is what the example above has, but it looks like it might be from the pictures.