FOH Mould Study

[ianperrymccarthy]

Thanks for the hard legwork here - such an excellent resource and reference point. 

It's that PL that really got me. You look at that, totally convinced it is glorious crystals, and realize everything you know is wrong.

[canadianbeaver]

Great reading from everyone. Thanks guys!

CB

[mkz]

Thanks for sharing these interesting results guys! 

I got plenty of plume on these... 

 

[BuzzArd]

3 hours ago, mkz said:

Thanks for sharing these interesting results guys! 

I got plenty of plume on these... 

 

ASPERGILLUS!!

The best kind of "plume"!!

 

 

 

[Santiago]

[Arctic Dude]

Ahhhhhh science.....crushing belief for centuries! 

Great job with this Rob and Company...wonderful to see the time and energy go into getting the facts out there. 

[messa]

Thanks Rob.

As you say the sample size is too small to provide statistical significance, but I can't find any other references online to any real investigation into the existence of plume on cigars - so that  means you are now the leading authority !

Look forward to further tests.

[Smallclub]

Fascinating!

I pity the next guy who will ask "Hey guys look at these cigars, is it mold or plume (as the vendor argues)" on this forum…

[Smallclub]

I can see the next trend:

Hey guys do you think it's Candida Parapsilosis or Aspergillus?

Dude, that's Penicillium ascomycetous!

You're joking that's obviously Wallemia sebi!

[Fuzz]

51 minutes ago, Smallclub said:

I can see the next trend:

Hey guys do you think it's Candida Parapsilosis or Aspergillus?

Dude, that's Penicillium ascomycetous!

You're joking that's obviously Wallemia sebi!

[bobsled]

Great work!  Always believed twas plume on my cigars.  Seems they were moldy.  Odd how it would only be one or two out of a whole box though.

[BBS]

Simply fantastic work, gentlemen.  My sincere thanks.  The fact that you carefully verified what I've always believed to be true gives me some satisfaction.....

 

 

[Jeremy Festa]

2 hours ago, BBS said:

Simply fantastic work, gentlemen.  My sincere thanks.  The fact that you carefully verified what I've always believed to be true gives me some satisfaction.....

 

 

Don't speak too soon bro. It's not over yet. 

Science does not prove or disprove a single thing. 

It simply supports or does not support any given hypothesis or theory. 

[luvdunhill]

I suppose the one question unanswered for me is... "who cares what it is, does it taste better or mark the sign of a properly aged cigar"? Thoughts?

[mkz]

17 minutes ago, luvdunhill said:

I suppose the one question unanswered for me is... "who cares what it is, does it taste better or mark the sign of a properly aged cigar"? Thoughts?

Personally I think mold is a sign of cigars stored in high RH (over 70).

My own aged stock has always been in 64-67 RH and shows no signs of mold.

This off course doesn't mean I know jack about aging and mold.

The moldy ones I got was inherited from old-school over 70 propyleneglycol storage.

What is properly aged? I have no idea. I just know what I like, and taste varies as much as there is cigar smokers...

[luvdunhill]

Properly aged means to me "maximizing consistent growth in enjoyment". Yeah, whatever that means. Could mold expedite this process? Who knows.

[ironpeddler]

Another log on the fire of the mold/plume debate. In my time smoking cigars, I've only come across two examples that could remotely been considered plume that I have physically touched. On one of them, I took a thin point Xacto  blade and a jeweler's loupe and knocked off a few crystals that were spaced throughout the cigar...no concentrated areas of whatever this was anywhere on the cigar. There was very little in the way of a mark on the wrapper once we scraped a few off. We had no microscope to further view this crystalline entity. They were sort of a amber-ish white in color...and to me, they reminded me of a brown sugar crystal...but super tiny....and not white-white by any means. This was over 20 years ago and the cigars were about 20+yo at that time...so we're talking criollo/corojo tobacco. Since then, all I've ever seen was mold....and I have been in a few private high end humidors in my day both here in the US and abroad. 

This will get VERY interesting as the sample size grows over time. To those of us in the US, we should also look to find non-Cuban cigars for further testing if said cigar is touted to have plume. It makes no difference where the tobacco originates from...if it's mold, it's mold. If it's plume...let's verify it's composition.  

Great start fellas...thank you for doing this for the entire cigar community at large.

[Thomasdenaro]

Well Done Rob, Greg and Jeremy. great report. thank you for your efforts on compiling this study.

[99call]

Many thanks to all involved in putting this together this invaluable resource. Hats off

[CaptainQuintero]

Brilliant stuff!

One question I do have is is there any causation between certain types of mould we see and where it comes from.

Ie does a certain type of structure, say spotty, point towards the mould being fecal in origin or vegetative etc

It would help to know if a certain cigar has been part of a journey from a roller who likes to pick his arse and continue rolling

[Fugu]

Gents could you please answer this in PM to the Captain. I for one am NOT interested to learn about things to this detail. Thank you!     

[scap99]

4 hours ago, Fugu said:

Gents could you please answer this in PM to the Captain. I for one am NOT interested to learn about things to this detail. Thank you!     

I think you're right, I'd rather not know....

[messa]

Don't speak too soon bro. It's not over yet. 

Science does not prove or disprove a single thing. 

It simply supports or does not support any given hypothesis or theory. 

Hypothesis are falsifiable.

[Jeremy Festa]

48 minutes ago, messa said:

 

Hypothesis are falsifiable.

 

*Hypotheses

[El Presidente]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Festa said:

*Hypotheses

Thanks professor