Mold Question

[CigarsRLife]

Hi all, 

I was doing a deep dive in my coolers today and found a few tupperdors had some mold issues. As background, a few years ago I noticed that some of my dress boxes were getting mold even though they are kept at 65-62% RH and 65-68 F. Any wooden box cigars had zero issues. So I took all my cigars in dress boxes and moved them to individual tupperware with a Boveda at the bottom (65%). These all go into a giant cooler. 

Today when I was looking I noticed that three of these tupperware containers had varying amounts of mold. In general there were 20 or so cigars in each. When inspected I would say 3/4 of the cigars had zero or a small speck of mold here or there that I wiped off. Then a handful out of the 1/4 would have more mold, mainly towards the band and cap, most of it fluffy and white. Finally I had a 1-2 sticks in each that had way more than the others. I am attaching photos of the worst ones below. 

With the exception of the really bad ones, I wiped the mold off with paper towels and put the cigars in large ziplock bags without a Boveda. What should I do next to help prevent the return of mold? I plan on smoking at least the 3/4 of the ones that had zero to very little mold. I have a seperate bag of the ones that were worse, not sure if they are safe to smoke. 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Wipe them off again in the future if they get too moldy. Mold is on every cigar to some degree.

[TheDonTX]

65% packs were still too high for me. The cigars were damp. I went down to 58% packs and the cigars stay perfectly at 62-63%. They burn better and flavor is better. I follow the pigfish method. Never going back. 

[CigarsRLife]

25 minutes ago, TheDonTX said:

65% packs were still too high for me. The cigars were damp. I went down to 58% packs and the cigars stay perfectly at 62-63%. They burn better and flavor is better. I follow the pigfish method. Never going back. 

Ok, so should I keep these segregated in ziplock bags for a few days and then put them in a new tupperware with 58% then? I live somewhere where there is almost 0% RH, very dry. 

[Fuzz]

Take out the cigars and give them a good wipe down, then pop them in a ziplock. Wash your tupperdor thoroughly (even the silicon seal in the lid) and chuck out the old Boveda. Pop your cigars back in the tupperdor with a fresh Boveda...then do the process all over again when mold returns, as there is no foolproof, 100% guarantee that your cigars will never get mold again.

It is just something that happens from time to time.

[CigarsRLife]

25 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

Take out the cigars and give them a good wipe down, then pop them in a ziplock. Wash your tupperdor thoroughly (even the silicon seal in the lid) and chuck out the old Boveda. Pop your cigars back in the tupperdor with a fresh Boveda..... then do the process all over again when mold returns, as there is no foolproof, 100% guarantee that your cigars will never get mold again.

It is just something that happens from time to time.

Ok, thank you for the feedback. Is there a level of mold where you wouldn't smoke them? Like in the pictures above that I posted, those were the worst examples by a bit. 

[VictorEremita]

In my experience, like others have said, Boveda in air-tight Tupperware over-humidifies. If you want 65% in these circs, you can't use a 65% Boveda. You have to go with a 62% or even 58%. Of course it depends on the size of the container, how many cigars, etc.

[Fuzz]

6 hours ago, CigarsRLife said:

Ok, thank you for the feedback. Is there a level of mold where you wouldn't smoke them? Like in the pictures above that I posted, those were the worst examples by a bit. 

If the cigar has mold on the foot, is green or black mold...or the cigar looks like a Fonseca No.1 before you take off the tissue paper wrapper.

[MagicalBikeRide]

Yup, like above - if it’s not in the door, it’s not black or green - I’m wiping them and not thinking twice. 

[Li Bai]

Do you have hygrometers in those tupperdors ?

[CigarsRLife]

3 hours ago, Li Bai said:

Do you have hygrometers in those tupperdors ?

I did previously in the cooler the boxes were stored in which reads at 62% and then in the tupperdors which was reading at 65%. Have thousands of NC with zero issues.