Is this mold?

[coys]

I opened a new pouch of St. Bruno tonight, the ready rubbed version that comes in the OTC pouch. I've never had St. Bruno before, but I noticed right away that some of the tobacco has a whitish coating on the outside of it. See the photos:

Since I've never had this blend before I don't know if it always looks this way, if it is some kind of topping or what have you, or if I should return this pouch. I know that mold is nothing to play around with, but I don't know what this blend typically looks like or if this is ever normal.

Any thoughts?

 

[coys]

By contrast, I found a photo online of a similar pouch and it just looks all dark.

 

[Chasing Embers]

If it sparkles in light, it's plume. If it's fuzzy it's mold.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Not great photos but it doesn't look like mold to me.

 

[Brendan]

I'm pretty sure there was a thread maybe a few months ago on this.

I'd like to say @JOHN72 had this issue, from memory, and was the OP ?

Bumping this along to see if the guys in that thread can pitch in - but it looks like what they had, and it wasn't mold.

 

[craig61a]

Mold generally originates from one point and spreads out from that point. This is like a broken flake so it’s spread apart. The whitish specks have some open areas between them.

Minerals in the tobacco leach out of the leaf and the oils dry out and leave crystalline structures. It’s not sugars, these are basically salts, calcium oxalate and such.

Seems more prevalent in the European manufactured tobaccos. Probably because there is a higher concentration of certain minerals in the crops grown in other countries, such as Africa, were they source a lot of their leaf.

In any case, I think you’re just fine. This “Plume” or “Bloom” or whatever somebody chooses to call it shows that the tobacco is aging well.

Here’s some GH Dark Plug from several years ago:



Looks good enough to eat, and wash down with a latte…

 

[didimauw]

I opened a new pouch of St. Bruno tonight, the ready rubbed version that comes in the OTC pouch. I've never had St. Bruno before, but I noticed right away that some of the tobacco has a whitish coating on the outside of it. See the photos:

Since I've never had this blend before I don't know if it always looks this way, if it is some kind of topping or what have you, or if I should return this pouch. I know that mold is nothing to play around with, but I don't know what this blend typically looks like or if this is ever normal.

Any thoughts?

Looks good to me! Like embers said, mold is fuzzy. Plume is crystally.

 

[sablebrush52]

I opened a new pouch of St. Bruno tonight, the ready rubbed version that comes in the OTC pouch. I've never had St. Bruno before, but I noticed right away that some of the tobacco has a whitish coating on the outside of it. See the photos:

Since I've never had this blend before I don't know if it always looks this way, if it is some kind of topping or what have you, or if I should return this pouch. I know that mold is nothing to play around with, but I don't know what this blend typically looks like or if this is ever normal.

Any thoughts?

I smoke a lot of St Bruno. It's not uncommon for there to be some evidence of grayish sediment in either the ready rub or the flake and I've never found mold in any of it. Plume is generally caused by the migration of mineral deposits to the surface. It can often look like veins in the strata of the flake

Mold can be fuzzy, cobweb like, beard like, and often has a pronounced stink. When you can see it, it means all of the adjacent tobacco is infected, even if the mold hasn't activated everywhere. Trying to save some by picking out the "bad bits' is an idiot's errand.

One last thing from someone who's worked on literally hundreds of commercials over the decades. Never believe the photographs or images. They're not there to document reality. They're there to persuade the viewer to buy the product and are carefully lit, doctored, polished, and otherwise preened to seduce the viewer. That nice little pile of tobacco would have been artfully selected and arranged by a stylist before being carefully lit and photographed, followed by image processing of the photograph under the watchful eye of the "art director" or whatever form of bullshit specialist is approving the final result.

 

[coys]

Ok, thanks. It seems like most feel this is plume and not mold. According to the pouch this was bagged in 2021, so it’s not exceptionally old, but I will give it a shot and see how it smokes.

 

[FurCoat]

That's what all of the pouches I've smoked look like when I open them. I think you're good.

 

[FurCoat]

Mold generally originates from one point and spreads out from that point. This is like a broken flake so it’s spread apart. The whitish specks have some open areas between them.

Minerals in the tobacco leach out of the leaf and the oils dry out and leave crystalline structures. It’s not sugars, these are basically salts, calcium oxalate and such.

Seems more prevalent in the European manufactured tobaccos. Probably because there is a higher concentration of certain minerals in the crops grown in other countries, such as Africa, were they source a lot of their leaf.

In any case, I think you’re just fine. This “Plume” or “Bloom” or whatever somebody chooses to call it shows that the tobacco is aging well.

Here’s some GH Dark Plug from several years ago:

View attachment 183081View attachment 183082

Looks good enough to eat, and wash down with a latte…

That's just beautiful. I have a pound of dark plug sealed in mylar. I hope it ages as well as yours did.

 

[anotherbob]

I say this every single time. But the answer is almost never mold. Mold rarely leaves a question. It usually just gets trashed because it leaves the tobacco in such a gross state that even if it was safe you wouldn't want to taste something that smells like that...
I think there was one time since I started here that the answer was mold.

 

[maker]

only way to be 100% sure is to look at it magnified. mold looks like strands with little bulbs and plume looks like crystals. I had mold that looked exactly like plume on some cigars until I used one of those microscopes you plug into a computer to look at it.

 

[kcghost]

I'd say it was plume.

 

[mikethompson]

Looks like a marbled poppyseed cake to me.

 

[coys]

Well, I went back to the pouch and am reasonably certain the St Bruno did not have mold on it, although the plume seems a bit odd since the pouch said 2021 on it.

In any case, the St Bruno smoked well and I liked the fact that it won’t bite and hardly required any relights, but the flavor didn’t really do anything for me. Apart from this, I found the room note to be cigarette-like and to linger for longer than I’d like.

All in all not a bad tobacco, but I feel that for a tobacco that gives that good honest OTC feel I’d stick with the Sutliff Ready Rubbed match.

 

[butsiethesungo]

Personally, I think its plume not mold. I’ve had plume on many of my cigars before after aging.

Ive read on the forums where some members just break off the chunk of mold and keep on smoking!

 

[Steddy]

Everyone should own one of these. A cheap small microscope that goes from 60x to 120x. It is surprisingly good.