Mold?

[elnoblecigarro]

I took some photos of SG FVF I just opened. Tin was bought in 2016.






I know "plume/bloom" on cigars is just mold. But not sure about this one. Thoughts?

 

[Chasing Embers]

That's plume, mold would be fuzzy/hairy.

 

[prairiedruid]

Mold tends to be furry, this looks like crystals so should be fine.

 

[FurCoat]

Man, that is the good stuff.
I'd smoke the shit out dat

 

[hawky454]

Looks delicious! It’s darkened quite a bit too!

 

[solideogloria86]

Plume/bloom on cigars isn't mold. Plume/bloom on pipe tobacco isn't mold either. Mold is mold. Whatever that crystalline substance that develops on tobacco is not mold.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk

 

[elnoblecigarro]

Plume/bloom on cigars isn't mold. Plume/bloom on pipe tobacco isn't mold either. Mold is mold. Whatever that crystalline substance that develops on tobacco is not mold.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk

Not looking to start an argument on cigar plume, but Friends of Habanos got this tested in a lab and it turned out to be mold: FOH Mould Study - https://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/topic/131757-foh-mould-study/

I don't know if pipe tobacco plume has been tested in a lab to figure out what exactly it is.

 

[solideogloria86]

Not looking to start an argument on cigar plume, but Friends of Habanos got this tested in a lab and it turned out to be mold: FOH Mould Study - https://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/topic/131757-foh-mould-study/

I don't know if pipe tobacco plume has been tested in a lab to figure out what exactly it is.

No argument needed. I can see from the photo that that's a moldy cigar. It's clearly a fuzzy growth and not crystalline. I've had cigars with plume, and mold. It's not difficult to tell the difference and definitely doesn't require a lab test.

 

[anotherbob]

here is the thing. It's never mold. Well not on forums. Why because as someone who has had mold. You don't want to smoke it you will be certain it's unsmokable. These crystals which I am convinced might be in part sugars (only because the cigars I have that got crystals, taste sweetened and didn't taste sweet before).
You know when it might be mold? When the pics say mold and they threw the stuff away.

 

[solideogloria86]

here is the thing. It's never mold. Well not on forums. Why because as someone who has had mold. You don't want to smoke it you will be certain it's unsmokable. These crystals which I am convinced might be in part sugars (only because the cigars I have that got crystals, taste sweetened and didn't taste sweet before).
You know when it might be mold? When the pics say mold and they threw the stuff away.

Agreed. I've thrown away moldy cigars and returned moldy tins of Tobacco. When you pick up an oily cigar or flake of Tobacco that sparkles like glitter in the light, you don't need to ask if it could be mold.

 

[kschatey]

No argument needed. I can see from the photo that that's a moldy cigar. It's clearly a fuzzy growth and not crystalline. I've had cigars with plume, and mold. It's not difficult to tell the difference and definitely doesn't require a lab test.

Agreed. It even has runners.

 

[kschatey]

Mold also smells like... Mold. The crystalline "tobacco discharge" does not.

 

[elnoblecigarro]

OK, thanks everyone. So the verdict is this isn't mold.

here is the thing. It's never mold. Well not on forums. Why because as someone who has had mold. You don't want to smoke it you will be certain it's unsmokable. These crystals which I am convinced might be in part sugars (only because the cigars I have that got crystals, taste sweetened and didn't taste sweet before).
You know when it might be mold? When the pics say mold and they threw the stuff away.

But see I'm confused on this because I don't think all mold smells. I had once a humidor and cigars which developed mold. It was actually mold as it was on the foot of the cigars and even growing on the humidor walls. Clearly web like in appearance. It didn't smell bad at all. I'm ashamed to say I smoked few of the cigars too and it didn't taste odd either (after cutting them a bit and brushing). I didn't die but in hindsight wouldn't do it again.

The humidor mold fiasco happened when the temperature indoors climbed to 30 celcius and the humidor had too large humidifier in it so the moisture rose too high.

 

[sablebrush52]

What we typically refer to as plume on pipe flake tobacco is an accretion of mineral deposit that migrates to the surface of the flake. It typically forms in veins aligned to the strata of the component tobaccos that have been pressed together to form the flake and often appears to be crystalline and may glitter under a strong light.

Mold differs in appearance in that it forms weblike strands that do not align with the strata of the flake. Mold often has a bad odor, which is not present with plume.

Regardless, the intelligent response is "when in doubt, throw it out". Tobacco molds are highly toxic. Picking out the bad bits is pointless as the entire tin or jar will have activated mold thoughout, not just where it's dense enough to be visible.

 

[elnoblecigarro]

What we typically refer to as plume on pipe flake tobacco is an accretion of mineral deposit that migrates to the surface of the flake. It typically forms in veins aligned to the strata of the component tobaccos that have been pressed together to form the flake and often appears to be crystalline and may glitter under a strong light.

Mold differs in appearance in that it forms weblike strands that do not align with the strata of the flake. Mold often has a bad odor, which is not present with plume.

Regardless, the intelligent response is "when in doubt, throw it out". Tobacco molds are highly toxic. Picking out the bad bits is pointless as the entire tin or jar will have activated mold thoughout, not just where it's dense enough to be visible.

Interesting. So would this only occur in flakes or in ribbon cut too?

 

[sablebrush52]

Mold can happen anywhere flakes, ribbon, whatever. I've only seen the mineral thing with flakes.

 

[anotherbob]

OK, thanks everyone. So the verdict is this isn't mold.


But see I'm confused on this because I don't think all mold smells. I had once a humidor and cigars which developed mold. It was actually mold as it was on the foot of the cigars and even growing on the humidor walls. Clearly web like in appearance. It didn't smell bad at all. I'm ashamed to say I smoked few of the cigars too and it didn't taste odd either (after cutting them a bit and brushing). I didn't die but in hindsight wouldn't do it again.

The humidor mold fiasco happened when the temperature indoors climbed to 30 celcius and the humidor had too large humidifier in it so the moisture rose too high.

and you knew it was mold right?

 

[elnoblecigarro]

and you knew it was mold right?

Yes. Couldn't miss the white fluff all over the cigars I get your point, but I'm just saying that without the visible aspect of it I wouldn't have known it was mold.

I was unsure about this tin because the amount of "white stuff" is higher that I've usually seen in SG tins. This is the first time I have opened FVF so I don't know how it's supposed to look.

 

[coming to_falling too]

Yes. Couldn't miss the white fluff all over the cigars I get your point, but I'm just saying that without the visible aspect of it I wouldn't have known it was mold.

I was unsure about this tin because the amount of "white stuff" is higher that I've usually seen in SG tins. This is the first time I have opened FVF so I don't know how it's supposed to look.

I would smoke and enjoy.

 

[64alex]

While mold can be easily detected at visual inspection, what we call plume cannot be ruled out to be mold unless laboratory analysis is done and I suspect most if not all plume is actually mold even if it does not mean it is unsmokable and actually can be a great smoke. Remember this is a vegetable product and there is lot of eatable food which tastes great just because of the mold growing on it, think about some great cheeses. So I would say there is good and bad mold and probably what we call plume could be just good mold (but again we should have lab analysis to support this). It is our common sense to decide if to smoke it or not but in doubt I would not smoke or cut out the plume/mold until I have a clean flake/plug.