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Stonehaven: Plume Or Mold?

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J

jeff540

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 25, 2016
518
799
Southwest Virginia
I have two bags from 2019 that are as of yet unopened. I'm still working on the bag I bought in 2018, and probably won't finish it for another year or so.

But out of curiosity I may just open one of the 2019 bags to see if there is that much of a difference. The OP's photograph looks like Sam Gawith FVF to me...
 
canadianpuffer

canadianpuffer

Can't Leave
Oct 8, 2017
301
487
hoosierpipeguy said:
How is RDF easier to get when it is only sold in the UK? I think RDF is superb and I like it better than Stonehaven. I see some similarities but I also think they are significantly different.
Click to expand...

As in it’s always available to the UK market. And I’ve made enough deals with UK pipers I can order to them and they will ship it to me. A lot of guys seem to have made similar arrangements for US friends. But the retailers only stopped shipping to Canada about a year or two ago. So building a stockpile then was even easier. I know they didn’t ship stateside however.
 
badbriar

badbriar

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 17, 2012
799
1,443
Suncoast Florida by the Beach
A cigar forum owner had a lab do a series of tests on 'plume' and mold. This was from dozens of samples submitted from literally throughout the globe. Results were rather interesting. ALL of the samples received (yes, from dozens of samples) proved to be various strains of mold. The series of tests proved that there is actually no such provable thing as plume. Yep - all of the submitted samples of 'plume' that he received turned out to be mold. Photos were absolutely convincing that many of the samples were gorgeous crystals and just HAD to be plume. Not! ??
 
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hoosierpipeguy

hoosierpipeguy

Lifer
Jan 28, 2018
13,926
155,810
67
Sarasota, FL
canadianpuffer said:
As in it’s always available to the UK market. And I’ve made enough deals with UK pipers I can order to them and they will ship it to me. A lot of guys seem to have made similar arrangements for US friends. But the retailers only stopped shipping to Canada about a year or two ago. So building a stockpile then was even easier. I know they didn’t ship stateside however.
Click to expand...

Few people have contacts in the UK that will purchase and ship RDF to them. I'm fortunate to have a friend there who has sent me several pounds. It is quite good. Since Stonehaven is actually shipped here to the states, it is easier to obtain.
 
Casual

Casual

Lifer
Oct 3, 2019
2,579
9,444
NL, CA
badbriar said:
A cigar forum owner had a lab do a series of tests on 'plume' and mold. This was from dozens of samples submitted from literally throughout the globe. Results were rather interesting. ALL of the samples received (yes, from dozens of samples) proved to be various strains of mold. The series of tests proved that there is actually no such provable thing as plume. Yep - all of the submitted samples of 'plume' that he received turned out to be mold. Photos were absolutely convincing that many of the samples were gorgeous crystals and just HAD to be plume. Not! ??
Click to expand...

Do you have a link?
 
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Chasing Embers

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
44,980
117,596
Casual said:
Do you have a link?
Click to expand...

FOH Mould Study

The idea behind the mould study was to shed some light into the world of mould and plume. Earlier in the year we asked for examples of both from members and then selected 10 representative cigars for testing. Testing was undertaken by the team at Australia Biotech Laboratories. In the event that ...
www.friendsofhabanos.com www.friendsofhabanos.com
 
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Casual

Casual

Lifer
Oct 3, 2019
2,579
9,444
NL, CA
chasingembers said:

FOH Mould Study

The idea behind the mould study was to shed some light into the world of mould and plume. Earlier in the year we asked for examples of both from members and then selected 10 representative cigars for testing. Testing was undertaken by the team at Australia Biotech Laboratories. In the event that ...
www.friendsofhabanos.com www.friendsofhabanos.com
Click to expand...

Thanks, that was interesting. I would love to see equivalent work done on pipe tobacco.
 
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blues4goose

blues4goose

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 15, 2019
243
721
31
Bethlehem, PA
badbriar said:
A cigar forum owner had a lab do a series of tests on 'plume' and mold. This was from dozens of samples submitted from literally throughout the globe. Results were rather interesting. ALL of the samples received (yes, from dozens of samples) proved to be various strains of mold. The series of tests proved that there is actually no such provable thing as plume. Yep - all of the submitted samples of 'plume' that he received turned out to be mold. Photos were absolutely convincing that many of the samples were gorgeous crystals and just HAD to be plume. Not! ??
Click to expand...
I wrote an article on plume & mold on cigars for my company's Cigar of the Month Club, and I referenced this study as the major factor that played into me becoming a plume naysayer. If you dig deep enough into the thread and everywhere it goes, you'll find that they actually did a test on a few different pipe tobaccos as well, and got the same result. No plume, just identifiable species of mold or bacteria.
 
Casual

Casual

Lifer
Oct 3, 2019
2,579
9,444
NL, CA
blues4goose said:
https://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/topic/131757-foh-mould-study/page/6/

On pg 6 they tested several different pipe tobaccos,
"Unfortunately they came back as common bacterial plant growths. FYI - rendered harmless by the protective effects of the immune system. "
Click to expand...

I read further. It’s definitely not tested well enough to actually determine what I want to know. It looks like they tested for mould/bacteria first, and only on a negative result would they test to see what the white stuff actually was.

The pipe tobacco “plume” samples cultured bacteria growth in a dish, so they never went on to analyze the white stuff further. Not mould, please note: not fungus. Just bacteria, in probably harmless quantities.

But, that doesn’t rule out plume, it just shows that there’s bacteria at a threshold to begin a culture on the tobacco. Well, sure, who would bet otherwise? They didn’t even send in a control; a non-plume fresh flake to test to see if it also cultured bacteria. I’ll bet it would.

So it seems like a lot of the “sciencey” stuff going on nowadays. There are people with graduate degrees running around in lab coats using petri dishes and Bunsen burners, but the methodology used likely doesn’t justify the conclusions drawn. Repeatability crisis, anyone?
 
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kola

kola

Lifer
Apr 1, 2014
1,548
2,401
Colorado Rockies, Cripple Creek region
Wow ! Could it be ? No such thing as plume? All of it nothing but different types of mold?

I saw the link (study?) posted above, I started reading it - but I'll have to put aside some time to get through all of it.

I thought (years back) it was Greg Pease? who talked in detail about the fermenting of tobacco sugars creating what many of us came to believe as plume. And plume being a good thing, as a highly ripened enrichment of the tobacco. <scratchin' my head here> wtf.

Next thing ya' know people will tell me there's no such thing as Santa.

BTW, I do like Stonehaven very much on rare occasion. And I don't think RDF is the same as SH.
 
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