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Mold at the B&M

rectifythis

rectifythis

CP; may cause dependency
Joined
Oct 24, 2006
Messages
1,082
Whilst perusing through the moist cedar filled room of one of the local B&M's, I came across TWO boxes of LFD's with the 3 dimensional white fuzzies. The boxes were right next to each other and all were not in cello. I looked at his hygro's and they both said 70%. 2 things......1) Is this a sign of something poor on the owner's part? 2)What exactly causes the mold in the first place? Is it bad environment? Mold from some other contaminated cigar? If so, will mold migrate to other stogies? I have several cigars in my humi from this place. Should they be suspect and should I avoid that particular shop? Thanks for your input.
 
Did you speak to the owner? What you describe could be veddy bad. and it would be interesting to see what he had to say.
 
rectifythis said:
Whilst perusing through the moist cedar filled room of one of the local B&M's, I came across TWO boxes of LFD's with the 3 dimensional white fuzzies. The boxes were right next to each other and all were not in cello. I looked at his hygro's and they both said 70%. 2 things......1) Is this a sign of something poor on the owner's part? 2)What exactly causes the mold in the first place? Is it bad environment? Mold from some other contaminated cigar? If so, will mold migrate to other stogies? I have several cigars in my humi from this place. Should they be suspect and should I avoid that particular shop? Thanks for your input.
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Working at a cigar store and opening a number of boxes, you'll realize that the manufacture ships you moldy cigars a lot of the time, and sometimes they won't take it back. Diamond Crown (their CFW line especially) seem to be the biggest offenders, I think I've opened maybe 2,3 boxes of Diamond Crowns that weren't moldy. We've sent Diamond Crowns back to the company if they smoke really poorly (whenever we do get a moldy box, we smoke on of the cigars to see if it's gone wrong). That said, a little bit of mold is nothing to shy away from, just wipe it off and smoke it, however, it's not necessarily something I'd throw in my humidor with my other non-moldy cigars.

As for what caused it, it's because the cigars are shipped, and most likely stored, wet. I doubt that mold would migrate from one box of cigars to other in the store's humidor, but, like I said, I wouldn't put them in my own humidor at home.
 
Mold is never a good thing, and at a B&M it's pretty much inexcusable. Point it out to the owner; If the owner isn't all over it you'd probably better find a new B&M.
 
Desert Rat said:
Did you speak to the owner? What you describe could be veddy bad. and it would be interesting to see what he had to say.
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Every single time I have brought this up to a retailer's attention, I've been told it is bloom. :rolleyes:

Almost all tobacco will have some sort of spores on it. It's unavoidable. When it gets warm enough and moist enough, mold will grow and reproduce. Mold produces fruiting heads that release their spore into the air. There is enough circulation in any store humi to spread the spores around.

Keep your sticks cool and never let them get overly humid and you might be fine. I tend to stay away from display cases where sporing mold is active.

Just because the humi said 70% at the time does not mean that 1) it is actually 70% or 2) it is a stable 70% all the time.

Wilkey
 
Ginseng said:
Every single time I have brought this up to a retailer's attention, I've been told it is bloom. :rolleyes:
Wilkey
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Ditto that. Happened just last week and I got the same standard "bloom" response. I just smile and walk away.
 
Thanks guys. Yeah, I politely let him know and he seemed like he was already aware and not planning on doing anything with them. I also noticed what I thought was the start of mold on a short story and he told me the same thing...."It's bloom! It's awesome and ready to smoke right now!" Yeah. Uh-huh. Ok, so now I will shy away from that B&M but should I quaranteen the sticks I purchased from there? I actually bought 4 short storys out of the same suspect box. What would a B&M do about a mold problem? What is the course of action?
 
I went into one of the B&Ms here the other day, and one of their smaller display humidors was piled full of RP vintage 90s and 92s. As I got closer, I realized the bottom of the door acutally had water beading up on it the rh was so high and I told the lady that was working she might want to air it out a little and turn down the humi. I went in a couple days later they were covered in mold and the owner, who had been gone, went off about one of his employees turning up the humidifier, but it was enough to make me not want to shop there anymore.
 
Ginseng said:
Desert Rat said:
Did you speak to the owner? What you describe could be veddy bad. and it would be interesting to see what he had to say.
Click to expand...
Every single time I have brought this up to a retailer's attention, I've been told it is bloom. :rolleyes:

Wilkey
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That is funny, I have had the same experience. I try to educate them in the difference between the two, but they just insist that it is bloom anyway.
 
I've only run across this once, with a tubo I bought once upon a time. I just happened to crack it open so I could give it a sniff when I got in my car and before I drove away. I saw it had mold, went back inside and showed the person working and she gave me a new one no questions asked. She also thanked me for showing her. Pretty good service as far as that goes. Quite different from what the rest of you seem to have experienced. Sadly that store is out of business now :(
 
Wilkey told us this at the NYC Herf:

Mold is fuzzy.

Plume/bloom is sparkly.
 
B&M's seem to have an affinity for downright tropical relative humidity. I'm not sure if it's a result of their humidifiers blowing outta control or that they try to compensate for heavy customer traffic and the humidifer environment constantly being exposed to outside air from the ever opening door. I don't work at a B&M but my guess is that it's a combination of the two and probably more of the latter. Either way, the over humidification is not a good environment for inhibiting mold spores.
 
badhangover said:
B&M's seem to have an affinity for downright tropical relative humidity. I'm not sure if it's a result of their humidifiers blowing outta control or that they try to compensate for heavy customer traffic and the humidifer environment constantly being exposed to outside air from the ever opening door. I don't work at a B&M but my guess is that it's a combination of the two and probably more of the latter. Either way, the over humidification is not a good environment for inhibiting mold spores.
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Good points, BH. All the humidification systems I've seen are automatically controlled and that means as humidity drops due to doors opening, they come on full blast. With the industrial ultrasonic units, water comes out fast and furious. I've peaked into the nozzle of one for barely a second and my face was dripping wet from the blast.

Wilkey
 
B&M\'s seem to have an affinity for downright tropical relative humidity. I\'m not sure if it\'s a result of their humidifiers blowing outta control or that they try to compensate for heavy customer traffic and the humidifer environment constantly being exposed to outside air from the ever opening door. I don\'t work at a B&M but my guess is that it\'s a combination of the two and probably more of the latter. Either way, the over humidification is not a good environment for inhibiting mold spores.
Click to expand...
Good points, BH. All the humidification systems I\'ve seen are automatically controlled and that means as humidity drops due to doors opening, they come on full blast. With the industrial ultrasonic units, water comes out fast and furious. I\'ve peaked into the nozzle of one for barely a second and my face was dripping wet from the blast.

Wilkey
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I don\'t even want to know why you did that! :laugh:
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Ok - so, what B&M's have you found mold in....name names!!!
edit - let me rephrase...which B&M's have you told about mold...only to find out that nothing was done - or the response was similar to "oh, well".

Also, if I see a 'home style' humidification unit in a walkin at a B&M...I tend:
1) Look very carefully at the smokes before I buy
2) Don't get the smokes near the unit
3) Usually only buy 1 or 2
4) Not buy there again

These are cigar shops....professionals(?)!
There are only a few shops that I've been in that actually care about the cigars.

While I understand that enroute cigars may have trouble...I find it annoying that owners do not
take care of the product. It's like going to get milk and finding it on an unrefrigerated shelf....ewwww!
 
grateful1 said:
I don\'t even want to know why you did that! :laugh:
---------------------------------------------
Ok - so, what B&M's have you found mold in....name names!!!
edit - let me rephrase...which B&M's have you told about mold...only to find out that nothing was done - or the response was similar to "oh, well".

Also, if I see a 'home style' humidification unit in a walkin at a B&M...I tend:
1) Look very carefully at the smokes before I buy
2) Don't get the smokes near the unit
3) Usually only buy 1 or 2
4) Not buy there again

These are cigar shops....professionals(?)!
There are only a few shops that I've been in that actually care about the cigars.

While I understand that enroute cigars may have trouble...I find it annoying that owners do not
take care of the product. It's like going to get milk and finding it on an unrefrigerated shelf....ewwww!
Click to expand...
Damn, did I really write "peaked" for "peeked?" Blech.

Ok, most recently I've found mold in Cigar-ette City, two stores, Tobacco Field, and Tobacco Cafe. There was one other up on Concord Pike but that place was a dump.

Very important point about the homestyle units. At Tobacco Cafe, they have glass cases the size of medium to large cabinet humis and they all have a bath/bedroom cool mist unit pumping away in them. I pity the cigars right in front of the stream.

Many shops I've been in were not staffed by the owners. Tobacco Cafe was and he still told me bloom. Part of it is a knowledge issue and part of it is employee training. The Red Carpet in Providence, Rhode Island was run by the owner and every time I went in, Eric Chaika was behind the counter ready to talk about his cigars. Needless to say, his stock was in impeccable condition.

Wilkey
 
For the record, here's what mold looks like - it's "fluffy" and three dimensional:

DSCN0696-red.jpg


"Plume / Bloom" is not......

Regards - B.B.S.
 
Yeah, this was the owner of there store!!! I won't name the name unless you really want to know (pm me) but I will say it was in central Mesa in Arizona.
 
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