Surface Mold on Cigars

[jsgorman]

Due to an over-adjustment in humidity (over watered beads) I found that a couple of my cigars had a light amount of surface mold on the head of the cigars (nothing through the foot). I noticed this maybe a month ago. I'm pretty sure it was mold instead of plume, but it wiped right off and seemingly hasn't revisited. I've seen no spread to other cigars and definitely not on the humidor itself. These were Monte #2 that I was saving until the weather warmed up (I'm in Minnesota and cold weather + low humidity means exploding cigars).

My question is this, how evil is light surface mold?

Half the threads I read say toss the cigar, half say wipe and smoke.

Thoughts?

 

[Jonesy]

It just depends on the circumstances. As long as you "dried" out the humi and none of the other sticks were affected, then at this point it's a matter of choice. You can go either way...wipe and smoke or just chunk them. Me personally, I would chunk them because of the mold being around the head of the cigars. Mold can tend to be bitter and ruining the smoking experience if you get it in your mouth.

Just one person's opinion though.

 

[mmburtch]

Keep an eye on them and others. Chances are they came to you with spores on them. The big question is did the mold on them grow long enough to spore? So far <crosses fingers and knocks on wood> I have not had surface mold return after being wiped.

 

[moki]

Where there is mold, there are spores. The problem is, you can't easily see the spores. As soon as conditions are right, you'll get mold again... and again... and again...

 

[jsgorman]

I goofed when I created the original condition, and have learned from my experience. My humidor is in my basement in a spot that rarely gets over 67 degrees. I've kept my humidity pretty constant between 64-69. I got sloppy during a very cold spell (negative 10 degrees) which dumped the basement humidity very low and consequently my humidor. I overreacted and added too much water to my beads, and not too much later the surface mold.

I don't expect to repeat that mistake again...