A question for the brain trust
 

Ok so my cousins grandparents were very influential in getting me back into cigar smoking. They were comming through FL and stopped by for a bite and a smoke. We started talking cigars and they they went and grabed their travel humi to show me a few things. One of the sticks he showed me was one he said he has had for many years. Ok I tought I couldn't wait to check it out. When he showed it to me it looked like someone had taken powered sugar and dusted the cigar in it. It was covered in some sort of white residue. He was trying to tell me that this is how you know if a cigar is aged properly. My gut told me he was way off on that fact. But since he supposedly hast a vast am mount ok knowledge I didn't say anything. My question to you guys is this normal or is there something wrong there. Also what is that white residue on the 'gar???

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

sounds like plume my :2 and yes if it is it is a sign of age

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

If this is the case then I feel like an idiot lol

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

no worries the real plume vs mold experts will be here shortly.......it can be very confusing

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Ok at least I wasn't to far off thinking it could be wrong. I just have never seen anything like that. I mean some of the local shops around here sell 'gars from the 20's-60's and I have never seen that before it was just weird is all

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Was it white crystals or was if furry/fuzzy stuff?

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Not much can be done without a picture. ;)

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Sounds like mold to me. Powdered sugar looking crap on the cigar?? The plume I'm used to is very, very fine crystals that appear on the cigar. In the light, you can tell it's oily, not fuzzy as mold is.. But like Tom said, pictures would help more.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

I've never seen plume on a cigar in my life, and I've seen a hell of a bunch of cigars.
I'm pretty sure that's just an inside joke and everything else is mold. I've seen LOTS of mold.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Your gut wasn't totally wrong - if it was plume on the cigar, it's a fallacy to believe both that "proper aging" guarantees it's formation along with the absence of it is somehow indicative of improper storage. Neither is correct, yet both are oft repeated.

Reality is that not all cigars will develop plume. Some never will, while some will develop it rather rapidly. An extreme example: I once saw some Dominican maduros, the regular line Cu*Avanas, develop it in about six months after they were purchased from CI when they were first released, so those cigars were probably at most a year off the rolling table. I've also seen plenty of old cigars that were stored properly and never developed the first lick of it. As far as I can tell, it's not really that common an occurrence, and when it does, I can't say that the cigar tasted any different to me.

As for the cigar you were shown, as Tom stated, without a decent photo it's hard to tell what you might have seen.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

http://www.tbs-cigars.com/Bloom-tbs.gif

Thought this was appropriate.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_03DXM24M8b...ered+donut.jpg

In reality, I've seen a few cigars with this so-called plume. Partagas 150s at my local B&M were on the top shelf and when pulled down and opened for inspection, were dusted with white crystals. Pretty cool looking. Also had an old Sosa Ron1YY gave me from his store. It developed a nice dusty sheen sitting in my back of my desktop. I hadn't disturbed it for a couple of years. It has since been sacrificed.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Good pic by Zane. If you've ever seen plume in person, it's very easy to tell it apart from mold.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Great comparison pictures.... now, tell us which it was!

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

To me. From the above pics it does seem to be plume. I will ask him to send me a pic of the gar in question. If I can't get him to send one he will be back through on mon and we are to smoke again so I will def get one then. It was just strange/cool because it was almost completely covered

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Well I just texted him. Hopefully I get them soon. If not I will get one on mon.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

I'm not sure the picture does it justice, but Plume is crystaline so you should see defininte crystals -- however small -- on the wrapper. I would not call "powered sugar" crystaline...

In any case I hope it is Plume.

Just my :2

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Powered sugar may not have been the best description. It def was not fuzzy though. But it was mostly white. I also did not handle the gar. So I didn't get a close look. We will see when I get a good set of pics. To be continued.

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

Sparkly=Good
Fuzzy=Not good
:2

Re: A question for the brain trust
 

ive been in this hobby since 2005 and i have seen plume only once. i will probably never see it on my cigars. i handle them way too much.