Found some mold. Should I panic?

[AUguy]

I was looking through my coolidor this afternoon and I found this


No other cigars in that box or the rest of my cooler had any signs of mold. This cigar was in an open single stick bag and all of the other cigars near it were in cellophane or tubes. My humidity level and temp were fine. This is the first time I have ever found mold before. Does this mean the rest of my cigars are at risk?

[hotreds]

It happens, no worries. Just wipe it down with some Vodka and smoke it- and any other similar cigars in your stash!

[CigarNut]

If the mold is only on the wrapper and not on the foot, then wipe the mold off of the cigar and it will be fine to smoke.

Also, it would not hurt to calibrate / test your hygrometer to verify the accuracy.

[AUguy]

Originally Posted by hotreds

It happens, no worries. Just wipe it down with some Vodka and smoke it- and any other similar cigars in your stash!

It was deep into the foot so I trashed it. That was a sad moment.

[czerbe]

Are we sure it was mold?

[pektel]

Originally Posted by czerbe

Are we sure it was mold?

yes.

[AdamJoshua]

Originally Posted by pektel

yes.

Richard Hacker might disagree.

[Victor808]

I know something that kills mold.



fire.

[jjirons69]

Yet another good reason to check your collection from time to time.

[Chimneyfish]

mould on the foot? trash immediately.
however, sometimes it's okay to just cut off half an inch MINIMUM off and smoke that.

if it's something that costs under a tenner, i just don't bother...

[pektel]

Originally Posted by AdamJoshua

Richard Hacker might disagree.

[jjirons69]

Bringing this back alive. Ordered some Party Serie D No.4s (10 pack). The box came in sealed from Apr 14. Excited to get a box with a little age on it. Opened it up to see mold. More mold than I've ever seen on cigars. Kinda looked like Andrew's OP pic, except a few tuffs were the size of a baby aspirin. I took some vodka and wiped them all down and they looked like nothing ever happened after I was done. My only concern is a couple of them had mold growing at the foot edge. Not in the foot area, but around the edge. It wiped off but I couldn't tell if any was inside the foot. Sure I could send them ALL the way back, but they did clean up well. Anybody else ever had it this bad and stuck it out and found out everything was fine? The inner foot was my only concern and judging as I did, that's why I decided to keep them and wipe them down.

[Weelok]

It's not mold. Put me in the dissenter category.

If it's not blue and fuzzy, it's not mold.

http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepa...lorescence.htm

[AdamJoshua]

Not to disagree with Dave, but a box from 14 most likely won't have plume on it.

Did you take before pictures or the .. substance? Might be worth it to email your vendor and let them know, there is always the option of sending them back or at the very least you might get some kind of credit (for saving them the hassle of shipping back and forth) on your account. At the very least you should let them know and not just blow it off.

Also usually lite fuzziness you can just brush off of the sticks, never used alcohol to clean them up but then again sounds like you had a substantial amount.

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by Weelok

If it's not blue and fuzzy, it's not mold.

Not true. I've seen white and green mold on cigars.

[Weelok]

White molds are almost always efflorescence. Green is probably the blue mold just blue isn't always blue. I have seen only one case of blue mold on one of my cigars and it was a huge ball of fuzzy slightly opaque blue about a third of an inch in diameter. No mistaking that.

These stalks and clusters are effluescence and nobody will change their minds on here so if your in the mold category, it will be mold and if your a dissenter, it's effluescence.

[Weelok]

Here is an article from Cigar Journal. White mold is no question mold and you will see pictures of it but it's harmless.

http://www.cigarjournal.co/store-cig...-a-cool-place/

Stalks like in the picture are efflorescence IMHO

Cigar Journal did an article on it and they reference it in the link above but you have to pay for it now unfortunately and it's that article that converted me to dissenter status.

I will buy it later this weekend because it's so topical to this hobby and the topic always comes up.

http://www.cigarjournal.co/previous-...-going-global/

[AdamJoshua]

Could have been Bolivian marching dust or maybe even pcp, you never know with these gray market vendors.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by jjirons69

Bringing this back alive. Ordered some Party Serie D No.4s (10 pack). The box came in sealed from Apr 14. Excited to get a box with a little age on it. Opened it up to see mold. More mold than I've ever seen on cigars. Kinda looked like Andrew's OP pic, except a few tuffs were the size of a baby aspirin. I took some vodka and wiped them all down and they looked like nothing ever happened after I was done. My only concern is a couple of them had mold growing at the foot edge. Not in the foot area, but around the edge. It wiped off but I couldn't tell if any was inside the foot. Sure I could send them ALL the way back, but they did clean up well. Anybody else ever had it this bad and stuck it out and found out everything was fine? The inner foot was my only concern and judging as I did, that's why I decided to keep them and wipe them down.

Yes and yes.

Even had a few where I trimmed the foot about an 1/8 - 1/4". They smoked fine too.

Such being said, I do believe it's a crap shoot, Jamie. And here's why: I'm more concerned with the long term storage that lead to the mold, this is something we can't see. Mold can form on the surface of the cigar, or anything really, within a few days to a week under the right conditions. A cigar could be stored properly for years, then something happens and two weeks later it has a forest growing on it. You catch it, you wipe it off, let it dry a bit and it smokes fine. But a cigar stored improperly for years and slowly growing crap on it for ages might not fare as well, even if it has less mold overall.

[kydsid]

Next time anyone has a cigar that looks like the op send it to me and Ill put it under a high res still capture compound microscope and we can put this debate to rest once and for all.