1966 & 520's

[Jason55555]

Sometimes getting new cigars in the mail its almost as good as gifts on Christmas morning LoL

Cohiba 1966's ( Beautiful thats all that needs to be said )

Monte 520's ( These are some of the best constructed and packed cigars I've seen in a while )

*************Ok here is the kicker so I opeaned the 520 and looks like there might be some...mold on the caps

I've had these problems with Monte's before on the No. 2's my humi is at 65 and 18C so it shouldn't spread... I hope.

I just wiped spots off soooooooo is it mold or plume LOL (I wish plume).

[Puros Y Vino]

Uh..not to alarm you. But that Monte 520 in the left shot looks like it has a beetle hole in it. Take a closer look. If so, freeze those suckers.

[JohnnyNorth]

Looks a lot like plume? Or water spots?

[mk05]

Wiped off, should be fine. Plenty cigars come with light surface mold.

[nikesupremedunk]

Definitely mold. Wipe them off, and you're good to go. Can't tell if that's a beetle hole or loose piece of tobacco stuck on there, but freeze them anyway.

Oh, and I'm jealous!

[CanuckSARTech]

I don't know if it's your camera, or just that picture. Those Cohiba's look weird - wild texture and colouring to those wrappers.

[MC4]

I was just about to say. the wrapper color on the 1966s doesn't look good to me.

[Puros Y Vino]

I was just about to say. the wrapper color on the 1966s doesn't look good to me.

I'm betting it's the camera. Look at the difference in the Monte shots. The brown hues are completely different. The 1966 shot looks a bit overexposed.

[Jason55555]

LOL yea the 1996's are an over exposed picture I was trying to be artistic...= fail lol

Of course this is how they should look.......

[Jason55555]

Uh..not to alarm you. But that Monte 520 in the left shot looks like it has a beetle hole in it. Take a closer look. If so, freeze those suckers.

bundwallah you did alarm me !!! Went back and triple checked each cigar hahahaha looks like it was just a piece of tobacco...phewww

[LordAnubis]

I saw a similar thing on monte 520s from a local store a few months ago, it looked like Plume to me. Thats my 3 months worth of experience on cigars anyway I bought a few singles with the plume on it anyway, haven't smoked any yet though.

[AndrewNR]

Those 1966's? You boys crazy? they look like a dark oily patchy seventh heaven! Good purchases mate!

[BMack]

It's definitely mold, plume looks more like dust...like literally if you left the cigar on a shelf that doesn't get dusted for several months. Plume also doesn't wipe off, I bet that will come off with a swipe of your thumb.

Mold isn't that big of a problem unless you have it in your humidor, wipe it off, smoke 'em and enjoy you lucky b*stard!

[Orion21]

Harmless mold if you wipe it off. Nice cigars, enjoy them in good health.

[AussieCanuck]

Maybe someone can confirm this for me ? Isn't plume something that comes with well aged (properly stored) cigars ? It is the result of the oils coming to the surface and crystalizing. If so any relatively new cigar, regardless of the age of the tobacco used, would not have any plume ? So in the case of cigars that only have 1 or two years of age it should usually be presumed to be mold rather than plume ?

[Orion21]

There are no definite answers in my opinion. I have read if it's really plume it will flake off vs mold being wiped away. I honestly don't ever look or care. I have had one instance of fuzzy white mold that I wiped off and restored the cigars. I can't imagine it being a good thing if oils in the cigar come to the surface and crystallize. Losing oils in your cigars is not a good thing and generally is a sign of a dry storage environment. I have had much better luck opening a box of nice oily cigars vs cigars that look "dusty" with plume. But like with most cigar related preferences it comes down to personal taste.

[ajgagnon]

Looks deadly. Those wrappers look like they were fermented to within an inch of their lives... rich and dark, but a bit uneven. Sounds like a score, but only you will know when you smoke them. Plume can happen when humidity is too high as well, I think. I've seen it look like whitish dust and like mildly orange plume. As long as it's not green cancer mould that doesn't wipe off or tobacco beetles, I'd say you're golden. We should be so lucky.

[CaptainQuintero]

Maybe someone can confirm this for me ? Isn't plume something that comes with well aged (properly stored) cigars ? It is the result of the oils coming to the surface and crystalizing. If so any relatively new cigar, regardless of the age of the tobacco used, would not have any plume ? So in the case of cigars that only have 1 or two years of age it should usually be presumed to be mold rather than plume ?

Basically yes, but you can get some strange things happening due to international shipping (Going to high humidity/low humidity/high temp/low temp) within a matter of hours etc.

If it's white, wipe it off. If it's other colours then contact your vendor.

You brush off plume before smoking too so basically if your cigars look fine after a quick brush then you're good to go.

Plume is effervescent under a black light too. Mould isn't.

[srsMichael]

Nice score! I was like a kid in candy store inspecting my boxes of monte 520s. Lovely cigar, cant wait to smoke one!