Mold or plume?

[Stewmuse]

I got a box of Fuente 8-5-8s a few weeks ago. The first and fourth I smoked had spots (see the pic) that, mostly, wiped off very easily. Decided to open the rest of the cigars, each of which was wrapped in a cedar sleeve and plastic. Only 6 of the 25 in the box were lacking these spots. Opinions on mold vs. plume...?

[jledou]

Check the spots up close. If they look hairy it is mold. If they look sharper at the edges (crystalline) then is plume.

Looks more like plume since it is not in the foot and therefore throughout the cigar.

[Stewmuse]

Check the spots up close. If they look hairy it is mold. If they look sharper at the edges (crystalline) then is plume.

Looks more like plume since it is not in the foot and therefore throughout the cigar.

That was my guess. There are, also, no spots around the head, only in the areas which were beneath cedar wrapper. They smoke and taste fine.

[Kip]

Fuente had a massive PR problem back around 2008-9 (year subject to a tumor addled memory). That problem was MOLD. It was blamed on faulty humipaks in the boxes, but it only and nearly always was on lines that have - you guessed it - cedar sleeves. These sleeves seem to promote it. For 18 months or so, almost every cedar wrapped Fuente I bought had it to some degree. It was always just on the surface, though, and didn't give any noticeable off flavors. I wiped them and smoked them (although, I all but stopped buying them while it persisted). Yours could be plume, but I've seen A LOT of mold on these. At the very least, I'd segregate / quarantine them and not chance introducing mold into your general population. Otherwise, I'd just wipe, light, and enjoy.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

[IWinchester]

The spottiness makes me think mold. Everything I've had plume on was evenly laid out.

[kurtdesign1]

Mold.
In all of my experiences, I've rarely RARELY ever encountered plume. When I had, it was light, crystaline & not at all easily confusable. My general rule is 99% of the time it's mold. 1% of the time it's plume/deposits from oil, etc. And half the time the plume goes unnoticed...