Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

I was doing some Internet research out of my own curiosity and I thought the following information might be helpful for others as well.

CigarBloom or Plume (same meaning) is a cigar term that describes crystallization due to the rising of tobacco oils from within the cigar to the surface. The air will then dry the excretion creating the crystallized or dusty appearance. Bloom / Plume can appear slightly different on various cigars because every manufacturer will use a different wrapper leaf, filler, curing process, etc.


Cigar bloom / plume will not effect the cigar taste. The discussion, or the need for the bloom / plume, is that the cigar must be resting for a good period of time under great conditions of temperature and humidity. Meaning aging has already played a role in the cigar you are about to smoke.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/cbnat/bloom.gif

Cigar mold, like any other mold, is a fungus. Mold will generally appear on cigars when the relative humidity in the humidor surpasses 80%. Please do not get confused with the common misconception that mold is a certain color; mold can be green, blue, light yellow, and even white.

Visually cigar mold is more “fuzy” or “hairy”. If the scientist in you so wishes to see the spots up close you should really notice that there is a definitive structure to the mold. There will be stalks holding up additional spores that are waiting to “jump” and contaminate anything and everything nearby (isolate the infected cigars ASAP). Growth wise the cigar mold will grow in small clusters that causes a spotted look unlike bloom / plume that will cover the entire cigar.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...cigar-mold.gif

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Is it true that plume only appears on the wrapper? In other words, if there are white spots on the foot of the cigar, it's likely mold?

My Beer B&M (Total Wine) has a walk-in humidor. Pretty nice selection of sticks. Stopped by yesterday and this one box of Trinidad's had dozens of sticks that were covered in spotty mold. The cellophane was very yellowed, too, so it kinda threw me until I checked the foot of the cigars and they were peppered with white splotches. Mold, right?

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Correct.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

That's correct Gerard. If's it's in the foot, it's athletes foot. :D

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

I do believe that MOLD BLOOMS, and cigars develop PLUME from the oils. I do not think the term is the same. :2

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Great information here. I've read several times that if the spots are white then the sticks aren't in danger. I didn't know what plume looked like until I read this post. I just got a box of cigars that had small white mold spots on them. Gently cleaned each one and will watch closely to see if it reappears. Does any one know of any other needed treatment?

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Here's a pic of mold on the foot of a LGC (the last time I ordered from JR's. Four boxes of LGC's, all with moldy cigars.)

WyoBob

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s/DSCN1162.jpg

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Mold
http://home.alltel.net/jbperry/cig1.jpg
http://home.alltel.net/jbperry/cig2.jpg
http://www.vitolas.net/albums/userpi..._or_plume3.jpg

Plume
http://home.alltel.net/jbperry/cig5.jpg
http://home.alltel.net/jbperry/cig7.jpg
http://www.vitolas.net/albums/userpi...me_closeup.jpg

Bug damage

http://img179.exs.cx/img179/4941/pambeetle2fi.jpg

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

That picture makes me want to cry. :hn

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

The easiest way to tell mold vs plume is with a 10X eye loom.
Mold will appear fuzzy, and spore-like.
Plume will appear almost crystalline.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Mold is what happens at home in your humidor, bloom/plume is what you'll find in the B/M's just ask them....

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

This just brings tears to my eyes :(

http://img179.exs.cx/img179/4941/pambeetle2fi.jpg

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Awww just freeze em and they'll be fine. :r:r:r

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

gives me chills

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

What a great way to start a Compost Pile :)

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

This thread is very evil and bad. Somewhere the cigar Gods are not happy with someone....

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

I thought the same thing, but the term bloom and plume are used interchangeably to describe the signs of aging. :confused: And yes one of the way to tell it is mold is because it does bloom off of the cigar.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

:tpd:

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Furthermore, dust is also mistaken for ploom or bloom at times.

In fact, without a close picture or an in person examination, the first picture could be dust. Of course, it could also be a wicked case of bloom or plume.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Some information I did not know about mold-

Mold will stop growing and become inactive or dormant in a controlled environment, however the spores will remain viable on the host material. Increases in relative humidity or other moisture will facilitate a mold bloom.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Really, the only way to truly know what plume looks like is to see it yourself. It's hard to take a picture of, and even then you really only get the light reflecting off of it.

It's one of those things that until I saw it, I wasn't even sure what it looked like.

I'm of the thought that most B&M employees have never seen it either and that's why they improperly insist that mold is plume. That and some lie so they don't lose a sale.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Not my original analogy, but 100% true.

Plume looks like well applied stripper glitter

Mold looks like poorly applied blind stripper glitter.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

:tpd:

I think that plume also reflects like light due to its crystalline nature. The eye loop is a great tip and I have used it in the past. A must have for cigar enthusiasts.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

this post explained it perfectly... at least for me anyway!:D




now, I better go check and make sure I remember what stripper glitter looks like!!!

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

I found this thread interesting and thought it deserved a bump.
I've run into this discussion with my local B&M shop. I pretty much had my head took off for even suggesting that there was mold on their cigars. But, as demonstrated here, I was right. Mold is fuzzy looking while plume is crystalline. It was definitely mold I seen on their sticks though some of them were plume, as well.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Had the same thing happen to me recently. I went to a B&M I don't go into often and saw a bunch of La Riqueza covered in nice round mold blooms. I told the guy at the counter that he may want to get those out of the case so customers don't see it but he insisted that it was plume and not mold...

He even told me he had one of them tested chemically to see if it was mold and it came back negative.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

That's funny. There is no 'chemical' test you can do unless the mold has spored and become toxic. Even Stachybotrys is harmless until it reaches the 'toxicity' stage. The sure way to tell is to grow a culture. Not hard to do if you have sterile petri dishes to grow it in a humid environment. As I said, I reached the same resistance from them when I suggested they get them out of the humidor. I think the present manager will be more vigilant since he is very knowledgeable about these things. He did get rid of them.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

I feel left out. I don't expect to have enough age on anything in my humidor for a long time. For me, I expect Plume will be nothing more than a myth for the foreseeable future.

As far as mold goes... I refuse to acknowledge the possibility of this type of growth on something I put in my mouth.

Hope IS a strategy...

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

The mold I identified on some of the sticks at another tobacco shop was hair mold. It's relatively harmless, being that it's not toxic, but it does not look good to be on a tobacco product and it will spread- rapidly. Other mold I seen was the round, fuzzy kind.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Look at attached pic. Plume or Mold?

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

mold, wipe it off and smoke it....

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

mold 100%

Is there any mold near the foot? If so, I'd consider tossing the cigar, if not; wipe and smoke.

I would toast the foot of the cigar before clipping it. Better safe to burn off any mold near the foot and keep it from travelling through the cigar.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Mold is fuzzy and plume or bloom is crystalline -- imagine little crystals of salt...

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

In fact most of the mold you are like to encounter is going to BE white....Blue green is probably
the second most likely followed by light yellow. If you get the purple $hi+, just throw your
humidor out the window and DUCK.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Not table salt however, more like the crystals you would grow in a science experiment.
Although it is often so small that I guess you could say salt and be pretty close. Definitely not like
some kind of plant that has fuzzy branches, although plume can stalk a little as crystals grow
undisturbed, but they would not look fuzzy.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

plume...

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y...8/IMG_1138.jpg

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Mold every time.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

I might be blind but it looks just like tobacco to me... what am i looking for?

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Maybe it's the slanted eyes? :sh





























Cause I dont see nothin either! :r

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Us focking asians!

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

The lighter color is the plume

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Sorry about the size of the picture. But both spots look round and fuzzy. I did not want to bias anyone's opinion as to what I thought it was (I said mold on this and several other sticks this BOTL says is plume). Not really worth arguing about but he is supposed to know the difference. From my experience, plume has always been somewhat scattered all over the stick with tiny crystalline specks. Not huge, round fuzzballs.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

I'm new here and the original examples pictures now are dead links. So I thought I'd update with some rather epic plume pics.

http://vvcap.net/db/sgCFeCKdX7rlsuj4petd.pnghttp://vvcap.net/db/Lv754Ab26Usz1NwMh-Jr.png

Flawless cigar
http://vvcap.net/db/nLlBAXwwNoue_Hl2-NwB.png

Empty yellow plumed out cello
http://vvcap.net/db/-FDavzrSqT-uDukaf7FJ.png

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Uh, that would be mold.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Ummmm, sorry to disappoint, but plume does not grow on cellophane, mold does however.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Absolutely not. The cigar was perfect. New to the forum, not new to smoke'n.

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

Never seen patchy plume before. Mold, on the other hand...

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

:tpd:

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

bishes

Re: Plume or Bloom vs. Mold
 

A more suspicious BOTL would see that this was your first post, and think that possibly you were trolling for a reaction, and know that it is indeed mold. But like you, I am a giver, so I will just assume you are mistaken. :)