Mold ????

[moon]

I had a box of stogies at the bottom of my winecoolidor. I pulled everything out and noticed some of the condensation had made its way to the bottom of this thing. One of my boxes had soaked up some of the water. I dried off the box and put a shelf in to keep the boxes off the bottom. My problem is I brought one of the cigars out of the top of this box with me to work and unwrapped it to find white dusty crap all over this thing. Is this mold? I just got this box about a month ago so unless it was hold up in someone elses humi I doubt it is plume. There really wasn't that much water on the box and there is three rows of cigars in the box and this one was on the top. I am concerned to see what the bottom row will look like. Also if I don have a mold issue do I dump the gars? Will it affect my other stogies in the cooler? Thanks.

[Baric]

Im pretty sure that this is a harmless form of mold that is attributable to high humidity but can be brushed off the cigars with no actual damage to them. still...better send the box to me for confirmation

[moon]

Originally Posted by Baric

Im pretty sure that this is a harmless form of mold that is attributable to high humidity but can be brushed off the cigars with no actual damage to them. still...better send the box to me for confirmation

OK so my cigars are now in 69* and 65%RH so this form of mold probably happened in shipment? Or because the box got wet the inside of the boxes humidity level rose to cause this? Should I go through the box and wipe this crap off? These cigars are cedar wrapped so it would be a pain in the arse. Will it affect other cigars?

[StudentSmoker]

Originally Posted by moon

OK so my cigars are now in 69* and 65%RH so this form of mold probably happened in shipment? Or because the box got wet the inside of the boxes humidity level rose to cause this? Should I go through the box and wipe this crap off? These cigars are cedar wrapped so it would be a pain in the arse. Will it affect other cigars?

Pull one out, knock the mold off, and light it up. How they smoke will be the answer to your questions.

[olotti]

From what I understand if the mold is only on the outside of the cigar just brush them off and they should be ok, I would put them in a different box but that is just me. If the mold is on the outside and has also concentrated on the foot chances are the mold penetrated further into the cigar and they are no good. This is just the knowledge I have gathered from reading other postings on this subject so I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out.

[stogie_kanobie_one]

You've gotten good advice here. I have had mold before on some cigars as well and brushed it off. They cleaned up very nicely. Do make sure to use a good soft bristle brush. I used one of those brushes you can find in any walmart for washing your back. It was thick and full of bristles but soft to the touch. With the right texture brush you can really almost scrub the cigar. I didn't damage a single one so don't be shy. I was impressed at how well the wrappers stood up as I was very worried about them tearing......

Depending on the size of your wine cooler you may want to place some hygrometers in several locations to make sure you are getting stale 'high' points in humidity. A fan to help circulate air would help keep it more even if it isn't.

Good luck.