elderboy = moldy cigars?

[SmokinCeeGars]

[quote author=Diamondog link=topic=12232.msg64716#msg64716 date=1325117525]
When you spend the kind of money I spend on 'em, you make sure everything is A OK, always...Plume is the sign of well aged and well taken care of cigar....that Monte in question is 4 years aging.....I'm guessing not too many people would have a problem sampling sticks from my collection lol...
[/quote]

Ya can never be to careful that for sure. The Monte in your picture has been aging four years, and you have that kind of "plume" on the cigar? Why do none of the other Monte's be side the one cigar in question have any plume? Strange, but I didn't think it was common for that much plume to be visible on the cigar with only four years of aging. 10 years yes, but four, I dunno, but that seems a short amount of time to be seeing the plume we are seeing. Or do you mean four years of aging in your humidor and perhaps a few years in another humidor?

[grateful1]

[quote author=Diamondog link=topic=12232.msg64716#msg64716 date=1325117525]
When you spend the kind of money I spend on 'em, you make sure everything is A OK, always...Plume is the sign of well aged and well taken care of cigar....that Monte in question is 4 years aging.....I'm guessing not too many people would have a problem sampling sticks from my collection lol...
[/quote]

That depends.

[grateful1]

[quote author=randomhero1090 link=topic=12232.msg64713#msg64713 date=1325115621]
A doctor (literally) and member of my home forum did a chemical analysis of plume.  He has his PHD in Biochemistry.

Simply put, what makes up 50-70% of the plume he sampled was Propylene Glycol.  Which we are all familiar with as a moisture stabilizer (humectant).  It has a sweet taste to it.

The rest of the plume was a list of many other organic compounds, none of which would be harmful if ingested.

I got to find, or ask him, for that write-up he did.  It was pretty in-depth and a great read.

[/quote]

I'm curious as to his sampling.

[ivo]

  I was always under the impression that plume only referred to the dried oils that only appear on significantly(properly) aged cigars.

  And bloom is mold.

  Didn't moki write something on this a time back?

[terrantheman]

I was gifted some 16yo AF 858's once and let me just say that the cello was just golden but underneath that cello they sparkled like they had crystal flecks through the entire cigar.  Now as far as glycol propelene goes ain't no way it was under that cello and the only thing that explains all the sparkles would be plume.

[njstone]

[quote author=massphatness link=topic=12232.msg64661#msg64661 date=1325004467]
It bothers me a little that this thread ends up in the Battle Zone.

The thread title seemingly equates Dan with moldy cigars.  Yes, I see the question mark, but to the casual reader, it infers a problem with his cigars in general.

Could this not have been handled via PM, and THEN if there were an issue be brought here?  As it stands currently, there's nothing to "Battle" over except now Elderboy has a thread title equating his name with moldy cigars.
[/quote]

I so agree.  Terrible form.  In a community such as this, a thread of this title is akin to libel.

You should ALWAYS start with a PM.  If that doesn't work, how about a thread in the general discussion section that is appropriately named, like "Mold or not?"

[canadianbeaver]

Like I said in my original post, great learning, and I thank you for the information posted here. I did not mean to imply that cigars with plume were not well taken care of or unsmokable, I just don't think it is so easy to tell plume from mold. And recent posts confirm this observation.

If you are confident in the condition of your cigar, happy smoking and enjoy!

[njstone]

As to the Monte in this other picture, it's tough to call from that photo.  But I've stored and smoked a cigar with MORE plume on it than that one (2004 Camacho Liberty--pics on my other computer, sorry).  When I first opened that coffin, I did think it was mold because I've never seen that much plume on a cigar before.  But it was definitely plume, and it smoked wonderfully.  So it's certainly possible to have a stick that's basically covered in plume.

That's not to say this Monte has plume for sure, I don't know, but a cigar CAN plume that much.  Whether a cigar is likely to plume that much in 4-years ... well, I think it would be an exceptional case but I don't think it's impossible.  I don't have too many ancient Cubans, but I've seen plenty of Tatuajes and Padrons plume after just 4-5 years.

One more thing about plume--it's much more random that people would like to believe.  I do not think plume is the end-all-be-all "proof" that your storage abilities are top-notch.  I've seen (and own some) perfectly aged cigars that have no plume at all, and have seen plume on relatively young cigars ... all kept in the same container.  The plumed cigars I've smoked have NOT been better than the non-plumed cigars of the same vintage (albeit my experience is small).

I think there are a TON of factors that go into determining whether a cigar will plume (air quality, type of humidification, the cigar itself) and just because a cigar does NOT have plume in no way means it wasn't stored in an optimum way.  Plume is rare, and if someone has determined a way to virtually guarantee cigars will plume, I've certainly never heard it.  And if such methods exist, I'm still not convinced it mattress.

[MoeCizlak]

[quote author=randomhero1090 link=topic=12232.msg64713#msg64713 date=1325115621]
A doctor (literally) and member of my home forum did a chemical analysis of plume.  He has his PHD in Biochemistry.

Simply put, what makes up 50-70% of the plume he sampled was Propylene Glycol.  Which we are all familiar with as a moisture stabilizer (humectant).  It has a sweet taste to it.

The rest of the plume was a list of many other organic compounds, none of which would be harmful if ingested.

I got to find, or ask him, for that write-up he did.  It was pretty in-depth and a great read.


[/quote]

If you would please, post the results of this.  That is fascinating to me.  I'll run it by my chemists at work and see what they think.  I'd be very interested to see how Propylene Glycol was formed.

[ivo]

Ah, plume/bloom one and the same.  oops.

How would propylene glycol crystallize?