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.
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Not my original analogy, but 100% true.

Plume looks like well applied stripper glitter

Mold looks like poorly applied blind stripper glitter.
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:-)

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




now, I better go check and make sure I remember what stripper glitter looks like!!!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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Look at attached pic. Plume or Mold?
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mold, wipe it off and smoke it....
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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.
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Mold is fuzzy and plume or bloom is crystalline -- imagine little crystals of salt...
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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.
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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.
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plume...

Image
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Mold every time.
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I might be blind but it looks just like tobacco to me... what am i looking for?
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Maybe it's the slanted eyes? :-)





























Cause I dont see nothin either! :-)
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Us focking asians!
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