Aunthenticity Verification

[CptnBlues63]

This is in Germany, no? You never know, but 1 thing to recognize is business would probably suffer pretty good if they were peddling fakes somewhere people don't have to travel far or look hard to acquire authentic merchandise. Secondly, I think regulators & purveyors of legit merchandise would be all over their you know whats. Think about it. Germany isn't exactly the every man for himself Caribbean or Mexico.

My guess, (assuming the location is where I imagine it, and based on the limited info the picture provides) these are probably legit. I'd further bet CptnBlues63 was correct, in that their customer base, or at least the purpose of that particular display is to serve SINGLES. If that much is logical - opening all the boxes would also be logical. If it's not for letting the cigars breath out of the God-awful cardboard & humidification purposes, it also gives customers a variety of choices, perhaps multiple factories or an opportunity to select to personal aesthetic preference.

I don't know about you guys but they'd have to only have (1) box there for me to NOT wonder if the additional "unopened" boxes had better looking / smelling / more preferable factory codes / dates etc. and not want to rip em' all open myself to inspect & speculate.

jmho

I never thought about that aspect.

After reading Eville's response and seeing that they had all the boxes open I thought, "that IS odd" I know my favorite B&M, he only opens them as he needs them.

As I said, I later bought a 3 pack and immediately took the cigars out of the cardboard and put them in the humi because the box itself kind of felt damp to me and I thought that couldn't be good for the cigars. So as soon as I read the above I thought, "Oh yeah, that makes sense."


On the plus side, all 3 cigars in that box had plume on them. In fact, that's how I learned what it was. I got home, opened the box, saw white spots on the cigars and phone the B&M and said, "Hey, I think there's mold growing on my cigars!" LOL

Needless to say when the owner, Chris, explained, I was rather relieved and pleased......lol

[ashauler]

Plume or Mold.......if you saw "spots", and the box was damp to the touch.....I'm betting mold. Plume should sparkle and look as if the cigar was "dusted" with something.....not individual spots randomly distributed over the cigar.

I've read some seriously fucked up descriptions of "plume" from retailers.

[badwhale]

Plume or Mold.......if you saw "spots", and the box was damp to the touch.....I'm betting mold. Plume should sparkle and look as if the cigar was "dusted" with something.....not individual spots randomly distributed over the cigar.

I've read some seriously fucked up descriptions of "plume" from retailers.

Yeah. I think under a magnifying glass, you'll see the little stalks, and tops of mold. Plume doesn't look like that.

I saw some MAJOR mold on cigars in a shop down St Armands Circle, FL. It was unquestionable.

Either way, unless it was really bad, I'd just dust that shit off, and smoke it anyway.

Quarantine of course if you're not going to smoke it right away.

Will

[CptnBlues63]

Yeah. I think under a magnifying glass, you'll see the little stalks, and tops of mold. Plume doesn't look like that.

I saw some MAJOR mold on cigars in a shop down St Armands Circle, FL. It was unquestionable.

Either way, unless it was really bad, I'd just dust that shit off, and smoke it anyway.

Quarantine of course if you're not going to smoke it right away.

Will

Thanks for the input guys.....as I say I was concerned it was mold at the time.

Just to clarify, it wasn't big spots, it was more like a lot of little tiny white crystalline looking dots.

Now, I admit I don't have the most sensitive nose but when I sniffed them (after talking to the owner of the B&M on the phone) I couldn't smell mold and I do know what that smells like.

I also wiped my finger on the cigar and tasted it. It didn't taste moldy either (the taste I did get was kind of oily, and a touch bitter) so I just wiped them off and smoked them. I live to far from the city to just run back and return them.........LOL

Ever since then, when I buy a box pack like that, I open them there before I pay.

I like to think it was plume because I didn't smell or taste mold....but I'll tell you this much, if I ever run into it again, I'm going to dig out a magnifying glass for a closer look. I can tell the difference between a crystalline structure and mold.

[Chè]

Just a heads up, Cptn, the 1 experience I had with mold sounds an awful lot like yours. I was new to the game and based on circumstances similar in the logic you used, I was convinced it must have been plume. In my case, it made little sense that the contents of 1 box in my possession more than 6 months in the center of my storage space would suddenly develop mold, while the surrounding 30 or so were not affected.

I am by no means the expert on the subject - keep that in mind. Based on the actual rare occurrence of real plume, I'm about 101% certain the former experience I had was mold.

From my own experience, the good news is white mold on the wrapper appears to be easily correctable - brush off and keep away from moisture. I still have 10 or so of the sticks from years ago that had the white mold on the wrapper. Colored mold, or mold in the body of the cigar or any mildwew odor - I think you'd want to TOSS.

[TachyCoventry]

Ok so a friend went to Bimini last weekend and picked me up some smokes, problem is that I think that they are fake. I wanted some more experienced opinions to verify. Thanks in advance.

On a side note, do you tell a friend who tried to pick you up some cigars that he got shafted by some fakes? He doesn't even smoke them, he just picked them up as a gift for me and another buddy. Oh price was $15 each if that matters

[EGQ]

Unfortunately, you already know the answer... See how they smoke -- may not be too bad.

I wouldn't tell a friend they were had -- it was a nice gesture -- I'd leave it at that.

[Mangyrat]

Real or fake it don't matter, they were a gift.

[ggiese]

Absent better photos, Those look like they might be Monte A's - and pretty ugly examples at that. $15 for a 'real' Monte A seems relatively cheap...

I suspect based upon where the cigars were purchased, what they look like overall and how much they cost - you likely have fakes on your hand.

[Chè]

On the plus side, all 3 cigars in that box had plume on them. In fact, that's how I learned what it was. I got home, opened the box, saw white spots on the cigars and phone the B&M and said, "Hey, I think there's mold growing on my cigars!" LOL

Needless to say when the owner, Chris, explained, I was rather relieved and pleased......lol

Possible, but it probably was mold.

From what I've learned, "plume" is a temporary condition that occurs from sudden changes a cigar is exposed to. It could in fact be that the "sudden" change was your removal of the box or the change from the BM's atmosphere.

In the right conditions, you'll blink and find a cigar you pulled out to take somewhere with you suddenly has plume crystals on its surface. I've had the experience several times when the weather outside was extremely cold (for my location at least).

Plume is actually tiny crystals (looks like grains of salt) - once you've seen em', you'll be hard pressed to confuse it with mold ever again. My understanding is in rapid change, when oil and moisture on the outter wrapper surface recede, if conditions are ripe, the moisture recedes faster leaving the oil separated to crystallize on the outter surface. That trapped surface oil = "plume".

[ashauler]

snip......

From what I've learned, "plume" is a temporary condition that occurs from sudden changes a cigar is exposed to. It could in fact be that the "sudden" change was your removal of the box or the change from the BM's atmosphere.

In the right conditions, you'll blink and find a cigar you pulled out to take somewhere with you suddenly has plume crystals on its surface. I've had the experience several times when the weather outside was extremely cold (for my location at least).

Plume is actually tiny crystals (looks like grains of salt) - once you've seen em', you'll be hard pressed to confuse it with mold ever again. My understanding is in rapid change, when oil and moisture on the outter wrapper surface recede, if conditions are ripe, the moisture recedes faster leaving the oil separated to crystallize on the outter surface. That trapped surface oil = "plume".

X2 on the hi-jack.....my apology.

I've never heard this explanation of how plume forms and would be very interested in the source of that info.

From everything I've read, seen, and experienced true plume is a rare occurence, and forms due to the stability of the storage condidtions rather than some rapid or sudden drastic change in the cigars environment.

No expert here.

[buzz]

From everything I've read, seen, and experienced true plume is a rare occurence, and forms due to the stability of the storage condidtions rather than some rapid or sudden drastic change in the cigars environment.

Long-term storage at stable temperature/humidity (70/70 +/-) - this is what I have heard from multiple sources.

A Google search for plume yielded this, it may be helpful:



-Buzz

[mail man]

Long-term storage at stable temperature/humidity (70/70 +/-) - this is what I have heard from multiple sources.

A Google search for plume yielded this, it may be helpful:



-Buzz

You really are not right Buzz.

[ashauler]

You really are not right Buzz.

Pot vs. Kettle?

[mail man]

Pot vs. Kettle?

Well, I never did claim that I was "in the zone".

[Chè]

Fair point ashauler. The source of the information was the Honk Kong author. And while there are many opinions on the guy, some of which I won't argue are without merit, that aside there have been two occasions that stand out where I've witnessed plume form unexpectedly out of the blue. Both those occasions involved cooling - 1 on my own behalf / purposely, the other nature and the weather (from house & storage to destination that was approximately 30 degrees cooler than home). The "nature" occasion was with-in a 1 hour period, a cigar that had no plume was pulled out and to my surprise showed 7 -10 crystals up & down the wrapper.

In retrospect, of all you've heard over the years, I'm curious, beyond the opinions of it being perfect or extremely stable storage conditions yaddy yaddy yah, what exactly has been the explanation of what plume (the actual substance) is?

Another thing & JMHO... My experience is, it's mythical that plume represents some huge gain in strength, flavor or any other immediately discernible enhancement.

If the good Dr.'s theory is correct (about oil + moisture) and the phenomenon in general, you're probably looking at a cigar with significant oils present to begin with. Perhaps that's the explanation of the psychological belief that a pluming cigar is the Holy Grail?