Quote Originally Posted by CptnBlues63 View Post
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".