As mentioned in an earlier thread regarding mold, Jackal and I were in Casa Fuente Las Vegas earlier today. Now, this store, and indeed the Arturo Fuente company, are highly regarded and have a good reputation amongst their customers. So, I was a little surprised at the interaction I had with one of the employees at the shop. While perusing the Casa Fuente line of cigars, I noticed some white marks on some of the Pyramids. I picked up a couple of the sticks, and pointed out some largish white lumps, with a distinctly fuzzy appearance, on the heads of a few of the cigars. At that point, the salesman working in the humidor stepped over and asked if we were familiar with plume. We responded that yes, we do indeed know about plume, but that this was clearly mold. He told us that since it was white, it couldn't be mold. We replied that there are many white molds. The salesman then took the cigar that we were looking at, and rubbed at one of the spots through the cello. Then he told us that since it rubbed off so easily, it must be plume.
Now, to me, the comments of the salesman sounded a lot like something he was trained to say. He didn't seem as knowledgeable about their stock as someone at a high end shop really should be. I'm not sure if this salesman was trying to deliberately deceive us, or if he was just ignorant about the subject. Either way, this really does not reflect well on Casa Fuente as a retailer.