Hey guys, I have been purchasing from an ABC, they are a local alcohol and tobacco retail chain in my area.
I have been buying cigars there for a couple of months when recently i purchased a Romeo Y Juliet in the Tube. Once i got it home, i notice a lot of mold. I brought it back to the store to get an exchange and noticed every other Tube i opened had mold, and some of the neighboring sticks in other boxes were collecting mold... only the Romeo Y julieta were getting affected. When i checked, they had 2 hygrometers, one saying 74% by the door, and the one in the back saying 68%. The employee said he would put in an order for repair.
But my question and concerns are, should i keep buying out of that humidor? or avoid them until they treat the area? How long does it take to secure a walk in humidor once mold is found?
IM really bummed to, because the only other place i can get a decent sticks at a normal price IS MOVING and closed down the spot near me! They are not opening the new shop until after may...
I know there are tons of online reputable sources and i def use them! I still love walking into a humidor and just browsing with my eyes instead of clicking with my fingers!
thanks guys!
If it were me and I like the shop and they seem genuinely concerned about correcting the issue I might just inspect closely for mold before I buy and keep it in a separate small humi from the rest of my collection. It might be that the sticks you were looking at were closer to the humidity source? Mold does go airborne though so maybe others that visit B&Ms more than I do (CA taxes are pretty steep so it's rare that I visit one) may tell you different. Curious to hear from nirab who actually runs a B&M what his thoughts are...
Quoteheadfirst - 5/4/2021 1:07 PM
If it were me and I like the shop and they seem genuinely concerned about correcting the issue I might just inspect closely for mold before I buy and keep it in a separate small humi from the rest of my collection. It might be that the sticks you were looking at were closer to the humidity source? Mold does go airborne though so maybe others that visit B&Ms more than I do (CA taxes are pretty steep so it's rare that I visit one) may tell you different. Curious to hear from nirab who actually runs a B&M what his thoughts are...
Good call there's a few that either own stores or run/ manage them online here, I'm sure they would have good insight. But I'd agree if you like the store I'd inspect them closely and segregate them until it's shown there's no mold growing, I'd keep them away from my main humidor...
Some time ago, a local shop had a double tower that they kept their Padron's in. I opened it up, caught a whiff of mold, and never bought out of that humidor again. This went on for several months, it is hard to get the aroma out of the humidor, much less the cigars. They finally got rid of that humidor. IMO, those Padron's were ruined
Point: A good shop will be on point with their humidifiers to prevent this from happening
You mentioned that the RyJ were in a tubo. It is very common for cigars in tubo form to have mold on them. The other boxes were okay? B&M sometime do have it higher than the 65-70% cuz the doors open and close quite a bit during business hours. As long as they didn't give you a lame excuse that it was Plume and was willing to switch the stick for you I would keep going. I've had a few tubo sticks with mold on them and as long as it's not on the foot, wipe it, cut it and spark it up
Humidity isn't the only factor for mold. Some shops take the cheap way out and just use tap water to humidify their cigars instead of distilled water. :nono:
I've visited many cigar shops across this country, and whenever I see mold, I ask if they use distilled water or tap water. The answer is almost always due to the water used. I can't understand why anyone would invest tens of thousands of dollars into cigar inventory, and then not spend a little extra on water distilling machine or just bottled distilled water. :confused: