mold

StrongStyle

how much is too much? how much is enough to smoke? got some tha were wrapped in cedar and found a little mold on em. trying to figure out if i should smoke it.

90+_Irishman

If it is mild surface and just brushes off you are good to go, just smoke them soon. If it looks like you might smoke it and end up speaking Klingon to Trekkies on planet Zion, well then you might want to think twice lol. That help clarify at all? My personal rule of thumb would be less than a quarter sized TOTAL amount of mold and only surface mold that brushes off.

camgfs

If it's white and easily brushes off, then you should be fine. It's happened on some of my oldest sticks (10+ years). Brushed right off and never came back.
If it's blue-ish or green mold, toss the stick. That stuff will make you sick.

boydmcgowan

yeah, I would also add that if the cigar isn't that nice (use your guidelines on what that means) you might not want to risk it and just toss it anyway. If its a nice one, my rules of thumb are

If its a color I won't smoke it

If its in the foot I won't smoke it

If its really fuzzy, I won't smoke it.

If its just a little bit then of white mold thats not too fuzzy, and on the wrapper only and brushes off easily then I wouldn't sweat it but would fire that sucker up ASAP and in the meantime keep it out of your humi.

Also, check the rest of the your cigars over every few weeks for a while to make sure it won't spread.

CAcigarguy007

Some good advice so far. Surface mold wipe off, you can even moisten a paper towel with distilled water (some use isopropyl alcohol even, but I wouldn't due to oil loss) to make it easier, let it chill for a day them smoke them up. If it is on the foot you can do two things. If there is a bunch then you should dissect one and see how far up the mold goes. I had mold hit a half a box once (due to errant drips from the wine fridge) and I was able to clip off an inch (always go 1/2 inch above were it ends to be safe) and salvage them all like that and they smoked and tasted fabulous. I even aged them another year or so and no more came back. Be sure to stick them in a separate plastic bag to quarantine them, or better yet, a separate humi if you have one. 90% of the time they are salvageable if caught early. Usually it won't go very far past the foot unless you just let it go for years. Mold sucks, sorry to hear it has struck your cigars.