What is “blue mold” and what do I do if I find it on my cigars?

When learning about how to store and smoke cigars, one of the first things to address is how to tell whether or not your cigar has gone bad. Here at Cheap Humidors we field a lot of different questions when it comes to maintenance of cigars and one of the most common one’s we’re asked is, ‘what is “blue mold” and what do I do if I find it on my cigars?”’

When you open up your box of cigars and see small white and blue spots it may at first seem as though all hope is lost for your cigars. Right off of the bat, it’s important to deduce whether the white spots are actually mold or if its “bloom.” Bloom is what happens when oils in the cigar begin to rise to the outside and then crystalize on the top. This could be what you are seeing. In order to differentiate between bloom and mold investigate what the white spots actually look like. If it appears to be dusty and crystalized, then it’s most likely bloom. Many cigar smokers in fact prefer their cigars to have bloom visible. However, if the white spots appear fluffy and hairy almost, then that’s mold.

Okay, so you’ve got mold on your stogies, now what? Once you identify which cigars have mold on them be sure to remove them from your humidor or storage area so that the mold does not spread to the rest of your cigars. Once you’ve done this, it’s important to disinfect your humidor with isopropyl alcohol solution. Due to the intensity of this cleaning product, it is not uncommon for it to permanently stain the interior of your humidor, keep that in mind should you begin to see a change.

Depending on how bad the mold is directly effects whether or not the cigar is still able to be smoked. If it’s white, then typically it is still safe to smoke. However, if it’s blue or green then the stogie could be on its last leg. If you’re determined to do all you can to save it, try leaving it out of the humidor for 35–37 hours or put it in your freezer. If the mold has spread to the inside of the cigar, then you’ll simply have to cut your losses and learn from your humidity error for your next venture.

In order to prevent this from happening again, lower the humidity in your humidor to at least 72%. Should you find yourself in need of a completely new humidor, please feel free to visit us at http://www.cheaphumidors.com where you’ll be able to select from all shapes and sizes of humidors.