Mold on some feb and jun 18 Vegueros

[NW_Oregon]

As the title says, I've developed some mold on some vegueros that I purchased recently (from a vendor that will remain un-named, but not from our host) upon arrival I didn't do a super thorough inspection, just a quick glance and fondle of the bundles in the cellophane and then I put them away. I've been storing them in individual Tupperware since arrival and they are kept cooled in my wine cooler at 65F and each has a 65% boveda, I did notice an increase in RH but none of my hygrometers read over 68% so I figured it would come down over time.

I've removed the ones with larger spots and smoked those (single spots on 3 tapados about 1-1.5mm wide) and pitched one of my mananitas that had mold on the foot.

Could any one advise if there is anything further that should be done to prevent further mold growth? I'm thinking of burping these tupperware daily for a few weeks to see if they just need more air exchange.

Also bonus picture of cuban quality control from the same batch, once I pulled out the twine the cigar smoked and tasted pretty good. Construction on these mananitas from feb 18 is pretty shit over all.

[Bri Fi]

I have a wine cooler myself. It’s not plugged in tho as I got water accumulated at the bottom which got soaked into the boxes when I did have it plugged in. There was no buffer between the bottom of the wineador and my boxes. This lead to soaked cigars and the beginning of mold. Luckily I caught it just in the beginning and quarantined them like they had the ‘rona’. A couple months later I put them back into the wineador and shut that unit off as per @PigFish instruction which turned out to be good advice. If the ambient temp is high then 65 degrees will create condensation regardless of what our humidity source (I love boveda too but it’s not perfect). There’s a lot of info on wineadors. Not saying this is your problem but it’s a possibility. 
 

sorry to ray for all the tags in all these mold posts but that’s what you get for being the expert here. And ya, you’re an expert here. 

[NW_Oregon]

3 minutes ago, Bri Fi said:

I have a wine cooler myself. It’s not plugged in tho as I got water accumulated at the bottom which got soaked into the boxes when I did have it plugged in. There was no buffer between the bottom of the wineador and my boxes. This lead to soaked cigars and the beginning of mold. Luckily I caught it just in the beginning and quarantined them like they had the ‘rona’. A couple months later I put them back into the wineador and shut that unit off as per @PigFish instruction which turned out to be good advice. If the ambient temp is high then 65 degrees will create condensation regardless of what our humidity source (I love boveda too but it’s not perfect). There’s a lot of info on wineadors. Not saying this is your problem but it’s a possibility. 
 

sorry to ray for all the tags in all these mold posts but that’s what you get for being the expert here. And ya, you’re an expert here. 

Luckily, not the problem for me, everything I have is kept in Tupperware inside the winecooler. I just use the winecooler to keep a stable temperature. I'm just wonfering if I should do anything more drastic then just burping my tups that have the vegueros in them to get the RH down.

[Bri Fi]

Do you have an accurate hydrometer? 

[El Presidente]

The twine means you win a prize 

Do you need the tupperware if it is in a wine cooler?

[NW_Oregon]

5 minutes ago, Bri Fi said:

Do you have an accurate hydrometer? 

I've got quite a few, and have salt tested and used boveda kits. I run some cheapy ones from amazon and boveda butlers

[NW_Oregon]

6 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

The twine means you win a prize 

Do you need the tupperware if it is in a wine cooler?

I use the tupperware since my cooler isn't cigar specific, it has metal racks for bottles not cedar shelves. Also this way I don't have to humidify the whole unit, just each container. just working with what I had already really, bovedas and tupperware were already on hand when I got the unit.

[MMarbs]

Hope it all works out for you!

Regarding the Vegueros marca, have you smoked a lot of them before, and if so, how would you rate them in terms of flavor quality for the price value? I've never had them before, and, outside of the one jose piedra I've smoked (which I will not return to ever again), I've had very little experience with the value brands of CCs.

[NW_Oregon]

54 minutes ago, MMarbs said:

Hope it all works out for you!

Regarding the Vegueros marca, have you smoked a lot of them before, and if so, how would you rate them in terms of flavor quality for the price value? I've never had them before, and, outside of the one jose piedra I've smoked (which I will not return to ever again), I've had very little experience with the value brands of CCs.

Mananitas are money, I'm just about finished with a Tin of oct 16's and they smoke like a much more expensive cigar. Lots of chocolate, coffee, and sweet spices. I did smoke that one with the string hanging out of it, and it smoked well, but it had a bit of a perfume component that I don't remember in the older sticks

The Tapados, are pretty good, their a little young and I'd like to see how they are in a year or two, they have more a of leather component that I don't get in the Mananitas, little less sweet to. Mine also have a grittiness to the wrapper, like they got rolled around on the floor before packaging

I also have some Centrofino's, they're very young, may 19, They've got some bright gingerbead sweetness with some tea and bit of grassiness. but they get a bit tannic at the end which I would attribute to their young age.

[MMarbs]

13 minutes ago, NW_Oregon said:

Mananitas are money, I'm just about finished with a Tin of oct 16's and they smoke like a much more expensive cigar. Lots of chocolate, coffee, and sweet spices.

I also have some Centrofino's, they're very young, may 19, They've got some bright gingerbead sweetness with some tea and bit of grassiness. but they get a bit tannic at the end which I would attribute to their young age.

Those sound pretty tasty and would probably work well with my palate.

[CaptainQuintero]

1 hour ago, NW_Oregon said:

I use the tupperware since my cooler isn't cigar specific, it has metal racks for bottles not cedar shelves. Also this way I don't have to humidify the whole unit, just each container. just working with what I had already really, bovedas and tupperware were already on hand when I got the unit.

   It could be the seal in the tupperware? Like mentioned above, hygrometers could be off too. I repeat it but j less you have spent triple digits on them they can have margins of error from 1-7%. How do the cigars feel themselves? Squidgy? Bit of crispness and crackle to them?

  Small tupperware can be hard to keep stable too, once you take the lid off then you have all your preciously created atmosphere whoosh off into the room and your beads/packs have to start work again creating the desired rh%

[NW_Oregon]

So I decided to attack the problem head on and dry boxed the vegueros in a couple empty and dry SLB cabinets. hoping this will pull enough moisture out to get them down into the low 60s where they'll be stored for the foreseeable future.