My First Cabinet of Cohiba's and its Mouldy!

[Mo_Robusto]

Hi Guys

I ordered 1st ever cabinet 10 days ago and i was really chuffed as i had taken a vital step in any BOTLs life - My first Cab!!

Then the snow hit and joy turned to despair as i thought that my order would be lost in all the chaos.

Well finally today my order arrived and i was pleased to bits when my wife told me as i was coming through the door.

Feeling like a kid in a candy shop and a child unwrapping their 1st christmas present all rolled into one, I went about slowly unwrapping my order with a huge grin on my face.

But when i got to the crucial bit and opened the cab and removed the cedar sheet, i felt like i had been hit with a sledge hammer and my once huge grin was now a huge face of disappointment.

The Cohiba Robustos that i had so happily ordered and had waited for eagerly had mould on them. Ans not just a few specs of mouldy and a whole lot of spores.







The box code is LRE ABR 10, from what i can deduce and from my limited experience these are genuine CoRos. They box was packed real well, vacum packed with a boveda pack in it. So how mould got a hold is bewildering to me.

Im not sure what to do, any advice from fellow BOTLs is greatly welcome. I will be emailing the shop were i bought them from to see what they say.

Unfortunately this puts a huge spanner in the works as i was hoping to enjoy these over the festive season.

regards
Mo

[bigbarneyhotdog]

if the dealer is reputable they will replace them or refund you. If they won't, then they're not worth buying anything from ever again. How was the box wrapped at point of posting? air tight bag? any seller worth their weight would have checked them before posting. email them and let us know the outcome.

[Mo_Robusto]

It was vacum packed barney, they give you the choice of having this done at checkout so i thought it would be good to keep the cigars fresh along with the boveda pack.

Will be contacting them in the morning to see what they have to say, as im pissed tbh.

Mo

[monkey66]

I'm sure the dealer will sort this out for you, let them know and they will take care of it.

NB - The mould may well just brush off (but I'd wait to speak to the vendor before touching them)

Personally I wouldn't use an airtight container (vacpac) and a humidifying device (bovida) as any fluctuation in temp (travel in extreme temps) can lead to massive swings in humidity and subsequently mould.

For me vac pac is fine but I wouldn't add humidifying to it.

Don't be too disheartened ...these things can happen, you'll get a new box and may even get to keep the old ones

[Smallclub]

Personally I wouldn't use an airtight container (vacpac) and a humidifying device (bovida) as any fluctuation in temp (travel in extreme temps) can lead to massive swings in humidity and subsequently mould.

For me vac pac is fine but I wouldn't add humidifying to it.

Exactly! No air flow/oxygen + over humidification = mould.

you'll get a new box and may even get to keep the old ones

?mmm? I doubt it, if it was purchased from a discounter? the cigars still look fine, I'm sure the taste won't be affected.

[jibjob79]

Ouch. Mind sharing who you got them from?


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[bigbarneyhotdog]

Ouch. Mind sharing who you got them from?

I would only do that via pm's

[Lionhound]

Contact your supplier first, but I think it will just rub off and be fine. Looks more like a kind of excessive bloom and not so much a mould as such.
I would probably put it down to packaging and temp fluctuations but think they'll be ok in the end.

[moidoid]

You can probably rub most of it off, dry them out a little, keep them separate (of course) from other cigars for a month or so until they stabilise. If the mould extends to the foot of the cigar then it may well be inside the cigar and probably a hopeless case.

Bad luck Mo, I know you were looking forward to these.

[Mo_Robusto]

I guess i will have to put it down to a lack of experience in asking for vacum packing and a bovida pack to be put in the package.

Does anyone think that these CoRos are fake?

Just that if you look at the 3rd pic of the close bands you will see that they dont look the same and are similar to the ones Deano posted about in his thread here: http://www.ukcigarforums.com/showthr...igarforums.com

The cigars i received



Deano's pic



The bands dont match on my cigars.

Mo

[tippexx]

I'm going to tell you all a story .... an' you aint gonna like it.

Back in Jurassic days when I was a student. I worked the Christmas period two years running with the Post Office. Whilst there was no snow, both those years were very wet. Often the big mail sacks which contain the parcels and letters would, because there being moved around from all over the country, arrive damp or even soggy. In the 'sorting' post offices there are drying rooms. These have two functions. 1) To rapidly dry out and warm wet postmen, so they can go out to complete further deliveries. 2) To dry out wet or damp mail so that it's delivered in roughly the same manner as it was posted. The temperature in the drying room is like that of a sauna, the first time I went in to dry out .... I almost passed-out.

If a parcel of humidified cigars ends up in a room like that, the chance of mold forming is pretty high.

[Deano]

I must admit your bands look dodgy. It's not always a tell-tale sign, as Cuban quality can often produce poor bands...but it can be common sign of fakeness.

Personally I'd get a refund.

[nicwing]

The other sure test is the colour match of the cigars in the box.

In the Cohiba factory some of the best paid and most experienced staff work in the final grading stage before the cigars are boxed.

They match the colours of the wrappers to 60 different shades so that every box has the same colour of cigars.

One sure way to tell fakes is to look at the colour match of the wrappers. If they are not all perfectly the same shade ---FAKES!

[daverave999]

I'm afraid I can't help you as to their authenticity due to virtually no experience with the brand, but do you trust the vendor?
I'd certainly contact them and show them the pictures and ask if they'll replace or refund.
That said, my first box had mould and I just brushed it off. I was very disappointed but was too new to this to really push the issue. The mould didn't come back though, and they are now a superb smoke!

[monkey66]

Not your fault about the vac and bovida, don't know why the vendor offers it

I doubt it very much these are fakes, if the source is good (and vac and bovida has always been 100% ) then the sticks will be fine. The bands are bad although this can happen, everything else looks spot on. You have had a bad experience with the mould and now everything is inevitably looking bad but they are almost certainly fine.

I have some 07's and they are all over the place with some 'indicators' of potential fakes but they are 100% legit.

Again tell the vendor your concerns and I am sure they will do the right thing as you have had a rough ride so far.