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I’ll begin with the ad. Pipes & Cigars is currently selling on their website Cornell & Diehl’s Small Batch Carolina Red Flake with Perique 2023 and Anthology 2023. I just checked their website before I typed this, and they are both still available.
I purchased a couple of tins of each, which is not something I usually do with C&D small batches. After my purchase I surfed the web to learn more, particularly flavor profiles, likes and dislikes. What I discovered is that there are complaints about Anthology 2023 having mold. Uggghhh! They got me again! Oh well, too late now, my tins were on the way.
When my order arrived, I immediately opened a tin of Anthology. Hurray! No mold! I rubbed out a flake, packed my Eskimo pipe, and put both tins in the freezer. Freezing does not kill mold, but if there are any mold spores on the tobacco it deactivates them. Causes them to go dormant and prevents the mold from growing. I guess you could say, “Freezing tobacco keeps it fresh!” I’ll finish the opened tin over the next few weeks and probably keep the other tin in the freezer until autumn.
About 15 years ago I bought a 2 oz tin of C&D Kajun Kake and a 2 oz tin of Opening Night. They were both mighty good. I bought an 8 oz tin of each and jarred them. After about a month my Kajun Kake was covered with white velvety mold. Very disappointing. The Opening Night still looked good. Five years later, still in the same jar, the Opening Night continued to look good! Hurray! After that, because of the Kajun Kake, I avoided C&D and stuck with McClelland. When McClelland went out of business I switched back to C&D Opening Night and never had any mold issues with Opening Night.
2016 Small batch Carolina Red Flake was recalled because of mold issues! Aha! Whew, didn’t buy that one! Dodged that bullet! Note to self, “Don’t buy C&D small batches because they sell out before anybody realizes they’re moldy!” As you already know, I recently broke my note to self and bought Anthology and Carolina Red Flake/perique 2023. Damn! When is C&D going to fix their mold problem!
There are no complaints that I could find about Carolina Red Flake with Perique 2023 having mold issues. I’ll just throw those in the cellar and open them as desired. I’ve never had mold issues with Edisto or Opening Night, I’ll continue buying those as personal favorites.
I’m beginning this thread as a discussion about Mr. McMold. I’m anxious to find out about other user's experiences and fixes for the ol’ spoiler, Mr. McMold.
Oh! By the way, comparing Anthology 2023 to Edisto. They look exactly the same in the tin. The tin notes are very similar. Flavor wise Anthology is just slightly brighter, every once in a while I'll get a little bit of the toastiness from the stoved Virginia. The slight brightness along with the occasional toastiness contributes to a slightly spicier character when compared to Edisto.
Most commercial tobacco blends are only around 80% tobacco. The rest is mostly water, along with humectants, fungicides, flavoring, preservatives, etc. The urge for manufacturers to kick up the moisture content is always strong I’m sure. Water costs much less than tobacco. After Laudisi, a marketing and distribution company, bought C&D, I can only guess that profitability became priority number one and they pushed the envelope. That got corrected a bit in years since, (by adding more humectants, fungicides, etc. mostly) but mold can still appear and does. Meanwhile, many of the manufacturers have been encouraging the belief for many years that moisture is good in pipe tobacco, (the why is obvious I think) leaving many new pipe smokers trying to figure out how to light sopping wet tobacco because “that’s the way it’s supposed to be”.
Most of my mold encounters have been with Laudisi era C&D. I have encountered it in others though. I had a moldy tin of Samuel Gawith Firedance In the past year, first time ever with an SG product so I consider it a fluke and meaningless.
The fix is easy, let it dry out some upon jarring. That way the percentages of remaining fungicides and preservatives will be higher 😜 Nothing can be done if it happened in the can before you open it though.
Mold spores are everywhere and on everything including us. They are very difficult to kill and practically impossible to avoid. Environment is the key. They are only an issue when provided a suitable environment to grow.
You are right. Moisture is a major factor when it comes to mold. I never considered trying to dry tobacco out before jarring it. With that being said SG flakes are some of the wettest tobaccos on the market. Maybe SG is using a better fungicide than C&D. C&D seems to be the one usually with the issues. I mean really, here it is 2024 and now their Anthology blend is having mold issues. Of the two reviews for Anthology 2023 on this site, one of them is complaining of mold. I'll probably just keep my Anthology in the freezer as a safeguard and cross my fingers and hope it hasn't already gotten moldy.
Also, a fungus side note. Molds do not like acidic environments. One of the earliest ways of discouraging mold on damp tobacco, which is still in use today on some blends is vinegar. Used in larger quantities, it is obviously more effective allowing a greater moisture content and it also gives the tobacco a flavor that many describe as ketchup or BBQ.
I concur and I'm pretty sure that's exactly why McClelland Virginias never had mold issues.
Good topic. Never happened with me but it is a question of time i believe. Looking foward to read how you guys deal with it.
Yeah! Good topic! I have yet to meet my first McMold Monster in pipe tobacco. Thankfully, it sounds like they find the bad batches and issue recalls when it happens, so, I'm not too alarmed. As for moisture content, I've only ever opened two really soggy tins, (if I remember correctly), neither of those were Laudisi-packed, and neither manifested monsters (other than monstrously good smokes 😉 ). I will keep my eye out, now that you've brought it to my attention. My inventory of open blends stands at 42 and growing. I have 11 empty jars standing by at my whim to open the next untried blend from the cellar. I will definitely report back here if I catch one. 🤢
Truly, moldy tobacco is very few and far between. In the past 25 years I’ve encountered it maybe 5 times total. And I’ve opened a lot of tobacco. Controlling mold isn’t “rocket science”, every manufacturer should have a handle on it and it seems they do for the most part.
May all of your tobacco be mold free and tasty!
The best way to watch out for it is to google the name of the tobacco with the word "mold" after it. Especially when you're considering a C&D flake or kake that you've never tried.
I was both surprised and disappointed when I saw the comments concerning Anthology 2023. I should've known better and googled it before I made the purchase. It only takes a minute. This is the 2nd C&D small batch that has a mold issue that I'm aware of.
No mold issues for me, so far. I have both Anthology 2023 and Carolina Red Flake with Perique. Both are perfect. I jarred them more than a month ago, so they should’ve got moldy by now, if they are going to.
You’re a lucky man! It’s just the Anthology that people are having the problem with. C&D has been having mold problems on and off for years. Here it is 2024 and now another one pops up! Kind of frustrating.
Like Ted said, mold spores are everywhere and on everything. It’s just a matter of the correct temperature and humidity for it to start blooming into a full blown mold.
Tobacco producers use a variety of different fungicides, hydrogen peroxide, sodium carbonate, and vinegar to name a few. The various fungicides are all part of the recipes/manufacturing process. Tobacco producers don’t like to share their recipes, so some are more successful at it than others.
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