A  photographic comparison to help folks concerned
about which they have, figure it out.

I could only find 1 cigar in my 'dor (which took a beating this fall)
which was exhibiting bloom.  It is in its very early stages and the crystals
are still mostly transparent.  Still, you can clearly see the even distribution of
the crystals as opposed to the lump by lump mold locations.
 

Above we see some very moldy cigars.  Notice the large patches of mold.
 
 

This cigar is in its early bloom stages.
It is covered by a very evenly distributed covering of crystals,
some of which appear as white spots in the photo due to flash reflection.
 
 
 

Several closeups of the nasty fungus eating my yummy cigars.
Notice the ball-like structures at the ends of the
filaments, those are the spore carriers, just waiting to release more mold spores.
Get 'em away from your other smokes!
 
 
 

OK, here are 2 closeups (same magnification as the mold above)
of the blooming cigar shown above.  Notice the tiny white spots?
These are the crystals which form bloom. See how they are evenly distributed?
 
 

Well, I hope that helps a little with the bloom vs mold debate.
It has certainly been a learning experience for me.  If you have any comments
or suggestions please send me mail.  If you have a cigar which you feel
exhibits bloom better than the above, please, do not hesitate to send it
to me and I will glady use it instead ;)

 Click here to visit my homepage, Clearwater Forge!
 
 

For those who care, the above photos were taken with a Sony MVC FD-71 digital camera.
The closeups were acquired by attaching an inverted, partially disassembled, 25mm Kellner eyepiece
for telescopes to the camera.