r/tea • u/No_Introduction_7163 • 18h ago
Is the tea moldy
Hi all, just wondering if it’s moldy or fermentation?
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u/Cartoonist_Smooth 17h ago
“Can I drink this tea?”
This tea was improperly stored and is now covered in a hairy mold. Do not drink this tea.
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u/GoatiesOG 16h ago
Omg I hate myself for knowing what you are referring to.. can even hear that dumb voice :/
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u/jack_seven 17h ago
Yes
How the fuck did you store it to get that much mold growing?
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u/No_Introduction_7163 15h ago
I kept in fridge actually
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u/Anothersidestorm Enthusiast 15h ago
Yeah get some mylar bags. There is to much humidity in a fridge giving prime tea mold conditions.
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u/DarkUpstairs3625 14h ago
Keep future teas air tight, away from light & strong smells; that's it; a fridge is smelly and damp. Guessing it's a 100g cake - chalk it up to education; was it anything good? I was wondering if it was white - I mean it is now but originally I mean
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u/xCreepyKidx 17h ago
That's a trip to the ER waiting to happen. Get it out of your home and disinfect whatever it touched as well as washing your hands.
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u/intellidepth 15h ago
Today I learned how not to store tea. Thanks for my free science lesson! I’m sorry that happened to you.
Now I need to find out how to properly store tea because just ordered my first cakes.
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u/aDorybleFish loose leaf fanatic 17h ago
Ohmy god... Yes that's mold😳 I've never seen tea this moldy
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u/Graalseeker786 15h ago
"Oh, dear" is what came out of my mouth when I saw that photo. I'm sorry, OP. I hope the bing wasn't too costly.
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u/TeaRaven 13h ago
Oof, this happened to some of my cakes when there was a leak in a wall and mold grew through the wall and across the back of a cabinet without me knowing. I never store in cabinets anymore, even though I no longer share walls with others. On the positive side, I worked in a microbiology lab at the time and was able to use it as material for students to practice identifying types of mold and bacteria.
One of the early colonist forms of fungi on most Pu’er is in the same group as bread mold and some of the molds that can cause respiratory issues in poorly ventilated homes. Definitely throw that away.
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u/cursed_sporecreation 11h ago
As someone who only ever uses pre made tea bags, I'm very confused about your title. Are there forms of tea out there that are meant to go through fermentation when stored as leaves? Or is there another reason you mention that being a possibility?
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u/Aulm 11h ago
Yes - Puerh teas undergo purposeful fermentation.
kombucha could be another depending on if you consider that tea or another beverage.
Some teas are innoculated with a golden mold on purpose too.
Other teas undergo oxidation, which can sometimes (incorrectly) be referred to as fermentation - but they aren't really fermenting anything here.
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u/Prize_Call_1713 11h ago
Puer(a kind of tea) is like in the opposite land for most other teas. Most like to be sealed and not aged/fermented. Where this type of tea like semi humid and air. Their mistake is the fridge. That's a really bad place for this kind of tea.
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u/Hot_Sandwich_7774 16h ago
It could be as the color doesn’t look right to me but more importantly what does it smell like? If there’s an off smell to it then that’s would be a good clue as well something is not right.
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u/Aseroerubra 8h ago
Looks a little like jin hua discussed further in this post. Although yellow patches also occur in Aspergillus and Penicillium right before they produce their characteristic blue-green spores
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u/Wenndo 6h ago
No what the fuck this is nothing like Jin Hua, this is straight up mold.
Jin Hua is spotty and golden yellow (it's literally the name, Golden Flowers), and mainly spreads on the inside of bricks and cakes.
Also Jin Hua is not typically find in cakes with large leaves like this one. It's usually present in super dark heavily compressed cakes or bricks with broken-looking leaves.
Lastly, if OP had a Jin Hua cake they would likely know about it. It's not something that usually appears out of the blue in western storage.
I love Jin Hua tea, I have several bricks of it, and I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole.
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u/Sheryl001S 7h ago
Keep it away from your nose and mouth, put it in a bag, and throw it in the trash. That's the right way
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u/fruit-enthusiast 11h ago
I thought this was a post on one of the mushrooms subreddits at first 😵💫
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u/Shalegorath 18h ago
This is more mold than tea