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I think for most of us the sight of anything growing on our tea is cause for concern. Dry it out! Wait it to go away! Or, if it's really bad, throw it out altogether! And without knowing what you're doing it would make sense to avoid any signs of fungus. There are so many kinds of fungus in the world and some are harmless even delicious some will kill you, and some just take like crud.



MMMM FUNGUS.

So, take a look at:

AnHua Gold flower

This tea is not pu'erh (why not?) but it claims to be "better than pu'erh" (big claim!)

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Huanan-A ... 83746.html

Also fungus is a selling point! Really?



How old is this concept? Is it popular or more of a "fringe" tea?

Is it better than all pu'erh? (I HIGHLY DOUBT IT!)

But is it good?

Is this the same fungus found on puerh some of the time?

Would pu'erh even age without some mostly invisible fungus at work?

Too many questions?

金花 is said to be used in some Asian skincare. There are studies that justified it's better. I almost gotten some, till I heard that the duiwei (storage smell) can be worst than shu Just gave up

This topic may be found here (search is your friend.)
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17858

Pertaining to toxicity, one big difference between "golden flower" in hei cha and yellow mold in puerh is, yellow mold (and generally mold by common sense) is the spore producing stage of a fungus. On yellow mold, we would see a lot of hairy structures bearing little sacs with numerous tiny spores. Then if you blow on it, the spores go everywhere (that's why sometimes very toxic fungus could be very dangerous to sniff). This is not the case for golden flower (as showed by the enlarged photo), and the yellow spots are not spore sacs.
The spore producing stage of fungi is often accompanied with toxicity (as a natural defense). Some edible mushrooms are no longer edible (and even toxic) if they start producing spores.

lordsbm wrote:金花 is said to be used in some Asian skincare. There are studies that justified it's better. I almost gotten some, till I heard that the duiwei (storage smell) can be worst than shu Just gave up

I don't think hei cha has storage smell. That's basically why I prefer it to many shu. But I'm not sure if you would be allergic to its special taste. You could ask for some samples if you buy from a seller with hei cha. Hei cha sellers in China are usually very generous in giving free samples And you can try the refined type like the one in the post quoted by biohorn (with the refine type, basically I no longer want the old, coarse type anymore).

gingkoseto wrote:I don't think hei cha has storage smell. That's basically why I prefer it to many shu. But I'm not sure if you would be allergic to its special taste. You could ask for some samples if you buy from a seller with hei cha. Hei cha sellers in China are usually very generous in giving free samples And you can try the refined type like the one in the post quoted by biohorn (with the refine type, basically I no longer want the old, coarse type anymore).

Ya they tend to be more friendly also I know of a few decent sellers on TB, but never did make a point to try after hearing about the taste (and duiwei)