Moldy dragonwell?

[andycr512]

Is there mold on my Dragonwell or is it just "tea fuzz"? Is it normal? I couldn't find any good examples of it looking through the tea to take a picture; there were more pronounced examples before, but here it is. (No, the tea isn't really brown, the flash changed the color.)

I have about a half pound of it so I'd rather not dump it if I don't have to.





Thanks.

[Pentox]

For some teas, there is a normal amount of fuzz, silver needle comes to mind. For Dragonwell though, I don't think there is any amount of fuzz that is normal. Taking the method of firing into consideration, I can't think of any valid reason that there would be fuzziness on your tea aside from what you're afraid of.

Personally I would dump it, but that's totally your call.

[hop_goblin]

Does it taste fine? Then I wouldn't worry about it.. If it tastes bad, throw it away.. I haven't heard so much of mold in dry tea leaves since mold needs moisture to grow

I am with Cengcer, if it taste good drink it. I think the temp of the water will kill most microbes. But of course I am someone that things composte is delicious!

[Smells_Familiar]

Man, I'd toss that ish, or at least pick out the moldy pieces. Dragonwell shouldn't be fuzzy and that white pill like object in the second pic sure looks like mold to me. It's probably not going to hurt you, but just the knowledge of consuming something moldy, that's not supposed to be moldy, would bug me. I'd imagine that if it's gotten wet or been stored in a damp enough environment to develop mold that the taste would be affected negatively. I'd contact the company you bought it from and ask for a refund.

[Chip]

Where was this purchased? There are grades and clones that are more prone to the leaf fuzz than others. I got one from SpecialTeas several years ago like this.

The leaf can be fuzzy...pubescent when plucked.

The round fuzzy object looks like an insect or spider egg casing or cacoon perhaps. But it is an anamoly to the rest of the leaf. Saute it and enjoy...

[silverneedles]

2nd pic is not mold/fungus
1st pic cant tell what i'm looking at.

but the leaves don't look that nice to me (imuo -in my unexperienced opinion)

[andycr512]

Where was this purchased? There are grades and clones that are more prone to the leaf fuzz than others. I got one from SpecialTeas several years ago like this.

Well, I was hesitant to say, since I did know better than to buy tea from Amazon. However, the price was decent, and I had a cold and thus figured I couldn't taste the difference anyway. Needless to say, it was probably hanging around in a warehouse for far too long.

I'd contact the company you bought it from and ask for a refund.

It's probably been too long since I ordered it - it sat on my shelf (in metal tins, so it didn't mold here) for a few months because something about the taste made me not really like it that much (before I noticed this...).

I should note that there is a -lot- of "fuzz" clinging to the sides of the tin and flying around when I open it - whether that fuzz is mold or not is beyond my experience to tell, but it very much resembles what I've seen from white teas. I also find this blog post http://meandmytea.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... ganic.html which says of a silver needle tea, "the fine hairs had come off of the leaves forming small balls of fuzz in the package", which may explain the ball of fuzz in a way which isn't mold. I'm still just not sure.

[ABx]

Well, I was hesitant to say, since I did know better than to buy tea from Amazon.

There's nothing wrong with Amazon, per se. Generation Tea sells on Amazon, and they are quite reputable (at least for puerh). I've even actually found some better deals from them there

[Pentox]

I should note that there is a -lot- of "fuzz" clinging to the sides of the tin and flying around when I open it - whether that fuzz is mold or not is beyond my experience to tell, but it very much resembles what I've seen from white teas. I also find this blog post http://meandmytea.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... ganic.html which says of a silver needle tea, "the fine hairs had come off of the leaves forming small balls of fuzz in the package", which may explain the ball of fuzz in a way which isn't mold. I'm still just not sure.

The thing about that is though, silver needle processing is very different than dragonwell processing. While you may have a very unusual dragonwell where this normal for it, from my experiences dragonwell has not been fuzzy. But I wouldn't discount the notion of tea hairs, it is fully possible.

Looking at your pictures some more, I agree that the bottom picture is most likely something unrelated to the tea. The first though may be something which was not pressed like the rest of the tea. If you look at the glossiness of the rest of the leaves (see bottom picture) that's more characteristic of a dragonwell. It could be that the leaf you pictured above is just a leaf that was not pressed and fired properly, or it may be something else as you are leery of. If you had a better image of the top leaf that would be a better way to tell, as it is the pictures are a bit hard to tell anything from.

[hop_goblin]

Where was this purchased? There are grades and clones that are more prone to the leaf fuzz than others. I got one from SpecialTeas several years ago like this.

The leaf can be fuzzy...pubescent when plucked.

The round fuzzy object looks like an insect or spider egg casing or cacoon perhaps. But it is an anamoly to the rest of the leaf. Saute it and enjoy...

Good observation Chip. Now that you mentioned it, it does look like some type of insect egg sack.

[puerhking]

moldy dragonwell is my favorite green tea!

this link is kind of interesting...

http://www.tching.com/index.php/2008/06 ... h-for-tea/

[Chip]

Where was this purchased? There are grades and clones that are more prone to the leaf fuzz than others. I got one from SpecialTeas several years ago like this.

The leaf can be fuzzy...pubescent when plucked.

The round fuzzy object looks like an insect or spider egg casing or cacoon perhaps. But it is an anamoly to the rest of the leaf. Saute it and enjoy...

Good observation Chip. Now that you mentioned it, it does look like some type of insect egg sack.

Thanx, Hop. Maybe it is a Chinese silk worm egg...a bonus.

I mentioned this above, the general fuzz is like on silver needle by its description. SpecialTeas had a selection that had this fuzz just as you describe. It collected in the tin just like any other green or white that is fuzzy, pubescent. It may not be a superior grade, but it is not unheard of.