Yellow Mold

[spittingoutteeth]

I opened up a cake of young white puehr this morning and discovered that there were small patches of bright yellow mold throughout. I've read mixed things about mold on puehr.....should I drink it or throw it out?

[spittingoutteeth]

Here's a photo for reference:

[TomVerlain]

I'd really worry about that, and if it was my cake, I'd toss it. You might wish to look at all your other tea, and review storage conditions. Did you just get this cake ? Do you try and boost the humidity ?

See http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... ld#p131962

"If you mean yellow mold, that stuff is highly toxic, and an extremely potent hepatocarcinogen"

[spittingoutteeth]

Thanks. I decided to just toss the cake; better safe than sorry. I bought the cake this summer so I don't know if the mold was on it when I purchased it or if it had grown over the time I had it. Haven't noticed mold issues on any of my other teas.

[Drax]

Wow, usually we see fuzzy photos or something sort of ambiguous, but that's most certainly yellow.

Sorry to hear about the growth, though!

That always freaks me out and makes me want to check all my beengs......!

[cha-fu]

It's difficult to tell from the picture if it's the same type of fugi on my Fu Brick Cha (苻磚茶). It's very common to see golden/yellow color fungi called Golden Flower fungi (金花菌; Eurotium Cristatum) on Fu cha and these fungi are an indication of good quality Fu cha.

This kind of fungi is also commonly seen on Hei Cha (黑茶; dark/black tea; Pu-erh and Fu Cha are types of Hei Cha). However, it's not common on Pu-Erh though (based on my experience and what I read on other forums).

Here are two pictures of "Golden Flower fungi" that I found on the web. Click on the link to see more pictures.

http://www.sciencenet.cn/blog/user_cont ... ?id=266026

2009102921484157.JPG (39.91 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/art-q/article?mid=1602

45x under microscope

ap_F23_20080518060545571.jpg (12.66 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

Anyway, if you are not sure the type of fungi on your cake and don't feel comfortable about this, make it an expensive compost then.

[hop_goblin]

Easy rule?: ALWAYS consider yellow mold toxic. White mold is generally benign.

[JAS-eTea Guy]

Easy rule?: ALWAYS consider yellow mold toxic. White mold is generally benign.

+1 when in doubt, toss

[Sam.]

I'd definitely toss it as well. Sorry for the loss!

[MarshalN]

The golden flower and the yellow mold on puerh are not the same. If you see them next to each other, the golden flowers look like specks of minerals, whereas the yellow mold is little round dots.

[digitalray]

The golden flower and the yellow mold on puerh are not the same. If you see them next to each other, the golden flowers look like specks of minerals, whereas the yellow mold is little round dots.

I did some microscopic research some years ago and read studies about the yellow flower. The real one should look like small round balls, the bad one would look like yellow strings and minerals, so the opposite actually..

This is controlled yellow flower Fu cha

http://imgur.com/a/EQMDK

[BenHK]

THROW

[todbranson45]

The golden flower and the yellow mold on puerh are not the same. If you see them next to each other, the golden flowers look like specks of minerals, whereas the yellow bamboo is little round dots.

I did some microscopic research some years ago and read studies about the yellow bamboo flower. The real one should look like small round balls, the bad one would look like yellow strings and minerals, so the opposite actually..

This is controlled yellow bamboo flower Fu cha

http://imgur.com/a/EQMDK

Thank you for this informations....